The largest Bulgarian furniture-maker specialized in the production of chairs, Sredna Gora Jsc, has seen its order go down by 30% since January 2009.

After its record production in 2008 when the plant was producing 2 300 chairs per day, its production has presently dropped down to 1 800 chairs, according to the company CEO, Alexander Paleshutski, who is quoted by the Pari Daily.

Sredna Gora Jsc is located in the city of Stara Zagora, and employs 500 workers. It was set up in 1963, and in 1979 it received its first orders from the Swedish furniture company IKEA. According to Paleshutski, one-third of all softwood chairs sold by IKEA globally originate in the Stara Zagora plant, whose production thus reaches markets as far as the UK, USA, France, Spain, Australian, China, and Japan.

Only 1-2% of the company's production goes to the Bulgarian market but the management is planning to increase this share to 5%.

In 2008, Sredna Gora Jsc produced 20,5 million chairs, which was 26% more than in the previous three years combined. Its 2008 turnover was BGN 20 M, and its profit reached BGN 2,3 M. сегаС?ната трудно СЃРµ планира, казва той.

With the export orders now down by 30%, however, the plant might end up sacking one-fifth of its workers.
According to Paleshutski, all Bulgarian furniture producers are now severely threatened by the crisis including because there are not as competitive as other major manufacturers from Poland, Romania, and Russia.

In his words, this is mostly the result of the introduction of a minimum price of BGN 100 per cubic meter of softwood starting February 2009, thus making softwood in Romania 15-20% cheaper, and in Poland - 20-25% cheaper.

The plant management has sent a latter to the State Forestry Agency asking for emergency measures to help save the industry.

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