"Nowy Styl has transformed from a chair manufacturer into an expert in fitting out office spaces and public areas over the recent years. We keep developing all the time, and we want the way we have come so far to be reflected in our strategy and our communication. That is why we have decided to rebrand. The aim of the change is to show our strengths and highlight our character, without which we would not have achieved a leading position in Europe” says Adam Krzanowski, the President and co–founder of Nowy Styl, explaining the reasons behind the rebranding decision.

“Building a strong global brand is therefore of strategic importance to us. Having multiple brands in different markets, despite some advantages, is now blurring the image of our company and getting us to split our capabilities and resources, for example in our image-building, marketing and promotional activities, portfolio management and so on.” – explains Adam Krzanowski.

The need to build a global brand is a clear direction in which all industries, not only ours, should develop, because a common name gives a lot more opportunities for growth. This is particularly evident in our efforts to win major contracts. “When we take part in a tender to fit out the offices of a corporation with branches in many countries, we should present ourselves as one company. We cannot be company A for an office in Switzerland, someone else in Germany and the Netherlands, and someone else in France, Great Britain or Poland. We therefore need to consistently build and consolidate a globally recognisable brand” says Rafał Chwast, Nowy Styl’s Finance Director and Vice-President.

Over the years we have built our strength and recognition by joining brand portfolio. Currently, we want to develop a professional brand Nowy Styl, but we still remember our heritage.

Immediately we do answer one of the most important questions – Kusch+Co will not disappear or change – this brand will be our premium offer for the most demanding customers and projects. We are proud of Kusch+Co – our exclusive brand specialized in individual seating, interior design solutions and products dedicated for healthcare industry and airports.

In the near future we will launch SOHOS by Nowy Styl, our new international brand that covers products with basic functionalities, offering excellent value for money.

Sorting out our offer

The need to sort out our portfolio and make customer experience more consistent are two more arguments for rebranding. Customers have many points of contact with our offer, from the website, social media and online ads through trade fairs, showrooms, contacts with our representatives, printed marketing and commercial materials, up to the finished products. As Rafał Chwast points out, customers can now feel confused, not sure whether they are cooperating with one and the same organisation. Identical products are featured in the catalogues of several brands, bearing different tags and markings, sometimes even completely different names.
 

Enhancing the synergy effect

Roman Przybylski, Sales Director and Member of the Management Board for Nowy Styl, has long emphasised the importance of synergy for our company. The knowledge and resources of the individual companies operating in different countries and sectors complement each other, fuelling the growth of the organisation. He is confident that a common name will allow the organisation to benefit from synergy even more: “The outcome of our acquisitions is never a simple sum. It is made up of two companies plus the growth potential of both of them.” At the global level, rebranding offers additional opportunities because we will add international recognition and communication on top of shared skills, technology and customer portfolio.

Integrating even closer

The change will also provide an opportunity for an even closer integration of employees within the organisation. “We have companies and branches in over a dozen countries. So far, we were kept together by the Nowy Styl Group, but it was not a solution that would give us a strong sense of unity” admits Director Przybylski.
 

Choosing Nowy Styl as a name for the leading brand means a return to the company’s roots, because this was the name of the company established by brothers Adam and Jerzy Krzanowski in 1992. “Authenticity is invaluable today,” says Adam Krzanowski. “Of course, we could have come up with a completely new name under which we would try to build a global reputation, or change the original Polish name of the company to its international version but, firstly, this would be artificial, and secondly, it would mean undermining, and perhaps even erasing our identity.”

At the same time, Nowy Styl is synonymous with specific values that its founders have believed in, and which they have transplanted on to the organisation. If a company joined the organisation of the Krzanowski brothers, it must have been built on similar foundations. It also must have had its own organisational culture and history, greatly respected by Nowy Styl’s Management Board. This is never going to change.
 

Growing more dynamically than others

So is Nowy Styl’s history of nearly thirty years a foundation solid enough to build a global brand on? “Absolutely yes,” Rafał Chwast has no doubt about it. “The long history is obviously a great capital. Nevertheless, looking at the dynamics of global development today, the civilization leap which took place in the last few years is comparable to changes that used to stretch over much longer periods of time in the past. Thanks to the fact that we started our business exactly at the onset of the biggest technological boom in history, we only needed a quarter of a century to come the way for which other companies needed a hundred or even more years: from a chair manufacturer to a global furniture supplier, to an expert in comprehensive arrangement of spaces.”
 

We are a sufficiently mature company

Adam Krzanowski sees the relatively young age of his company as an advantage. He does realise that in some markets Nowy Styl is pigeonholed as a manufacturer of budget chairs, which used to dominate the company’s offer in its early years. “We have made such chairs and we continue to do so, we are absolutely not going to deny this,” he agrees. “However,” he stresses “Nowy Styl, which has just received a new logo and is to become the heart of a strong, global brand, is no longer just about budget products. Our portfolio is dominated by modern solutions for offices and many other sectors, such as stadiums, passenger terminals, hotels and healthcare providers. Those are excellent quality products designed by superb designers. It is very unfair to still look at our company as a manufacturer of budget chairs. This was one of the reasons why we decided to rebrand: to help us break that association.”

One thing is blatant when you look more closely at the stages of the company's development: the history of Nowy Styl has been written by decisions that could certainly be described as innovative.

In 1992, nobody in Poland thought about making chairs based on a metal frame. It was the Krzanowski brothers who popularised them, and then did the same with swivel chairs. Soon they started their own production of frames and other components, although they could have continued importing them, the way most businesses did. By going to the Orgatec, they completely changed the perspective on foreign trade, because in mid 1990s most entrepreneurs were still focused on the East. Joint ventures followed by acquisitions proved to be the key to gaining a share in foreign markets. Synergies, introducing the same lean management standards across all plants, production of components in the company’s own European factories, logistics, data communications systems facilitating cooperation between international teams, and more recently segmentation and emphasis on customer experience – examples are many.

“We are ‘predestined’ by our name,” Adam Krzanowski smiles. “When we picked the name Nowy Styl for our company in the early days, Jerzy and I believed we would offer something that nobody had offered before to our customers. That defined us. Since then, we have been constantly thinking what unknown doors we could still open, and what new things to try. In other words, Nowy Styl means innovative thinking: every day, all the time. If we were to explain our name to a foreigner, we’d say it means a ‘new style of thinking”. This name describes us perfectly.