Danish design at supermarket prices

PHOTO: HEIDI LUNDSGAARD

CONSUMER DESIGN: The name Herstal is becoming rapidly recognised these days in lighting, interior design and consumer design. By focusing on low price, high volume sales from supermarkets, the Herstal name has become the essence of genuine folk design

BY JACOB BENTHIEN

One of the fastest growing names in Danish design has all the ingredients of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Not only is it taking place in the Danish writer’s native city of Odense, but it also echoes his story of the little duckling’s emergence as a beautiful swan. The name is Herstal, and it is rapidly occupying space in Danish and Nordic homes in line with other design phenomena which have made Danish interior design world famous.

But it all started accidentally. When Martin Herstal, 47, became a sales apprentice in a Copenhagen department store, the only available position was in the lighting department. And ever since, lamps and all the other things involved in interior design, have been his life. Initially by selling other people’s products, but today exclusively with his own production and his own designs.

HALOGEN LIGHTS THE WAY

It was the little halogen light bulb that kick-started the adventure. Even 10 years ago, halogen lighting was both expensive and unusual. But Martin Herstal believed in the future of halogen bulbs, and started designing and producing lamps which considered both the technical and light-related requirements of a halogen bulb. When halogen bulbs later shrank in price and grew in quality, Herstal established a market lead which has made the company Scandinavia’s largest in halogen lighting.

“Our success is based on two things,” says sales and marketing director Jeppe Kjeldsen.

“One is our design, which in many ways follows the Scandinavian tradition for simplicity and style. The other is our sales strategy, which is based on relatively low prices and large volumes. Good design need not cost an arm and a leg, and you shouldn’t have to go to expensive speciality stores to get it. We are not ashamed of the fact that our products can be bought in an ordinary supermarket at a fair price.”

GROWING WITH GLOBALISATION

Since the introduction of Herstal’s first small pendant lamp, which has become a classic, in opalised glass and designed for a small halogen bulb, the lamp range has expanded to include ordinary incandescent bulbs and living light. The combination of living light and Herstal’s characteristically designed elements in brushed steel have become a feature of countless Nordic homes, where on the one hand they build on the Nordic design story, and on the other exploit living light’s ability to create cosiness, warmth and intimacy.

The Herstal story is typical of many small Danish companies in the last 20 years: a good idea, cultivated through entrepreneurship and with the fingerprint of globalisation. Herstal has moved several times to successively larger premises to cope with increasing production. Initially, production was carried out in Denmark, but was later outsourced to the Far East. At one point there were as many as 100 staff assembling and packing the lamps.

“Today we have about 60 staff in design and innovation, administration, sales, production management and logistics,” says finance and logistics director Henrik Grønning. “All production is carried out in the Far East, but strictly quality controlled from here and from our office in Hong Kong. All the previous production halls are today used for stock so that we are able to deliver any item number on demand and so meet the demands of the retail trade.”

200 NEW PRODUCTS PER YEAR

In 2002, Herstal decided to diversify beyond lamps to other equipment for the home, including kitchen equipment, gift items, vases, textiles and bathroom accessories.

“In the last couple of years, we have launched about 200 new products annually,” says Henrik Grønning. “That is about one every working day, and the range comprises a vast number of products in a vast number of materials which have given us a completely new scope. Although we have maintained the strict – some might say minimalist – style, the new products, which we have chosen to call ’Living’, give us new opportunities for creating ideas and being innovative. Today the ’Living part’ is as large as the ’Lamp part’, and the opportunities for interior design are substantial. We will continue to assert ourselves in lighting, because beautiful things in the home are naturally accentuated by beautiful lighting. But the future probably lies in ’Living’ and arts & craft at affordable prices.”

http://www.herstal.dk