“Best New Product” award at last year’s SPOGA/GAFA Trade Fair Now Available In USA.

Furniture World News

Freeline International, a team of fresh new outdoor furniture designers from The Netherlands, have gained an enthusiastic following in three short years. So much so, they won the “Best New Product” award at last year’s SPOGA/GAFA Trade Fair. Now, they’ve just secured representation in the North American market through Jane Hamley Wells, a sourcing company for contemporary casual furniture based in Chicago. Last September at The International Sporting Goods, Outdoor Lifestyle and Garden Fair, SPOGA/GAFA, held annually in Cologne, Germany, one of Freeline’s new product designs for 2005 was voted by peer exhibitors as “Best New Product”. This line of all-weather dining and casual seating, called beSKWERE, is a distinctive and clever design that carries the high design standards usually reserved for indoor dining settings into the outdoors. A strong selling point for the line, both to retailers and end-consumers, is its “cross-over” appeal. The full range of designs by Freeline International is contemporary in styling and uses a variety of hard-wearing, all-weather quality materials (Grade A-teak, other hardwoods, synthetic rattans, textylene, aluminum and stainless steels). Many of the pieces in the line are designed to be "transitional," and therefore flexible in usage. They work equally well from casual kitchen dining into sunroom, outdoor patio or onto lawn/garden. And, they blend perfectly with different styles of house design and architecture. The range is being positioned as a "bridge" brand. Comparable in design and materials quality to high-end designer lines, it’s priced to be of appeal to discerning but more value-conscious consumers. Company co-founder, Jeroen de Schaaf, has a very clear sense of purpose guiding Freeline’s efforts. “We want to make designs that are not a copy of somebody else – we follow our own ideas. And we want to do so in a way that makes our furniture accessible to younger people too, so we intentionally do not want to price at the high end, even though our manufacturing quality is there. This is how we want to shop for furniture ourselves. Nobody is really doing it, so we will try.” Freeline International products, including the award-winning beSKWERE, are available in North America to the design trades and to specialty independent retailers through Jane Hamley Wells, in Chicago. Shipments have commenced and, to cater to the needs of the smaller independent boutique retailer, no minimum order quantities are required for the first order. Deliveries can still be completed before or by April 2005, in time for Spring retail sales.