KI Europe News: 2011

Season's Greetings from KI

Faveo and Piana Alessichair Shortlisted for FX Awards

The Faveo and Piana Alessichair seating ranges and E4000 Lecture Hall seating from KI have been shortlisted for the FX Awards on Tuesday evening.

Faveo (Workplace Seating), designed by Paul Brooks, is a new task and occasional seating range which has received a Red Dot Design Award. The Faveo task chair is both inviting and attractive. A mesh back provides optimum and ergonomic comfort, due to the point synchromatic integrated mechanism which provides a wide range of reclining options with free flow and 4 position locking. Instant ergonomic adjustment is delivered to the user by simple easy touch controls with seat height and tension adjustment integrated on one side and the forward tilt and recline lock on the other. The seating range comes with options of transparent and sculptured mesh back rests in a choice of colours. The Faveo range is a complete family of seating suitable for multipurpose applications including task/operational, café, meeting, conference, training and auditorium. There are stackable 4 leg and cantilever frame chairs, swivel chairs with 5 star bases and a wide range of finishes and options including arms, frame finish, transparent and sculptured mesh castors and glides.

Piana (Public, Leisure or Workplace Furniture) is a simple yet iconic folding chair designed by David Chipperfield. The three parts of the chair rotate around a single axis and the finely engineered supporting structure and mechanism are concealed within the moulded components. The matt finish and tactile qualities of the polypropylene render the chair both comfortable and robust. It folds completely flat, is horizontally stackable and currently is available in six different colours. Mainly suitable for collective and public spaces, the chair is also suitable for private spaces.

E4000 (Public, Leisure or Workplace Furniture), designed by Lucci e Orlandini, is a new system of seats and tables for university lecture theatres. The Integrated and continuous seating and table system means that they are suitable for arranging in a straight line or curved rows, on large steps or on inclined floors. The seating system features a tip up foldaway writing table or has the option of a fixed writing table with row or seat numbering. E4000’s components are simple ensuring that it is practical, hardwearing and long lasting adapting to all teaching applications and offering technologic and multimedia functionality.

ISO 14001 Re-certification

KI Europe is proud to announce its recent BS EN ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Quality Management System re-certification.

KI Europe team members will continue to work diligently to enhance our Environmental Quality Management System as we strive to provide outstanding and innovative storage and furniture
solutions to multiple business and industrial markets.

Greg Bettis Joins KI

KI are pleased to announce a new member to its Sales Team.
Greg Bettis, former MD of Sedus Stoll, Clerkenwell, has been appointed with the remit of developing opportunities in the Business Sector in London and the South East. Greg brings with him a wealth of experience, with 25 years in the office furniture industry, his main focus will be major projects in addition to developing the reseller and specifier channels.
Greg has worked for dealers and manufacturers, and his knowledge of the systems furniture and seating market will be invaluable as KI enters an exciting phase of new product launches.The introduction of the new bench and task seating ranges recently developed will complete a locally manufactured product portfolio enabling KI to be a total workplace solutions provider.

KI to Aquire Sebel Furniture

KI has formally agreed to purchase Sebel Furniture Limited, the leading manufacturer and supplier of educational furniture in Australia with operations in New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

The sale will be finalised on 30th September 2011.

Under the agreement, Sebel Furniture will continue to operate as a standalone division of KI. Sebel Furniture will maintain its product portfolio of education furniture solutions, which will continue to be marketed and manufactured - along with KI select products in its current markets and territories.

Key purchase Considerations (requirements):
This acquisition is consistent with KI’s international growth strategy.
Sebel Furniture will enhance KI’s leadership positioning in our top core market education.
Sebel furniture shares common values with KI, including:
Corporate culture
Focus on trusted expertise
Committed workforce
Sebel Furniture is well positioned to grow under KI Leadership. Under the agreement, Sebel Furniture will continue to operate as a stand alone business. Its management team and staff will remain intact. There will be no noticeable changes for KI personnel.

Please feel free to forward any questions regarding the Sebel Furniture acquisition to Jonathan Hindle, Group Managing Director of KI E.M.E.A.
Email address jhindle@kieurope.com

Faveo Seating Collection by Paul Brooks

The Faveo task and occasional seating range, designed by Paul Brooks and recipient of a Red Dot Award, connects good design with class leading ergonomics ecology and economy. The chairs with their softly curved and contemporary lines evoke a sense of comfort at first glance.

The Faveo collection is a complete family of seating suitable for multipurpose applications including cafe, meeting, conference training and auditorium with stackable 4 legged and cantilever frame chairs, swivel with 5 star base for conference and a wide range of finishes and options including arms, frame finish, transparent and sculptured mesh, castors and glides.

Copies of the new brochure are available to download from the KI Europe website, and more photos can be seen on our Facebook page.

Midcounties Co-operative Installation

KI provided a tailored storage solution for Midcounties Co-operative's new headquarters in Warwick, when they brought several satellite offices to one site. An extensive filing audit of current storage practices was carried out and KI's efficient 800 Series storage system enabled them to carry out a rigorous file reduction programme. Cicada Interiors designed a well coordinated refreshing scheme in RAL 6027 Light Green with practical graphite grey compact laminate tops to provide a light and open space for the new way of working.

The case study is now available to download from the KI Europe website, and more photos from the installation can be seen on our Facebook page

Piana Alessichair by David Chipperfield

Piana is a simple, iconic, general-purpose folding chair, designed by David Chipperfield. The design aimed to produce a well-made chair in a material which expresses its utilitarian and transient nature. The matt finish and tactile qualities of the chair render it both comfortable and robust.

Copies of the new brochure are available to download from the KI Europe website, and more photos can be seen on our Facebook page.

KI Product Launch Event - 30th June 2011

Our Product Launch Event was a great success. Thanks to all those who attended, we hope you had an enjoyable night and had a chance to view and interact with some of our new products. The new products on display on the night were the following:

800 Series Bench & Desk System
Aptus seating
Lucky seating
Piana seating
Lyra seating
Torsion Air seating
Genya, E4000, C100 & Modulamm lecture hall seating ranges

Also new are the following products:
HL3 seating
V100 flip-top tables

More photos from the evening are now on Facebook.

Global Strength - Local Manufacture

New 400, 800 & 840 Series - quality and affordability.

New Innovative personal storage and accessories.

New KI Slide - sliding door system.

New Side Access pedestal.

University College Dublin case study

The new case study of University College Dublin is now available to view and download from the KI Europe website. Featuring Concerto auditorium seating and Sequence lecture hall seating with Torsion seats.

Photos from the installation can also be viewed on Facebook.

Management Consultancy Installation

KI provided innovative and business efficient storage solutions for its client's new Bristol office. Following an in depth assessment of five storage manufacturers, the client selected KI as the most suitable and competitive. The client was looking to develop a standard for their offices across the UK, and sought imaginatively designed product to compliment the design of their new environment whilst providing tangible business efficiency benefits. KI's well renowned lateral storage designs were found to perfectly meet the evolving demands of flexible and unassigned workspaces whilst providing measurable information retrieval efficiency and space savings. Photos from the installation can be viewed on our Facebook page

University College Dublin

Photos from the installation at University College Dublin can now be seen on Facebook. They feature Sequence and Concerto auditorium seating located in two lecture halls. A full case study will be coming soon.

KI provides classroom furniture for Chelsea Academy

KI have provided classroom furniture for the new Chelsea Academy in Lots
Road, London, working with FF&E Consultants Alligan and furniture suppliers
Portsdown Education. This new Academy is sponsored by the London Diocesan
Board for Schools (LDBS) in association with The Royal Borough of Kensington
and Chelsea. It will provide world-class education for approximately 800
pupils in years 7 to 11 and 250 students in the sixth form.

The Academy building, designed by architectural practice Fielden Clegg
Bradley Studios, ranges between two and four floors built in linking blocks
with atrium and open spaces providing good circulation space and internal
light, which are key on this tight site. The furniture for the new building
similarly needed to be appropriate for the aspirational setting but robust
and fit for purpose and the Academy employed both the help of the students
and teachers in the selection of the classroom furniture. Read more>>>