Gemla Fabrikers has had its ups and downs during its 160-year-old history. When CEO Benny Hermansson came into the company six years ago, they made nice things but didn’t sell enough. The export project Claudine Dining in Singapore is a good example of how Gemla has turned its hardships into success.

Gemla Fabrikers is Swedens oldest furniture maker. Well known to many, but not to a younger generation, according to Benny Hermansson. One of the first things that Benny did when he entered the company six years ago was to develop the relationships with architects internationally.

The export project Claudine in Singapore shows how important it is to keep expanding the relations with people in the business. Benny introduces us here to the Claudine case.

“Claudine is a wonderful restaurant in Singapore designed by Nice Projects in London. I have been working with various contacts in London for a long time, including Ilse Crawford, who has many Scandinavian connections. A guy called Sascha Leong worked in her studio and started his own business. When he was commissioned to design Claudine in Singapore, we also got involved. Here they have used the Källa chair by Jonas Bohlin and the Linus bar stool by Åke Axelsson.”

The group of contacts has grown quite rapidly in the last four years, which is very important since once you have established contact with an architect and they’ve had a positive experience, that architect often comes back, Benny concludes.