What is your favourite piece at Marie’s Corner?
My favourite piece is the Tennessee sofa, the one you and I are sitting on now – it is so comfortable to sit on. I like it for several reasons. This is a piece that we released three years ago, and it is a true Marie’s Corner creation, the DNA of the firm.
What is your 5-year plan?
Consolidate our positions in the existing market. Open new markets for us, such as England. To have real growth. Which allows us to have quickly have growth in the market responds to the offer that is offered to it.
Bring more branding to the brand. More recognition in some countries. Because in some countries we are present but people do not know the firm well. We work with a designer who has known us for 20 years. And he has a good idea of the assortment we want to offer. Today, we are trying to develop models because there is a need for them in the market but we take care that it is consistent with the collection.
It is sometimes difficult, but you have to remove models to make the collection clearer. We release ten new models per year. It’s a pace that we have been setting for four years. Because when we took over Maries Corner, we had a very classic intention.
How do you know your market?
Through feedback from resellers who are on the front line, agents and distributors. An agent sees around 100 active clients and gives us feedback from the field. Through these testimonies we can sense certain trends.
Our brand is supported by the furniture rental service to meet the demands of customers who cannot invest in furniture. They rent it long term with a maintenance clause. This lasts for 48 months and then it will become their property. The advantage is that it pays as it goes. We also offer parts cleaning and maintenance to professionals.
The second important thing is to know your target, your community. And to stay in touch with them. We invented MC Care Benelux, a complete anti-stain guarantee for the customer. He buys a sofa and for five years if there is a stain he can contact us. And someone from our staff will come and clean the stain.
Where is the production done?
All production is done in Spain. We have a bit of an icon of an upholster business from father to son in the Spanish factory. And there is enormous pride. Workers sign their work. It’s quite special thing in this job.
What’s the most important thing for you in business?
To move forward and progress, you have to surround yourself with specialists in their field and know how to be a generalist with a global vision. All the while knowing how to ask the right person for the ideal solution.
The Patchwork decorator
I work with Marie’s Corner for the confidence, for the standards and because I know the team. Marie’s Corner adapts to a wide variety of styles. Before the takeover of Serge Marie’s Corner, I had the impression that this makes for a more classic brand. Our market is public spaces, residential areas, hotels – before it was about furniture dealers now it’s about the decorators.
Decorators are also assemblers. Marie’s Corner wants to unload the maximum from decorators by providing a delivery service, loading and logistics. The subcontractors with whom we work come and unpack the furniture and leave. The work does not stop with the creation of the sofa but rather ends the when the clients receives their sofas in their living room.
www.mariescorner.com
www.patchwork.co
