Brisbane furniture manufacturer Luxxbox nails it on global stage

WALK into Google’s swish New York headquarters or Ford’s corporate base in India and chances are you will have a Brisbane firm to thank for what you see before you.

The people behind Luxxbox’s design story - Kara Chiconi, Josh Bird and Jason Bird. Picture: AAP/Richard Waugh

Walk into Google’s swish New York headquarters or Ford’s corporate base in India and chances are the trendy stool or bookcase you see will be the handiwork of a Brisbane-based furniture manufacturer.

Luxxbox, founded by industrial designer Jason Bird in 2006, now lists some of the world’s best-known companies among its clients with plans to expand its multimillion-dollar export business over the coming years.

Targeting high-end corporate customers, Luxxbox is succeeding in an industry that has long been a victim of manufacturing headwinds.

Furniture manufacturing remains a $2.6 billion industry in Australia but cheap imports, slim profit margins and a lack of skilled workers are hurdles to growth.

According to the Australian Furniture Association (AFA) there are nearly 5000 furniture manufacturers in Australia employing 54,600 people.

Bird, who runs Luxxbox with wife Kara Chiconi and brother Josh Bird, worked as an in-house industrial designer before deciding to strike out on his own.

“In 2007, we started a showroom in the Valley and began developing our own collection,” Bird says.

“We were doing a lot of design work but it was becoming increasingly difficult to get reliable manufacturers in Australia. Australians want warranties on the products and they don’t want the furniture to fall apart.”

Furniture maker Jason Bird from Luxxbox. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Three years ago, the company moved to Eagle Farm, establishing a factory and office in a World War II-era warehouse just off Kingsford Smith Drive. Luxxbox, which is a finalist in the upcoming Premier of Queensland’s Export Awards, employs about 20 people, including designers, carpenters and an apprentice upholsterer.

Next to its workshop where laser-guided cutting machines make furniture components, designers work on blueprints of the company’s latest products.

Bird says that while cheap imported furniture from places like China remain a threat, corporate customers including Microsoft, LinkedIn and Bose are increasingly looking for well-built pieces that are both practical and attractive.

Chiconi, who acts as the company’s marketing manager, says Luxxbox’s line of acoustic light shades is one of its biggest sellers. The lighting products this year picked up several gongs at the International Architzier A+Awards for their aesthetic and practical appeal. The pendant-shades can be hung above desks or other work spaces to absorb noise in open plan offices.

“Open plan offices are great but they are incredibly noisy,” Chiconi says. “These lights reduce noise by half.”

Bird says the company will continue to manufacture in Australia, even though that can be a challenge when it comes to exporting.

“Distance is still a problem in Australia with so many clients overseas,” he says. “I had a call from New York recently and they wanted 500 stools by the end of the month. We just would not have shipped them in time.

“Australia has grown up with the import mentality in that we will accept things take time to arrive. But clients overseas will not accept that.”

Australian Furniture Association chief executive Patrizia Torelli says distance from major markets and a lack of government support remain major impediments to the growth of the sector.

“While Australia is close to emerging markets in Asia, there is concern that our distance from mature markets in Europe and America will be a barrier to exports,” she says.

Torelli adds that the development of an Australian brand of furniture would be crucial for the industry. More than 90 per cent of the sector was made up of sole traders or small manufacturers employing less than 20 people.

“Support is needed to increase collaboration between small businesses, industry associations, government and the research sector to identify and target their needs,” she says.

The reduction and ultimate elimination of tariffs on furniture as a result of free trade agreements with China, New Zealand and Malaysia would increase import pressure on local manufacturers.

Bird says there appears to be a lack of a manufacturing ethos in Australia.

“We have a love-hate relationship with manufacturing in Australia,” he says. “That may stem from the fact that we consider ourselves the Lucky Country and people expect work to come to them. In places like Italy or the US, they realise you have to work for it.”

Bird says Australian furniture manufacturers became more competitive in the domestic market after the global financial crisis when costs to make product in China became more expensive.

“We also have a shorter lead time and are on the ground if something goes wrong,” he says.

Josh Bird, who handles business development for the firm, says good local manufacturers still have a chance.

“Labour is more expensive here but in China labour costs also are rising because of the emerging middle classes,” he says. “The Chinese have also woken up to the fact they can charge margins. In the high labour content jobs they beat you but they have to have volume.”

Josh Bird says unique locally-built products, such as Luxxbox’s acoustic lighting, will sell.

“We are putting a lot of furniture and lighting into containers and sending them to places like China, India and Hong Kong, which is a reversal of the usual flow of goods,” he says.

“In India we are doing a job for Ford for an office that has 11,000 people. It is all about having a design-led strategy. If you design a product that is unique, people will come and get it. We have the design smarts in Australia to do that.”

Workers at Luxxbox’s Eagle Farm factory.

Chiconi says wherever possible the company uses sustainable or recycled materials.

“We are currently making some bistro chairs for GOMA’s (Gallery of Modern Art) restaurant from hoop pine, which is grown in those plantations you see on the road up to the Sunshine Coast,” she says, pointing to a row of stools being put together in a corner of the Luxxbox factory. “Some of our chair frames are made out of recycled milk bottles.”

Jason Bird says exports will become an increasingly larger part of Luxxbox’s business. That means the company will have to look at making at least some of its product overseas.

“The future for us will be in distributed manufacturing in order to get the products to our clients in the shortest amount of time,” he says. “From a carbon footprint point of view it also makes sense.”

Chiconi says Luxxbox remains passionate about employing local tradespeople and apprentices and preserving trades, such as upholstery, which are becoming increasingly scarce.

The AFA warns that access to skilled workers is a problem for the sector.

“The forest and forest products industry workforce is ageing,” Torelli says. “The industry is not attractive to younger people as it is not ‘cutting edge’ or ‘sexy’.”

The success of design-led manufacturers like Luxxbox will therefore become increasing important.