Fredericia

About

Fredericia is a Danish furniture company that produces chairs, lounge chairs, sofas, tables, coffee tables and storage for private homes and for contract interiors. It trades as Fredericia Furniture A/S, registered in Denmark under CVR number 45607313, at Treldevej 183, DK-7000 Fredericia in southern Denmark. The company describes itself as a family-owned, B Corp-certified design company established in 1911, and its entry in the Danish business register gives a start date of 28 September 1911. The business was founded in 1911 as Fredericia Stolefabrik, the Fredericia Chair Factory. A legacy page on the company's own site names the entrepreneur N. P. Ravnsø as its founder. The factory originally specialised in upholstery production, and the same page records that its products were known from the start for a high level of craftsmanship. In 1930 it took on licensed production for the Thonet factories, and wood was introduced alongside upholstery as a core competence. The turn towards modern Danish design is dated to 1955, when Andreas Graversen, chief executive from 1955 to 1995, brought the factory's existing furniture heritage together with modernist ideals in close collaboration with Børge Mogensen (1914-1972). The company calls Mogensen its first house designer, and its designer page describes him as Fredericia's founding designer from 1955 until his death in 1972. A line attributed to Andreas Graversen, expressing a wish for clarity, good materials, human empathy and above all strength in both design and business, is still quoted on the company's about page. Fredericia states that it is still owned by the Graversen family, which has been associated with the company since 1955. Thomas Graversen became chief executive in 1995, and Rasmus Graversen, the third generation, took over as chief executive on 1 May 2024, succeeding Kaja Møller. In October 2020 Fredericia acquired Erik Jørgensen Møbelfabrik, a Danish furniture business founded in 1954 by the upholsterer Erik Jørgensen. It is presented as a separate collection, and the Erik Jørgensen range, including the EJ220 and EJ280 sofas and the EJ315 sofa designed in 1975 by Erik Ole Jørgensen, is sold alongside Fredericia's own. Several long-running models anchor the collection. The J39 chair, model 3239, was designed by Børge Mogensen in 1947 and has a solid wood frame, a woven paper cord seat and a moulded veneer back; Fredericia states it has been in continuous production for more than 75 years. The Spanish Chair, model 2226, dates from 1958 and pairs a solid oak or walnut frame with vegetable-tanned saddle leather seat and back panels fixed with metal buckles, the straps designed to be tightened as the leather stretches with use. The Wegner Ox Chair, model 1000, was designed by Hans J. Wegner in 1960 and originally carried the name AP46; it is a fully upholstered easy chair with an inner frame of solid wood, moulded cold-cured foam and a stainless steel base. Fredericia's own account records that Wegner turned to Erik Jørgensen in the late 1980s for the upholstery work on the chair. Alongside the archive the company works with more recent designers. Designer pages on its own site cover Cecilie Manz, Jasper Morrison, Space Copenhagen, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Hugo Passos, Maria Bruun, Hannes Wettstein and Damian Williamson, whose Nami sofa is part of the range. Maria Bruun is also named as the company's head of design. Archive names include Kaare Klint, Mogens Koch, Nanna Ditzel, Jørgen Gammelgaard, Hans J. Wegner, Erik Ole Jørgensen and Børge Mogensen. Nanna Ditzel's Trisse, dating from 1962, is made in FSC-certified solid oak at the company's joinery in Denmark. Production is in Denmark, at facilities in Fredericia and in Svendborg, where the upholstery workshop is located. The company states that it mainly buys raw materials and semi-finished and finished products from European suppliers and has opted out of overseas transport and subcontractors. Textile and leather offcuts are collected and sorted separately so the waste material can be donated, used for smaller products or sold on. Fredericia is certified as a B Corp, publishes the FSC producer licence code FSC C151292, and issues a sustainability report titled For People & Planet. It has set a target of carbon-neutral company operations by 2035 and a 2025 target for FSC-certified wooden furniture. Fredericia sells internationally through dealers and retailers and operates showrooms in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, London and Tokyo. For architects and specifiers it maintains a business-to-business platform, a media library, technical files, material overviews and project case material. Its furniture is used in private homes, workplaces and hospitality interiors.