Founded in 1966 in Barcelona, Luxcambra began as a small family business led by the father of its current owner and manager. Initially focused on the Spanish market, the company has evolved into a global player under the guidance of the second generation. Around the turn of the century, Luxcambra began exporting to Germany, sparking its journey into international markets. Despite global expansion, the company proudly maintains all production in Spain, a commitment appreciated by its diverse clientele. In this interview, Jan Jonckheere, Export Director at Luxcambra, shares insights into the company's market presence, its successes and challenges in 2024, and vision for the future.
Jan Jonckheere in the Luxcambra stand at Equiphotel.
In what markets is the brand most active?
Our main market is still in Europe, of course first of all our Home Market Spain, but our export is increasing every year, and already over 40% of the annual invoicing figure of the company. The large part of that is Europe (roughly 90%), but we are doing also more and more business with the USA, Puerto Rico, Panama, Costa Rica in America, with Morocco, in the Middle East (especially United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) and occasionally we've had customers as far away as Australia, New Zealand and South-Korea and Japan.
How is the market right now?
'Being in so many different markets offers us the benefit of having a diversified business: although gradually our business increases in all countries, we have ups and downs in some countries every year. Due to the new Presidency of Trump now in the USA, we expect this may affect our business in the USA, but at the other side we get more interest from Mexico now. A possible economic crisis in Europe of course may affect our business, but I think that our business at this moment is sufficiently sustainable to get over it (during the Corona-crisis our business was also affected, but we were able to get over it easily).'
As we're nearing the end of the year, how do you look back on 2024?
'It was a very busy year, we've been able to enter various e-commerce platforms, and we were able to increase our customer database tremendously (a.o. due to the fact that we exhibited at various trade shows). We have massive small orders, and some interesting big orders as well, and we expect that in the near future, these relatively small customers will convert themselves to bigger customers.'
What was the biggest challenge for the industry in 2024?
'As our business is increasing year after year, our biggest challenge was probably our internal organisation. We have more people in the company now, more suppliers of more different materials, more designers, more of everything. That does of course request special efforts, both people wise as investment-wise. We have done a lot of efforts, and we already see results, but of course this is a continuous work on which we should remain focused.'
What were some of the trends this year, and do you expect them to continue into the new year? Or are you seeing new trends developing?
'We clearly see an increasing interest in sustainable products. We've launched over the last years various lamps made from cork, wood, ceramic, wicker. This range has been amplified this year with the Absidiola and Abisal-collections which are already bestsellers. Something else we did, is relaunching some "older" designs, like the Lewit-range, which is based on designs from the 1960's. And again they also have very good feedback, so there is a certain feeling of nostalgia in the market as well.'
What are your plans for 2025?
'We will first of all launch a brand-new catalogue, with of course again some new and very attractive designs. Our focus on nice and original designs combined with natural and sustainable materials will continue. We will also focus more on E-commerce platforms, where we are actually only starting up. Geographically, we have several markets in mind, where we really want to increase our sales figures, both in and out of Europe. And with respect to our organisation, in 2025 we want to consolidate the reorganisation of the company, so we can focus even more on design, production and sales. We are looking at a 20% increase in turnover next year, and actually the plan is to double our business within the next 5 years. Which we already did over the last 5 years, so we are clearly on track.
We will of course also launch very interesting designs in 2025, so I would invite all readers to connect with us through social media, newsletters, our website etc. to make sure they don't miss out any of these novelties!'
More information:
Luxcambra
[email protected]
www.luxcambra.com
Spain