But the Belgian public asked to be able to see and touch the furniture, hence the creation of this first showroom. “You should know that 90% of the furniture market is physical“, continues Yves Brigode, hence the creation of the Wavre showroom where you can discover different pieces of furniture (chairs, sink, table, etc.) from each collection. Thus, 200 products are exhibited in Wavre out of the 600 contained in the catalog Ultimately, it should have between 1,000 and 1,200 references.
Wavre is only the first part of several showrooms which will be set up in Belgium and then outside our borders. But Yves and Gil don’t want to do too much either. The objective is not to have large showrooms and to have them everywhere, unlike certain large groups. Hence the interest in Wavre. “Wavre is in the center of Belgium, it is close to major roads and Walloon Brabant is a region where we find our target audience. And in terms of this target audience, we notice a difference with the blue and yellow giant. “Our customers started with Ikea furniture but when moving, buying a house or an apartment, they want to change the decoration and want quality and something that lasts over time“. Thus, Barak 7 customers are between 35 and 60 years old and want to treat themselves without going high-end.
In Wavre, traders feel abandoned: “We are supposed to be the capital of Walloon Brabant, what a joke: everyone is fleeing this city”
Value for money”optimized“
To offer solid wood furniture at prices between large furniture retailers and high-end, Barak 7 has “everything optimized“in terms of value for money, as Gil Goorman explains.”We have our own creations: we work with designers (especially Danish) and manufacturing is relocated outside Europe then we sell directly to consumers, without intermediaries“But that doesn’t mean that the confection is done in an industrial way.”We work with workshops and a qualified workforcecontinues Yves Brigode, where the machine is little used“For example, we find sofas where the leather is hand-stitched or even rattan chairs where it takes a worker a day to weave everything. All this with Gil Goorman as a final vision, “to have furniture that cannot be found everywhere“.
