Sufraco has been around for more than 25 years, can you tell us how it all started?
It started with a burning interest in interior design and a love for French craftsmanship and beauty, with great inspiration from Provence and the Mediterranean. After visiting Formex for the first time in 1997, I decided to exhibit at Formex myself with a selection of brands. We exhibited for the first time in January 1998.
What are your best tips for a long-term customer relationship?
First and foremost, it’s about being honest, understanding the customer and their needs. And through dialogue, composing the best possible range that suits their store and their customers. We have a great deal of experience and can really support and guide the customer to develop their range – and with that, their turnover. We believe in long-term thinking.
How do you select your product range?
When we choose a brand, we always place great emphasis on the supplier taking responsibility for the people they work with, their production in terms of the environment, and the choice of raw materials. We particularly value that they have a story to tell and an honest set of values that aligns with our own.
What would you say is your greatest asset? And your biggest challenge?
We are flexible, adaptable, and love what we do. The biggest challenge today is being an intermediary as the economy is as it is and margins are shrinking from all directions.
What are you doing to meet the future market?
The retail industry is now in the midst of an extensive crisis and customer consumption behaviors are changing again. We have made some changes to our portfolio to meet customer needs, with cheerful products at good price levels. We have a super flexible organization and we are preparing for regrowth with new exciting brands and expanded collaboration with our suppliers, where we find new ways to work together.
The sustainability issue is high on the agenda, how is it in your industry and how do you work with sustainability?
We only deal with companies within Europe and primarily France, with whom we have deep relationships. In this way, we are already guaranteed that the products are developed and produced according to European standards. This while we easily meet our suppliers in their factory to regularly check all stages of their production. We check the working conditions and an important part of our work is also to ensure that the raw materials used are the best possible for nature. If this is not the case, we can then exclude products or suppliers. We always raise the issues around packaging to avoid unnecessary plastic. We “favor” suppliers who work consciously with sustainability and not just for “show”. We work very focused on our logistics to always choose the best solution and we recycle all packaging. We have always had these issues in focus since the start.
See more of Sufraco:
Instagram: @sufraco_finebrands
Website: www.sufraco.com