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CENFIM Home & Contract Furnishings Cluster

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General Information
The date when the cluster organisation was established: 
Sunday, 1 January, 2006
Number of staff in the management team of the cluster organisation : 
11-20
Legal form of the cluster organisation: 
Non-Profit
Regions: 
Cataluña
Cluster Excellence Label: 
Bronze Label
Other Label: 
Catalonia Clusters Programme
Membership to European Strategic Cluster Partnerships (ESCP-4i, ESCP-S3 or ESCP-4x): 
SENTINEL
Membership to other networks/partnerships: 
Cluster Management Team: 
NameSurnamePositionTelephoneEmailGender
Joaquim
Solana
Cluster Manager
+34977570122
joaquim.solana@cenfim.org
Jordi
Albacar
ECCP Responsible Person
+34977570122
jordi.albacar@cenfim.org
Julio
Rodrigo
Project Manager
+34977570122
julio.rodrigo@cenfim.org
Massimiliano
Rumignani
Other
+34977570122
max.rumignani@cenfim.org
Antoni
Zaragoza
Project Manager
+34977570122
antoni.zaragoza@cenfim.org
Jaisiel
Madrid
Project Manager
+34977570122
jaisiel.madrid@cenfim.org
Male
Silvia
Claramunt
Project Manager
+34977570122
silvia.claramunt@cenfim.org
Female
Link to team description on the cluster's website: 
http://www.cenfim.org/index.php/en/cenfimen/technical-team
Languages spoken: 
English
Spanish
Sectoral and Industrial Focus
Sectoral Industries: 
Furniture
Hospitality and Tourism
Technology fields: 
Household Goods & Appliances
Environmental Engineering / Technology
S3 EU priority areas: 
Advanced manufacturing systems
Furniture
Emerging industries: 
Creative Industries
Digital Industries
Areas of specialisation of the cluster not covered above: 
Ideation for product innovation, circular economy, innovation in home furnishing marketing
Composition of the cluster
Total number of members: 
122
Number of SME members: 
113
Number of start-ups among SME members: 
0
Number of larger company members: 
7
Number of research organisations/universities/technology centres: 
2
Number of other ecosystem actors : 
1
Link to the cluster members’ list: 
http://www.cenfim.org/index.php/en/associates/members
Entrepreneurship and scale-up support facilities in the cluster's ecosystem (see "Organisation type"): 
Name and link of major players: 
Website
http://
Cluster Strategy
Mission/Objectives: 

 

CENFIM - Home and contract furnishings cluster and innovation hub

CENFIM promotes competitiveness in home and contract furnishing sectors through: 1) market intelligence activities, 2) innovation projects and 3) training courses.

CENFIM was founded in 2005 by the Catalan wood and furniture companies’ association as a private non-profit foundation. Nowadays, CENFIM’s board is composed by company associations, university and public administration.

As a cluster, CENFIM puts together 122 associated entities among knowledge providers and companies in home and contract furnishing sectors. All value chain is covered: manufacture of raw materials, auxiliary industry, manufacture of finished products (furniture, lighting, home textiles, flooring, decoration...) and distribution (B2B and B2C).

Market intelligence activities are focused on contract hospitality (hotel interiors). Several collaborative activities have been launched: marketplaces (InteriHOTEL in Barcelona, Madrid, Palma, Tenerife i Màlaga), showrooms (WeContract in Barcelona), on-line platform (HiContract) and exporting (SENTINEL).

Innovation topics cover digitalization along value chain, IoT products (smart home), circular economy and design process. On training activities, we work on new skills needs for workers as a vector of companies’ transformation.  CENFIM is leading a number of innovation projects financed by Catalan and Spanish programs and it participates in several European Commission projects like DIGIT-FUR, FURNIT-SAVER, ECO4VET, BOSS4SME.

Do you have a formalised strategy?: 
Yes
Do you have a specific strategy focus that addresses internationalisation ?: 
Yes
Services
Support services provided: 
Facilitation of collaboration between members
Facilitation of cross-sectorial cooperation
Periodic Information dissemination
Promotion of activities (marketing/ visibility)
Support of knowledge transfer
Details of support services: 

Type of activities:

  • Collaborative activities for market intelligence: promotion and commercialization 
  • Innovation projects (experience in coordinating and participating in EU projects: H2020, Erasmus+) 
  • Technical and occupational training

Activity areas::

  • Market intelligence (consumer research & new products market testing, intelligence on foreign markets)
  • Sales and marketing digitalization (E-commerce, virtual and augmented reality for retail and contract, social networks)
  • Ideation for product innovation (trends, design thinkg, innovative materials, testing...)
  • Smart home (home furnishings products functionalization, Internet of Things)
  • Circular economy (ecodesign, LCA, sustainable production, wood chain of costudy)

Specialization area -> Hospitality: hotel interiors contract channel

  • Market place: InteriHOTEL
  • Permanent Showrooms WEcontract
  • On-line platform: HIcontract
  • Internationalization: SENTINEL (COSME Go Intnal), Export groups (Russia, Central Africa, Latin America)
Cooperation Activities
International Cooperation
The main countries targeted by the cluster organisation: 
Costa Rica
Mexico
Morocco
Panama
United States
Our cluster organisation undertook the following international activities to support our members: 
Participation at missions/events/study visits/fairs
Trans-national Cooperation
The main countries targeted by the cluster organisation: 
Denmark
France
Italy
Portugal
United Kingdom
Our cluster organisation undertook the following trans-national activities to support our members: 
Support to collaborative activities/etc.
Which clusters do you collaborate with?: 
AMUEBLA - Spain
CWP - Spain
Lifestyle & Design Cluster - Denmark
ESV - Austria
ACTM - Spain
Support Programmes
Participation in Funded Support Programmes: 
European ProgrammesProject NameName & Description (Regional/National)
H2020
CIP/COSME
Other

CENFIM is an active organization in terms of conducting Innovation projects with competitive financing.

Our projects have had the support of the European Commission, the Ministry of Industry, the Government of Catalonia and several foundations.

SAWYER: Holistic approach for the indentification of Skills and sAfety needs towards a groWing sustainability & circularitY of furniturE sectoR

DITRAMA: Digital transformation manager: leading companies in Furniture value chain to implement their digital transformation strategy

CRAFT 4.0: Enabling the potential of handicraft CRAFT 4.0

EASIMS: InnovativE trAining Solution for implementing Integrated Management System (IMS) in SME

FACET: Furniture sector Avant-garde Creativity and Entrepreneurship Training

FLAME: Furniture and Lenguage innovative integrated learning for sector Attractiveness amb Mobility Enchancement

FAME: Fostering the adoption of ICT-enabled AMTs by European SMEs

SENTINEL: Cluster Network for Hospitality Sustainable Development and Internationalization

DIGIT-FUR: Impacts of the digital transformation in the furniture industry

BOSS4SME: Boosting Online cross-border Sales for furniture and household SMEs

FURN360: Model training approach for circular business model innovation in furniture sector

ECO4VET: Improvement of Vocational Education and Training related to Ecodesign and Sustainable Production in the Furniture Sector

FurnIT-saver: Smart Augmented and Virtual Reality Marketplace for Furniture Customisation

SAMM: Environmental Sustainability in Wood and Furniture

IMCAMU: Implementing the Chain of Custody in the Furniture Sector

ECOINHAB: Eco-innovation in home furnishing products

INNOMAT: Innovative use of materials for home interiors products

ACCIO - Generalitat de Catalunya IRC. Iniciatives de Reforç de la Competitivitat. Regional level.

MINETUR - AEI. Agrupaciones empresariales innovadoras. National level.

SOC - Servei d'Ocupació de Catalunya. Regional level.

Fundación Biodiversidad - Programa EmpleaVerde. National level.
Relevant Project References: 
SENTINEL (COSME Go Intnal): Cluster Network for Hospitality Sustainable Development and Internationalization
Promotion
Success Story / Achievements: 

Strategy for market intelligence in Hospitality

CENFIM is nowadays a home and contract interiors cluster, with well known collaborative activities in the hospitalty sector. But it has been as a result of a deep transformation. CENFIM was founded in 2006 as a technology dissemination centre in a furniture microcluster in Soth Catalonia.

The economic crisis in 2008 strongly affected all sectors related to construction in Spain. That crisis was the seed for CENFIM's reorientation to promote collaborative activities that helped companies to find new market opportunities. In opposition of a severe private consume crisis in Spain, the hospitality sector increased their investments year by year pushed for a significant foreign tourism increase. Companies in the cluster and the cluster itself used this opportunity to gain specialization in hospitality business.

CENFIM opened the focus from furniture producers to companies and other actors along all interiors value chain: raw materials and equipment manufacturers, B2B, flooring, lighting, home textiles, decoration... technology providers and home interiors designers. The cooperation among companies that had complementarities on products and/or services opened a new range of project possibilities.

Las 5 years, CENFIM developed a strong specialization in collaborative activities among companies to adquire market intelligence in hospitality. The cluster deployed a strategy that covers:

  • Market place: InteriHOTEL (Barcelona, Madrid, Palma, Tenerife, Málaga). 228 exhibitors, 4.500 professionals attendants in total in 2017 and 700 new projects detected.
  • Permanent Showrooms WEcontract (Barcelona and Madrid)
  • On-line platform: HIcontract
  • Internationalization: SENTINEL (COSME Go Intnal) and Export groups

As a result, CENFIM has 122 associated companies from all Spain and more than 75% are from other sectors than furniture. The great majority of the companies are now operating in hospitality sector and some of them increased their anual turnover in this business from less than 10% to 60%.

 

Why should partners choose you for cooperation?: 

CENFIM is one of the European references in home and contract furnishings clusters.

  • Probably the most experienced cluster in hotel interiors
  • Activities cover: market intelligence, innovation and training
  • Associated companies are very active in looking for collaboration oportunities
  • We have a long experience in EC financed projects in H2020, COSME and Erasmus+ programs

Our participation in EU projects includes:

  • Market intelligence. Specialized in hospitality (includiing emergening markets) (COSME)
  • Product ideation and testing (materials and final products) (H2020)
  • User requirements specifications studies: final users (home furnishing costumers or hotels), home furnishing manufacturers and retailers (H2020)
  • Skill needs analysis and vocational training learning materials preparation (Erasmus+)
  • Experience in exploitation and quality management and dissemination activities