FEST opens flagship store with a cinema in Amsterdam
The new FEST flagship store takes away all doubts about the purchase of your new piece of furniture. By giving free personal interior advice and the possibility to try out a sofa in a mini cinema, the interior brand from Amsterdam wants to help their consumers make the best choices. Femke Furnée (founder of FEST): “A sofa is a big purchase. You do research, you try things out… We understand that it’s a difficult decision, and that’s why we want to advise our customers in a new way, so they are sure they are making the best possible choice.” The newest FEST store, located at De Clercqstraat in Amsterdam-West, is now open.
FEST is the new kid on the block in the traditional furniture industry and is well on its way to becoming a worldwide player. Femke: “We have our own collection of high-end design furniture and home décor without the high-end price tag: affordable luxury. We are a young company, our team is in the middle of our own target group, which allows us to understand the needs of our customers. The purchase of a piece of furniture is a big and important choice, so we want to make this as easy and exciting as possible. An example of this is the mini cinema in our newest flagship store, where you can try out a sofa before buying it.”
Mini Cinema
The flagship store is officially open from January 8th. You are welcome to visit the store for free interior advice by appointment or to watch a movie in the FEST cinema, where you get the chance to test any FEST sofa – upholstered in cinema-red velvet. The sofas are upholstered in cinema-red velvet for the occasion. “When you try out a sofa in a store, you are sitting stiffly and straight, while at home, most of us are hanging on the sofa and watching a movie. In our mini cinema, you can experience the real comfort of the sofa before it’s in your house.”, Femke explains.
From €3000 to a multi-million euro company
The store in Amsterdam-West is the third brand store owned by the rapidly growing interior brand. Femke Furnée: “I started my company when I was 27. I had no experience, economical background nor start capital. I started with €3000 of savings and throughout the last seven years, I expanded FEST into a multi-billion company. We have our own design collection that’s being sold in over twenty countries, including the MoMa design store in New York and the Centre Pompidou’s museum store in Paris. We also supply the contract market, for instance, our furniture can be found in co-working space The Wing in New York, Los Angeles and London and soon also in Netflix' headquarters in Amsterdam. But I only realised that what we’re doing is really unique last year, when The Financial Times listed us as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.
Poetry of Space
The FEST flagship store is designed by S-P-A-C-E Projects, a company that also did the interior of stores like Ace & Tate and Fabienne Chapot. Femke: “We designed our first two stores ourselves with limited budgets. Until last year, we’ve grown organically, but we now have an investor on board. Because of that, we now have the tools to invest in growth, including a next-level store experience.“
So far, FEST has grown by working really hard, but also by trusting in my intuition. This intuition is one of the most important sources of inspiration for the designer of the newest store. You can see it translated into organic shapes that dominate our shop.” Pepijn Smit from S-P-A-C-E projects: “At FEST, I strongly believe in the story of intuition. Not only why choices are made, but also how these choices are being made. I’ve tried to translate this to an interior in which everything is connected – like the words of a poem. For me, the store is like a spacious poem: Poetry of Space.
TL
