News

KVIST gets patent on wooden frame

In line with product development and high wood production knowledge Kvist Industries has developed a wooden frame combining KVIST know-how, innovation and quality that shows great results as well in BIFMA quality and strength tests.

The new strong model was created by combining Kvist Industries overall wood knowledge and its facilities for product development, innovation and quality. The combination of the company capabilities has created a strong result which is significantly more durable woodframe and estimated to be between 30-50% stronger (depending on the wood material) than similar products produced today.

The aim with wood frame has been to create a stronger and more robust construction which still is light as the Nordic style. With its fine technical construction the product is competitive in terms of both quality and sustainability, due to the use of material which can consist of more fast growing wood with a layer of veneer that are pressed into one piece wood.

The patent is a technical patent for the wood base and will not interfere with any commercial rights for the finished product.

If you would like to know more about the design and construction please contact our sales team.

January 2021

The year 2020 in KVIST

What a challenging year!

All over the Europe, a lot of companies expierenced the consequences of pandemic situation. The first quarter of the year KVIST kept by the budget. However, after a good first quarter, we experienced a decline in order intake in the beginning of summer. After the summer period, everything appeared to be within the usual and autumn 2020 brought us the skyrocketed order intake again. At the same time we had worked with the strategy and plan to follow our customer decline in order to contribute with our knowledge and resources. These times showed even more how essential it is to keep close collaboration, relations and close communication with both our customers and suppliers.

Situation for our customers

Throughout the autumn, we have seen a stable development, where we have largely invested at the expected level. Most customers have returned to the "normal" level - some slightly above - someone a little below. We have been able to see that customers who are very dependent on hotels and restaurants was severely affected. Customers who largely base their business model on e-commerce have pretty much all positive development.

The winter came with some difficulties

Several countries are challenged by COVID19, which does make difficulties in the supply chain. Unfortunately, the beginning of winter came with the dramatic shortage of foam from upholstery suppliers, that caused problems overall Europe, prolonging lead time. Our procurement team worked to find the substitute supplier in order to not affect our customers.

With the confidence we can say, that we came out of this year even stronger than before and look bright into the future. The COVID19 pandemic has changed the relationships in our value chain, where we experience more information sharing between KVIST , our suppliers and customers.

December 2020

Simple precautions and planning can make a big difference

COVID-19 is still among society; therefore in order to protect our employees and business, we have established working zones in KVIST. Our showroom at the moment has been rearranged and used as one of the offices, where we have divided our sales department. Separate working zones means that smaller groups of colleagues are distributed in our facilities to minimize the risks at working place and to easily identify and monitor close contact persons.

December 2020

Christmas time is a time of giving and sharing!

Kvist Industries in collaboration with The Danish Embassy in Latvia contributed with the donation to the annual charity event, organized by The International Women's Club of Riga. The International Women's Club of Riga is an international group of women offering friendship and supporting local charities. Contribution from KVIST and other Danish companies will make a significant difference for the families in need.

December 2020

From subcontractor to development partner

KVIST have been a subcontractor for the furniture industry for the last 53 years. But future is now, and we have to adapt to the future.

In the last few years we have experienced, that more and more customers demand for new competencies and new knowledge in the product development area. Those has been some of the factors that influenced the internal transformation – from subcontractor to development partner.

In all these years, we have experienced an influx of new customers, as well as we have seen our customer’s huge growth.

“It is also due to the fact that some of our old customers have started exporting to more and more countries, and then their supply chains become the limiting factor, which is why we also need to go in and help here”, says CEO at KVIST Jens Bach Mortensen.

In recent years, Kvist Industries has experienced a significant growth, and our employee base has grown from approximately 350 employees to around 750.

One of the biggest challenges has been the change of mind-set. We have had to change our thinking from being production-oriented, to having a focus on service and become more customer-oriented.

For the next year we have new initiatives in the pipeline - among other things, there are a couple of exciting development projects around sustainability.

December 2020

Fresh perspective

KVIST have recently taken the part in the exciting program called Future Talent Denmark, where through a three-day internship students have the possibility to get insights into the company, its culture, and learn about the industry. "We had the pleasure to meet and work with very talented students - Lukas from Germany and Yufen from China. Even though students worked with us only for three days, we actually managed to get an insight and general screening for circular economy principles”, comments HQSE Manager in KVIST, Michael Eirup. They both study at University of Southern Denmark, where Lukas studies master degree of Environmental and Resource Management and Yufen master degree of English studies.

During the internship students had to take closer look on circular economy at KVIST together with KVIST employees. “We got to discuss a lot of the topic with KVIST professionals and got the insights in the processes and general understanding of how things actually works in such an industry”, says Lukas. During their 3 days internship they did a case study in a context of circular economy and practical proposals in terms of compliance and communication. “It was a great opportunity to get an insights into Danish company and to find the way to apply our theoretical knowledge”, says Yufen.

In the picture from the left: Dorte– responsible for Environment and Compliance at KVIST, students Yufen and Lukas, Alise – responsible for Communications at KVIST.

November 2020

Shortened lead-time to Ecolabel

In KVIST more and more material groups become approved by criteria of EU Ecolabel, meaning faster and easier process to obtain EU Ecolabel on the finished products in the near future for our customers. The life cycle of every product is different; the criteria are tailored to address the unique characteristics of each product type.

KVIST can provide products and services marked with EU Ecolabel, meeting the environmental standards throughout life-cycle. We are compliant with:

- Various wood species

- Waterborne lacquer

- Selected foam, textile and leather

- Selected steal frames

KVIST have taken care of the complexity of the process towards Ecolabel by mapping suppliers, product groups and product documentation.

You wish to hear more, contact your sales team!

July 2020

KVIST Creation Tool

It’s the new digital tool called - KVIST Creation Tool, meaning easy and clear material choice within the product development phase.

KVIST Creation Tool gives the customer advantages in both - KVIST know-how knowledge portfolio and full process overview, as well as offers shortened lead-time and gives more transparency in the chosen materials and services, among others.

Creation Tool is made as application in order to make the product development process more streamlined and standardized. The tool is still in testing phase, but already can be gradually used as a starting point between Key Account Manager and customer in development of furniture pieces with the high added value and proven choice of standard materials.

Ask your KVIST sales support team for more information!

Let’s create - read more
July 2020

FSC® certified supply chain

At KVIST we are committed to bring the best value to the customer and we achieve that in collaboration with our suppliers to ensure that our supply chain is being updated. As the demand for sustainable solutions is growing, we have initiated changes in our supply chain in order to be able to deliver 100% FSC® certified products or products only made by FSC certified wood where possible. We are proud to make an effort to keep our supply chain and stakeholders stronger and to make powerfull cooperation to support our customers. We are happy to see that our partners are following KVIST and our customers initiative to completely switch to FSC certified raw materials. We are certain, that by working closely together, we are ensuring that long-term partnership has a successful outcome for both ends of the supply chain – to our suppliers and to our customers.

July 2020

Solicitation for sustainability from HAY

A new, eco-friendly addition About A Eco Collection brings a sustainable focus to the iconic About A family. About A Eco Collection is certified with the EU Ecolabel, which guarantees that all products utilize 30% recycled PP material, while wooden base is FSC®-certified and water-based lacquered.

July 2020

History of SIA KVIST Latvia

SIA KVIST was founded in the end of year 2011 in Mālpils, Latvia and is now the part of Kvist Industries Group AS. The previous furniture producing company - Saga Group - declared bankruptcy in October 2009 and hereby KVIST saved 150 jobs in the Mālpils area by taking over the company. Reasons to establish production site in Mālpils at that time and place were many: experienced employees, who have already worked in the furniture industry for the last 20 years, modern production equipment and proven methods as well as highly qualified and educated manower from the previous furniture manufacturing company that was placed in the very same building and was specialized in form-pressed furniture components with high added value. Previous production facilities have a history of exporting to Swedish market with great success and at that time this market was one of the strategic market to penetrate.

SIA KVIST today

Company specializes in manufacturing of high quality, mainly form-pressed plywood furniture and furniture parts. Production of solid wood parts is expanding, as well as production of upholstered and weaved furniture.

SIA KVIST is now one of the largest furniture manufacturing companies in Latvia that lives up to standards in technology and quality and continues to grow.

KVIST Academy is an internal training platform that provides intern education for production and administration employees in SIA KVIST. For production employees, it is an opportunity to acquire professional skills and to improve their qualifications, thus affecting their growth opportunities in the company and quality for the products. Offered training programs by KVIST Academy at the moment are gluing, upholstery, sanding course, mid-level leadership training, painting, weaving course and other.

SIA KVIST in numbers

- About 650 employees

- 25.000 m2 production facility

- Mālpils is located an hour’s drive east of Riga

- Overall, the company occupies a total of 19 ha

- In total 12 CNC

July 2020

COVID-19 Safety measures in production

KVIST supports the recommendations from Health Authority's and our industry organization to ensure protection of health and safety of our employees. As a result of many precaution actions and cooperation among departments and employees, we have come very well through the first phase of pandemic without any need to close or stop the production or having our employees infected with the Covid-19.

One of the initiatives was the decision that our production employees should wear face masks during the working hours in the most crowded locations. In order to use competencies in our upholstery unit, we have decided to sew protection masks ourselves and up til now more than 400 pcs are made and given to employees.

Another initiative made by precaution recommendations, was to set up the device for dispensing protective equipment in one of the production sites. Now employees are able to receive remedies by scanning their chip and selecting the appropriate remedy. It is planned to install more equipment in the nearest future.

July 2020

Challenging first half of the year 2020

The first quarter of the year 2020 KVIST kept by the budget on the turnover. However, after a good first quarter, we experienced a decline in order intake. The reason was a pandemic situation that affected the whole Kvist Group, as well as our customers and suppliers. In May we have reached level, where we needed to adapt to the new situation and therefore, we chose to enter period of work sharing in all our departments and production in order to maintain deliveries as planned. Due to the Covid-19 situation, it was very necessary to reassess expectations for 2020. Nevertheless, we are certain that we can deliver improved results in the third and fourth quarter of 2020.

“We have a fairly strong confidence about the future. The Corona has, among other things, focused on the challenges that are mostly associated with a globalization as well as desire for greener, healthier world. Situation showed suddenly that home and comfort become essentials to our life and high quality together with sustainability comes hand in hand in everyday life. We believe that in the future everybody will be more inclined to focus locally – go back to the core and take the entire supply chain into consideration”, says Director of Sales and Marketing, Malene Lauridsen.

July 2020

Danish Design Award winner 2020 - Takt

Last month the Danish Design Award 2020 winners were announced and we were happy to hear, that in Furniture Category Feel Good the winner is our customer, design company Takt with their Soft Lounge Chair.

With the Soft Lounge Chair, designed by Thomas Bentzen, the company has tried to raise awareness of the lounge chair as an everyday piece of furniture. The core of design is a molded veneer that folds out over the frame like a piece of fabric. The chair is certified with EU Ecolabel and produced using wood only from sustainable forests.

July 2020

Thanks for a fantastic week at Stockholm Furniture Fair!

Thanks for visiting us at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020! We gladly introduced and presented sustainability and Kvist Creation Tool that was exhibited on the wall at our stand. On the wall we have placed material samples that have been chosen as Kvist standard materials and are part of Kvist Creation Tool. Two of the plates showcase two specific products - Muuto Around table and HAY Soft edge chair and represents that materials can be chosen as well outside the Kvist Creation Tool set. Along the materials, there was emphasis on sustainability and certifications.

February 2020

Walnut penetrates the market

Growing demand on walnut material, that lately has been used in several special editions of all know chair series, making the point of walnut as increasingly frequent choice for furniture.

Walnut wood is hard, heavy, resilient and very beautiful. However, walnut wood is also described as challenging material due to it’s uniqueness in the wood structure; there are no possibility to have two wood structures alike. From the other hand, that makes walnut very unique and distinctive as two walnut made furniture will never be the same, as walnut characterises as living material in very high grade.

February 2020

TMI-industries networking event 2019 hosted by Kvist

Over 130 representatives from 78 companies participated in Træ- og Møbelindustriens (TMI - Confederation of Danish Wood and Furniture Industry) networking event. Networking event 2019 was proudly held by Kvist Industries in the middle of autumn.

The day was full of excitement, filled with impressive presentations and a lot of networking among the members of the industry. In the first part of the program, everyone received greetings from our CEO Jens Bach Mortensen and our Technical and Development Director Søren Kvist. Shortly after, all participants got an insight into the journey - from raw materials to finished product, during the factory tour.

In the afternoon members of the industry had the opportunity to blend in into 4 different workshops with selected topics - strategy for sustainability, the development process, staff-attracting/retaining and branding. During workshops they had opportunity to gain insight from industry colleagues, their experiences and decision-makings as well as to do networking and have the dialogue with each other.

February 2020

Fresh perspective and insights on processes

From now and until summer 2020 we will five students who will be making projects in cooperation with representatives from KVIST. In 2020 we will have more focus at UNs sustainable development goals, and the cooperation with students are a task related to it: #9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation and #4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning – the cooperation is for that reason advantageous in several ways.

It gives KVIST extra resources to investigate where and how we can improve our company and be even smarter in the future – which means foster innovation in KVIST.

At the same time, it can be seen as a give back to the community where students get an opportunity to use theory in practice and increasing their learning – in the long run this can be seen as an advantage for KVIST, our suppliers, our customers and our general surroundings.

Students from Copenhagen Business School, Business Academy Southwest and University of South Denmark will be working on: Analysis of internal and external factors and how procurement can improve KVIST and customer value; Analysis of marketing and communication strategy and Organizational network analysis. We are really excited to se the results and looking forward to a successful cooperation!

February 2020

Cardiac starters at all factories

We have installed defibrillators to all of our three production sites. Cardiac starters have a free access to all locals. The device can also be used by untrained users as the defibrillator provides voice instructions to the user step-by-step throughout the process. Cardiac starters were a gift from company’s founder Arne Kvist to Kvist 50 year’s anniversary.

February 2020

Celebrating employees 50 years at KVIST

We are very proud of our employees, especially with those, who have dedicated so much for the company and have shared knowledge thorough the many years.

Birger is one of the very first employees at Kvist, and have recently received the Queen's Merit Medal for 50 years of employment at Kvist. Congratulations and thanks for your faithful efforts and loyalty to the company!

February 2020

Heirs of Volther family visiting Sia Kvist in Latvia

It was a great pleasure to welcome 3 generations of Volther family to Kvist in Latvia. The factory visit was successfully concluded with the task for the family members to assemble legendary J46 chair. “We had great visit to the factory! We were positively surprised to se how much also the 3rd generation had the interest” says Jakob.

February 2020

Employee competition Kvist in the World

For several months Kvist employees were sending in photos from their holidays, shopping tours, stays or events in order to be a part in competition called Kvist in the World. To be within the competition and to win the main prize – tour to se production site in Latvia and Denmark, participants should have send photos with the furniture made by Kvist that is showcased in public places. The response was great and photos we received were coming from all across the Europe.

The main idea was to build the understanding about our customers, their markets, and the actual people who is sitting on the chairs and in that way to build a strong attraction to the product and to promote pride of what they are doing.

February 2020

From Kiel to Årre

Johannes just finished his bachelor’s degree in Wood Engineering at the University for Applied Sciences an Art Hildesheim - Germany and after 16 weeks of his internship at Kvist has an offer to be student assistant in product technical department. During his internship he was focusing on possibilities and methods to calculate the strength and durability of wood materials.

“I really enjoy being a part of furniture development. The task is really challenging and complex considering the amount of variabilities that has to be taking into consideration and every one of them have an influence on the results. It’s really hard to achieve valid and usable date. Calculation can be easy done with metal, but in case of wood, that is natural material – calculating is more complex.”

Johannes tells that he had a wish to come and do an internship in Denmark. He and his family have travelled to Denmark a lot back in days and Johannes got really good impressions of the country. At the time he had to decide - he made a list with the most relevant and interesting furniture companies in Denmark and took to the event 3 days of design in Copenhagen. “I went to meet furniture companies and one of them suggested to talk to Kvist, which turned out to be one of the Kvist customers. Since Kvist was on my list, I took the chance. I am so happy for the opportunity to have an insight in a global company with such as high furniture development knowledge.”

Johannes lives in Esbjerg and travelling to Kvist every day.

February 2020

Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020

Explore our newest invention – KVIST CREATION TOOL.

Be unique with standard solutions!

How to shorten time to market? How to gain the overview and control over the new products? We are ready to introduce you with the tool that helps to create more successful communication and processes for your great design in making. Excited yet? Last years hard work succeeded with the achievement of EU Ecolabel certification for a series of furniture that we are producing for our customers in Scandinavia and Europe. Our customers high demands for quality, craving for comprehensive solutions and more of that – to be environmentally responsible, have pawed the way to select the best solutions as our standard offer. To introduce you with the new initiative and to set the goals for more sustainable future - you are invited to meet our expert team in Environment and Compliance, who will be available Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th for a chat.

Please be welcome!

Meet us at BG:20 at the Stockholm Furniture fair 4-8th February.

February 2020

First products produced by Kvist become EU Ecolabeled

The goal of the eco-label is to reduce the overall environmental impact on the way from production to the consumer. Therefore, the eco-label is looking through the entire product's journey - for the benefit of people, the environment and the resources of the earth. Obtaining of EU Ecolabel certificate shows that we live up to the latest standards for environmental considerations in our industry for customers, end users and employees. We want to take active role in sustainability; therefore we look after environment and cherish the nature and sustainability. In order to receive certification, we had to also improve our internal procedures. From now on it is easier to gather all documentation according to customer requests.

The first products that are certificated with EU Ecolabel are products from TAKT https://taktcph.com/. Using only wood from sustainable forests, the 100% eco-certified brand TAKT launched three side-chair designs. TAKT is a new sustainable design brand with Danish roots.

And it’s only beginning! We continue to work and we wish for the future of furniture and Kvist to produce more eco-labeled products!

If you are interested, please contact our sales office – http://www.kvist.com/Contact.aspx

July 2019

Annual design event - 3days of design

Copenhagen was pulsating with creativity, design and people, when the capital was celebrating design from 23rd – 25th of May. Kvist Industries have joined the community of 3daysofdesign by representing its customers with beautiful and known designer pieces from Hans J. Wegner and Poul M. Volther.

The FSC Design Award winners Anna Ohmsen and Emma Bukhave at the event showcased the very first prototype of their lamp – Frames. “It was an amazing experience to meet people and introducing with the lamp and telling the story behind the product. It was really a pleasure!” says Emma.

The exhibition was created in collaboration between furniture companies, the Association of Danish Wood and Furniture Industries and the magazine Ark Journal, which has served as a curator.

See You all next year!

July 2019

Henrik got Cabinetmakers Apprentice Award

We have always been proud with our skilled and dedicated employees and now we have more reasons to have that pleasure to see how enthusiastic our employees are. Last month Henrik received DI Southwest Jutland’s Apprentice Award 2019.

Throughout his four-year education as a Cabinetmaker, Henrik Pedersen was on apprenticeship at Kvist Industries. Now he completed his education and got offered to continue with Kvist fulltime. “We have talked about the further education or maybe management training in the future with my manager, but now the main focus to me is to continue with Kvist, so we will se what future brings”, Henrik says with the smile.

Congratulations!

July 2019

From the left: Henrik Pedersen, Mayor of Varde Erik Buhl and Vice Chairman of DI Sydvestjylland Jørgen Østergaard. (Photo: Wood Supply)

FSC® **certified lamp Frames is ready to be produced**

In the beginning of summer 2019, FSC Design Award winning duo, Emma Bukhave and Anna Ohmsen visited Sia KVIST in Latvia where according to the main prize provided by Kvist - the young designers had the opportunity to develop their design for the lamp and prepare it for production, make sales-ready product that is produced with FSC® certified wood.

In collaboration with Kvist Industries experts at R&D department, the designers received the very first prototype of the lamp. Anna Ohmsen – one of the designers – shared her thoughts about the process and visit to Kvist factory in Latvia. “That was a very special feeling, when we received the first prototype” remembers Anna. “It was pleasure to work with the product development team and thanks to their creative suggestions we were able to make the product ready and made by the highest standards possible. Now we are waiting to be done with the smaller size version of the lamp”.

Lamp Frames – a simple repeated form – playing as much with the light as with the viewer. The idea behind the form is more important than the scale – so the possibilities are many.

The lamp is dynamic and functional and can be transformed from having a three dimensional form to having a two dimensional form. The thoughts behind Frames are commercial and it can be developed and designed in many materials. Thanks to its dimensionality, lamp can be transported more efficient and in space-saving possibility.

Kvist Academy - internal knowledge sharing

Kvist Academy was made to ensure that new employee get a proper instruction to the work as well as employee skills is developed and/or maintained through education, work and evaluation.

Education at Kvist Academy is built in modules and number of modules is depending on the particular job. Each of the modules contains the same structure of professional skills, quality and working environment that has to be passed to reach the next level. Couple times a year at the specified time, the graduated students by the practical demonstration of knowledge, receives the feedback from trainer or the most experienced worker, thereby perpetually develop and update the skills.

We at Kvist are very proud of the Gluing school that is the part of the Kvist Academy, where after the mapping of each worker, gluing teams are set up. Each gluing team consists of one of the most experienced gluing worker, who by the practical activities transfers the knowledge to others.

Kvist has a strong intention to expand Kvist Academy program with more topics in the future to improve levels of educational achievements complies with ISO9001 standards.

New CNC machine in Latvia

Production in Latvia continues to grow and constantly developing technology to meet the evolving demands of our customers.

The key benefit of the CNC machining process is its ability to produce considerable quantities of precision-crafted parts and products in a variety of materials, all of which will have the true properties of that particular material, making them suitable for form, fit and function testing. Thanks to long tradition, know-how and modern machinery, Kvist is able to produce parts with high precision and the new CNC is sufficient resource to continue the growth.

Hall manager says: “That is a huge step forward in order to improve time to market as a means of meeting customer demand. We are really looking forward to fulfil the expectations!”

Special gift from Sia Kvist to Day-care Center for elderly

Our company is receiving a lot of great presents from customers and partners during the year and we choose to auction these presents among our employees – all collected money we give away to charity.

Auction among employees has become an annual tradition before Midsummer holidays as well as before Christmas time. In the end of June Sia KVIST held a Midsummer’s auction and all collected amount is going to be donated to residents of Mālpils Day-care Center for elderly.

“It has become sort of team-building activity, where everybody can be together and have a bit of fun and at the same time help to the others in need”, says Sanda Vīnberga, Office administrator at Sia Kvist. „We had a lot of different auction items this time and at the end we offered Kvist produced chairs, which we have received from our customers and got the permission to auction them”.

Stockholm Furniture Fair 2019

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair continues to grow and strengthen its position as the world’s leading event for Scandinavian design and we have once again been a part of this development and been there to support our customer base.

This year we chose to arrange our KVIST stand in three different areas in order to introduce our customers and visitors with our wide range of services with a focus on sustainability and environment. We divided our stand into three areas – sustainability and environment, customer service & know-how and Supplychain & Services. Our commitment to sustainability in most of the processes of services follows from a constant focus on providing solutions that protect people and brands, promote health, and safeguard the environment. In regarding to support our customers and to meet their demands and requirements, we set sustainability and sharing of knowledge as on of our priorities in the future.

How and why to be an student assistant at Kvist Industries?

With student assistant and their knowledge and in cooperation with the more experienced employee, we think it can push Kvist industries to a next level. Therefore we are doing our best to show students that we see them as an asset.

“My choice fell on Kvist Industries because it sounded like an interesting company where I could use my education in a different way, where my education is more suited for the public or energy sector. But Kvist Industries gave me an opportunity for using my education in a manufacturing company” – says Dorthe, who is currently our student assistant in the environment & sustainability department. ”My tasks at Kvist industries have been interesting and challenging and I have been involved in many different areas at the company. I feel that I can use a lot of things from my education. In this way I think there is a good correlation between theory and practice at Kvist industries.”

For the student assistants it is important that there are projects and tasks, where they can use their knowledge from school and a good working environment so the students feels welcome. From our current student assistants we know that they are working with different projects and they are using their knowledge from school. Bettina who is soon graduating SDU Kolding tells that: “Kvist Industries is a very exciting company, because they produced some of the greatest furniture’s in the world. And I have been lucky to work with many different projects and tasks where I could use different theories form my education. My co-workers at Kvist Industries are very sweet and the mood is always high.”

Our student assistant in Latvia - Renate, who assists Kvist quality manager at quality department, is currently studying at Riga Technology University. „Working at SIA Kvist is giving me opportunity to use my theoretical knowledge and actually se how all that I have learned during my studies - comes into reality, - and when I look into reality, I can actually see, that there is a quite of things, that can not be learned at school, because of different cases, that comes when there is a real cooperation with the customers and different departments. Since, I am studying material technology and product design as well as quality management, Sia KVIST was an obvious choice, mostly because of the fact that Kvist is one of the very few companies, where all the processes from documentation until final product is made. This is great opportunity and I am very happy to be here and I can already see how much I can learn here and realize the things I have to improve and at the same time contribute my ideas.” – says Renate.

If you want to know more about being a student assistant at Kvist Industries you are welcome to contact us.

Please write a small resume of your self and how you believe you can attribute to the Kvist Company. Please send an email to:

DK: hr@kvist.com

LV: LV@kvist.com

2018 year in review: Kvist Industries achieves turnover of 400 million Danish kroner

The financial statement for 2018 shows DKK 405 million in revenue and profit before tax of DKK 11 million. That is large growth compared to 2017; when revenue was DKK 349 million and the profit before tax only DKK 2, 5 million.

“If you look at the fact that we have had quite a large turnover growth in recent years, we can also see that we have had problems on the bottom line the previous years. But that goes is the right path now - both with growth in revenue and on the bottom line”, says director Jens Bach Mortensen.

Future in 2019 looks quite positive keeping up the budget in the first quarter and management predicts a double-digit growth in 2019. “Even though there are slightly dark clouds around, we continue to work hard on all fronts to hold on and create new projects”.

Ulla Tørnæs visiting Kvist Industries in Årre

We were happy to welcome Danish Minister for Development Cooperation of Denmark Ulla Tørnæs in Kvist in Årre. The visit had focus on Kvist Industries as a workplace and how we attract new talents, an issue which is often motioned as a challenge in our region.

At Kvist Industries we have focus on the next generation. This year we have had several visits from different educational institutions, public schools and also from Higher education schools just to name few of them. We also have students working with us either with thesis or as student workers. This is all done in collaboration with SDU Business, Lars Vad and Business Playmaker from ProVarde Kasper Bech Pedersen.

We are convinced that the collaboration with the students give mutual benefits. First off all it’s all about giving the young people an insight of the reality of business and furniture industry in general as well as to give them an insight in how they can use their education. Secondly, it’s about branding Kvist as a great and interesting workplace for the young adults who might be choosing their career path within furniture industry.

After Ulla had an introduction to Kvist Industries from our CEO Jens Bach Mortensen and had a talk with two of our student workers from SDU Dorte Andersen (Environment and Resource management) and Bettina Søgaard (Organization & Management), she had the opportunity to se part of the production. There she met some of our many engaged and skilled workers.

New look - new modern work place

Production department of mechanical processing - hall 4 is being finished with renovations. The production unit is now broader, brighter and got brand new, comfortable workstations.

The aim with renovation was to gather the basic processing/handling process and locate it under one roof in order to become more efficient and shorten lead-time of finished units between the production halls as well as to equip the production hall with new upgraded sanding stations. Modernization of unit created possibility of improvements for working conditions for sanding employees, as well as better surface conditions in pre-treatment phase.

Towards one goal – Kvist Supplier day 2019

In order to continue the strategy to settle the right supplier-base, Kvist Industries have started process to select the best suppliers we have today and also to scan the markets for other interesting suppliers, which can give us competitive advantage the coming years – but also it is vital for us due to our company size that we are able to make better and improved relations with our strategic and key suppliers.

Therefore we have initiated a Supplier Day 2019 for our selected strategic and key suppliers at the Manor in Malpils, where we have invited app. 40 suppliers with app 70 participants from all Europe.

„It was a very good day for all of us – lot of talks – new and improved relations –many questions from suppliers – and all participants was indeed very positive impressed of the factory”, says our CPO Jens Andersen.

It is vital for KVIST to have the right supplier-base, who is willing to cooperate in order to ensure high service and quality to the right costs to the customer and contribute to the overall success.

Ongoing projects to attract new generation – “Day of shadows” in Latvia and student visits in Denmark

At the recently happened project “Day of shadows”, we had a visit from 8 curious students at our production facility in Latvia. These students, during their week of project in school, had chosen to be the shadows of their own parents who work at Kvist to see their daily working routine, as well as learn different professions and furniture industry in general.

Meanwhile, young students from different educational institutions in Denmark, mostly by our successful cooperation with Pro Varde, visiting factories in Aarre and get acquainted with the company's workflow, professions and different possibilities. “We want to believe, that these visits are helping them to choose and decide their future and be more secure about their choice of education and later on to have an ability to combine an education background with practical experience. Raised awareness helps us to have young professionals in the furniture industry” says our training manager Michael Eirup.

The future of upholstered furniture – here it comes!

Due to the customers growing demand for products with combination of different materials, we purposely have chosen to expand our upholstery facility and continue successful performance with upholstered furniture.

Foam, fabrics, leather and other materials that usually are used for the upholstered furniture is divided by its own category management accordingly to have more stable and efficient insourcing process of raw materials. “In this way we are optimizing the value chain, to increase time to market with the upholstered furniture” says upholstery hall manager Kristaps and is very proud with the rapid growth of his managed production facility.

Donation to TabFab

Tab Fab is business incubator that has been created and actively acts as the center of creative industries at the old Tobacco Factory in Riga, which provides a supportive ecosystem in the creative industries sector, while supporting business aspects such as innovation, creativity and advanced technology. The old Tobacco Factory has previously been owned by Denmark, and now rebuilt into an incubator for creative industries.

Kvist Industries supports innovation, design and creativity!

Creative Industries Forum

At the event Crown Prince visited Danish design and furniture expositions to meet Danish businesses active in Latvia, including KVIST Industries. Our Kvist team welcomed Crown prince at our exposition and been proudly introduced with our company and products we make.

The exhibition, which KVIST Industries exhibited at the event, was transferred to the RTU Design Institute of Technology right after the event. The aim was to share inspiration and ideas, as well as strengthening and developing design technology in the furniture industry.

Connecting the dots

In order to fulfil customer’s increasing demands and make a step forward to them, Kvist have initiated Customer satisfaction study to improve the knowledge about their closest customers and gain a structured overview about their needs, requirements and expectations.

Study analysis will contribute added value to the relationships that are involved in customer satisfaction, service and product quality.

The study is taking place gradually during the summer.

The new structure, new tasks, and new profiles in the Sales deparment

"With a rather messy beginning of the year, all the way to a very strong Q4, we have managed to end 2017 with great results. With this in mind, predictions for 2018 are both positive and exciting!" says Jens Bach Mortensen, CEO at Kvist Industries. With the annual growth of 20+ %, the company today is significantly bigger than it was 4 years ago when Jens Bach became the CEO and co-owner of the company.

A strong growth often results in challenges for employees, suppliers and, last but not least, for the customers. For a too long period, this was the situation at Kvist, especially on the Latvian site in Malpils. A comprehensive restructuring and reorganizing took place, resulting in a raw, more lean, customer- and team-oriented structure. The aim is to establish a faster and more reliable interaction between the customers and Kvist. The structure is still to be strengthened by additional control principles and procedures. These principles are well tested on the Danish site in Årre and will be implemented on a full scale in Latvia. The full implementation will give Kvist further to scale up faster than we have seen before.

The Sales department is structured by the four Key Account Manager teams with employees in both Denmark and Latvia. This secures direct communiation between customers, sales, and production. The volume of incoming orders is strong, the sales strategy is under implementation, and the annual growth is impressive.

2018 came with some changes in the organization. Michael Kvist has decided to change focus and will become CEO and main shareholder in the one-year-old design development company, K2 Design. "We knew that Michael wants to work full-time with new ideas and designs and we were prepared and ready for this decision for some time now. We are glad that he will get the opportunity to do this with K2 Design. We would like to thank Michael for his more than 25-year long contribution to a positive development at Kvist, and we are looking forward to further cooperating with Michael in his new position" says CTO Søren Kvist. Michael stepped down from his position on 31st of January 2018 but will remain within Kvist Industries on several selected tasks.

Key Account Manager, Karsten Clausen retires after almost 30 years of duty on 31st of December 2017. Michael says "It has been a pleasure working together with Karsten, and he has been an excellent ambassador for Kvist, being the customer representative on our factories and the factories representative by the customers".

Although Michael and Karsten are leaving Kvist Industries, both of them will be present at the Stockholm Fair 2018 together with the Kvist team. "We hope that customers, partners, and colleagues will drop by, and say hello to Michael and Karsten," says Jens Bach Mortensen. You will also have the opportunity to meet the sales team, Niels Stokbæk, Hejne Madsen, Santa Staskevica, and Viesturs Vikse. They will be supported by CTO Søren Kvist and CEO Jens Bach Mortensen. As always, we are at the fair to service and support our customers. More to that, at the upcoming fair, we will introduce the Kvist Business Lounge, where you are more than welcome to use our facilities. For booking, please contact our staff and book with the team, if you want to use the facilities.

We are looking forward to saying "Hello" to you in Stockholm.

Kvist Sia gave a special Christmas gift to charity

In December, Kvist Sia received a lot of great gifts from customers and partners, but instead of keeping the gifts, Kvist Sia chose to auction the presents and give the money to charity.

"We received about 38 presents, which we auctioned off to charity. To our surprise, it was well received and we had great response, more than expected. The biddings where high and we are very happy with the result", says Sanda Vinberga, Office Administrator, Kvist Sia.

The gifts were a mix of wine, Whiskey, boxes of candy, large wall calenders, and candles to mention a few. The most attractive gifts were a wooden tie and bow that was well admired. The biddings went top high on these two masterpieces.

At the end og the bidding contest, Kvist Sia received the total amount of 590 EUR. The money was given to the Latvian charity organization DOD PIECI in Latvia.

New logistic department

At Kvist Latvia, we have started a new logistic department to meet our customers’ demands regarding market condition requirements. The department will ensure logistic related challenges such as special labeling, mounting, communication, and transportation, and that goods are reached on time, under safe conditions, and in the right place.

Our know-how provides us with the ability to offer a diversified assembling, packing, and transportation ready for the onward distribution to our customers. The primary focus will be the internal communication between sales and production facilities to meet and exceed our customers demand. The department has already 13 new employees and still growing.

Visiting IMM Cologne 2017

IMM Cologne is the first international interior show hosted in 2017. Kvist Industries was not a part of the fair exhibition, but we have been visiting the fair to find out the last trends in the industry. We were very glad to see in the showcase some of our customers and the furniture that we produce for them. The most important trend in the interior design world is represented by freedom and creativity. Raw materials are combined despite textures, colors or place in the house. In the furniture industry, wood is on the top wish list even if contemporary furniture tends to combine it with different materials such as plastic or metal for new aesthetics. The usage of wood furniture is expanding in design interiors, in offices and houses from the living room to the bathroom. Our overall impression is that the fair is growing every year in both visitors and exhibitors and the atmosphere makes the fair very special.

Below you can see some of the furniture that we have been a part of the developing and manufacturing process

InBetween Bar Stool

Classic wood craftsmanship with compression molding

In addition to the InBetween collection, we have started to produce the InBetween Bar Stool.

The InBetween Bar Stool is designed by Sami Kallio for &Tradition and it represents a great wood craftsmanship.

At Kvist, we produce the bar stool using two old and traditional manufacturing techniques compression molding which makes the wood light and thin but still strong and woodturning which is using a lathe to create a better detail.

The seat and side panels are produced of formpressed oak veneer which provides comfortable seating and support. The arm rest is curved shaped produced of turned solid oak as well the legs are made of solid oak using the woodturning technique to create the shape and to provide stability.

We are very pleasant to be a part of this process and to use our wood know-how and production facilities to manufacture the bar stool until packing ready for the onward distribution.

The bar stool can be ordered in different wood finishes white oiled oak, smoked oiled oak, black lacquered oak.

KVIST gets patent on wooden frame

The year 2020 in KVIST

Simple precautions and planning can make a big difference

From subcontractor to development partner

Fresh perspective

Shortened lead-time to Ecolabel

KVIST Creation Tool

FSC® certified supply chain

Solicitation for sustainability from HAY

History of SIA KVIST Latvia

SIA KVIST today

SIA KVIST in numbers

COVID-19 Safety measures in production

Challenging first half of the year 2020

Danish Design Award winner 2020 - Takt

Thanks for a fantastic week at Stockholm Furniture Fair!

Walnut penetrates the market

TMI-industries networking event 2019 hosted by Kvist

Fresh perspective and insights on processes

Cardiac starters at all factories

Celebrating employees 50 years at KVIST

Heirs of Volther family visiting Sia Kvist in Latvia

Employee competition Kvist in the World

From Kiel to Årre

Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020

First products produced by Kvist become EU Ecolabeled

Annual design event - 3days of design

Henrik got Cabinetmakers Apprentice Award

FSC® certified lamp Frames is ready to be produced

Kvist Academy - internal knowledge sharing

New CNC machine in Latvia

Special gift from Sia Kvist to Day-care Center for elderly

Stockholm Furniture Fair 2019

How and why to be an student assistant at Kvist Industries?

Ulla Tørnæs visiting Kvist Industries in Årre

New look - new modern work place

Towards one goal – Kvist Supplier day 2019

Ongoing projects to attract new generation – “Day of shadows” in Latvia and student visits in Denmark

The future of upholstered furniture – here it comes!

Donation to TabFab

Creative Industries Forum

Connecting the dots

The new structure, new tasks, and new profiles in the Sales deparment

Kvist Sia gave a special Christmas gift to charity

New logistic department

Visiting IMM Cologne 2017

InBetween Bar Stool

Classic wood craftsmanship with compression molding

FSC® **certified lamp Frames is ready to be produced**