"The models SCOPE, AFFAIR, CORDIA and ROC are also very popular among architects and contract planners in the USA," says Lars Kamann, Export Manager Contract. "The functional design, the durable quality plus specific customizing predestine them for use in innovative architecture with demanding concepts for use." Over the last two years he has successfully expanded the contract segment, which is becoming increasingly important for the seating manufacturer, together with his colleagues Christian Krause, Olaf Steinweg and Rudi Biehler (COR's contract experts for the German market). Global players such as Gensler Architects, HOK or The Switzergroup have also opted for COR: in projects such as the Motorola headquarters in Chicago, a variety of furnishings for the MetLife Group and IBM in North America. "Design Thinking" – this is how the globally active planners at Gensler describe the way they work, a design philosophy that COR has been following for decades.
Combining design with service
The special professional and technical services of a manufacturer are just as important for its successful performance in the contract segment as design and quality: The decisive interface for awarding contracts is formed by architects and planners, as well as ambitious clients who want to leave their own, special mark on new properties. For hotels or apartment buildings, target group-oriented interior design is playing an increasingly important role," says Leo Lübke, owner and Managing Partner. "As a modern manufactory, we can tailor custom builds and specifications and implement them individually." On-time delivery and assembly are followed by the equally important process of service and maintenance. Craftsmen and technicians must be available when covers are to be replaced, or furniture configurations altered or extended. "These follow-up processes must not be underestimated," said Lübke, "they also characterize the rental area that uses even more exposed seating landscapes such as JALIS, but preferably lounge and bar furniture with MELL or JALIS, at high-profile exhibitions and events."
Furniture heart and brand soul
In a competitive market such as the contract segment, COR has increasingly won new clients in recent years, choosing individual paths as always in the process. "hotel@tomorrow", for example, is a series of workshops for architects which was conducted in September for the second time in cooperation with kvadrat, Dornbracht and LTS Licht&Leuchten. High-profile architects and designers such as Martin Murphy (Stoermer Murphy and Partners) or Nik Schweiger (barefoot design) provide industry colleagues with new stimuli for the design of innovative hotels, with the manufacturing quartet in turn supplying their corresponding brand and service offerings.At the upcoming architects' event "manufakTOUR" on 26 and 27 November, the factory gates in Rheda-Wiedenbrück will be opened to give the visitors insights into the "heart" of the furniture manufacturer. How much emotion and sensuality are contained in each sofa, easy chair or upholstered chair, in addition to all the expertise, will also become quite clear once again in the COR Haus: The spacious, completely redesigned Contract exhibition will be opened at this event – and is guaranteed to make the hearts of planners and architects beat faster. Also from a purely "contractual" point of view...
For more information, please contact
COR Sitzmöbel Helmut Lübke GmbH & Co. KG
Berthold Strüve, Marketing Manager
Nonenstraße 12, 33378 Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany
t +49.(0)5242.4102-240
f +49.(0)5242.4102-940
b.strueve@cor.de
