The European ‘union’

Three companies united by a single philosophy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of us living here in paradise, longing for things we enjoyed in our home countries fades into the nostalgic abyss a little every day. The food, the culture … even our native language soon gives way to our new way of life. We gladly give up many of the things that made our existence comfortable for the freedom and pure pleasure of life in the Land of Smiles. But, there are some things we will always want. Expecting local businesses to provide the products and services like we had back home can be … in a word … frustrating. Things we expect like professionalism, quality and customer service are simply not as high on local providers’ priority lists as we would like.

As I’m sure someone famous once said: “Where there’s a void, there’s an opportunity.” For most, the largest purchase we will make in our adopted country is a home. Luckily, we have access to a wide range of dwellings at affordable prices. We can live in a manner we’d only dream about back home. That’s an advantage Thailand offers that cannot be denied.

Affordable price
However, when you’ve found your dream house, or ultimate holiday home, how can you make it special? How do we make it a home? How can we outfit our new place to our exact specifications, at an affordable price without suffering the limitations of local interior and décor vendors?

Enter The Trio Group. A short while ago, three suppliers of interior design and furnishings banded together to answer all these questions. Luc Parietti of Euro Design Furniture, Matthew Slater of Asalon Company, and Peer Piechnik from PP Lighting Studio built an oasis of quality and professionalism right in the heart of Thailand’s hottest home markets. The unlikely combination of a Swiss, a German and an Englishman joined forces united by a single philosophy; to give homeowners what they expect.

Huge array of design
Euro Design Furniture, which is led by long-time Swiss expatriate Luc Parietti, has been sitting at the top table of fine furniture manufacturing companies for more than 10 years. With their 2,500 sqm factory just north of Pattaya,

Euro Design have outfitted houses, condos and businesses with a huge array of designs and furniture products. When homeowners
walk into the new showroom on Sukhumvit Road, they can select something as simple as an office chair or sit down to discuss a
complete renovation. Fine quality, built-in wardrobes, kitchens, cabinets, and bedroom suites are Euro Design’s specialty. Loose furniture like dining room tables, occasional chairs and sideboards have been added to round out their “available-tomorrow” catalogue. It is a “one stop shop”. For those who appreciate custom sofas, chairs and beds crafted from only the finest leathers and fabrics, Englishman Matthew Slater is a guy you simply have to meet.

For more than 10 years his company, Asalon, has produced some of the highest quality leather furnishings on the market from their 6,000 sqm facility just North of Bangkok. Asalon mainly exports to Japan, the UK, Taiwan, France, Italy, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. But, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing their furniture displayed at the Ellezza shop in The Emporium or Siam Discovery in Bangkok, you’ll know what I mean. When I met Matthew, and he explained his business to me, he probably wondered why I had that silly knowing smile on my face. As the owner of several luxury rental condos I already had five of his sofas. Sure, I looked at other shops, but one look at Matthew’s showroom and you simply don’t want to look anywhere else.

Harsh lighting
But, all that fine furniture and craftsmanship needs something to bring it to life. Even the highest quality interior can lose its luster under the harsh fluorescent lights so commonly installed here. Poorly designed, built and installed lighting can ruin even the best designer’s intentions. Enter Peer Piechnik from PP Design Studio in Bangkok. German-born Peer is an awardwinning lighting designer and architect with studios in Berlin and Bangkok. Peer, who graduated from Berlin University with a degree in Construction Engineering, is more than just “a guy who makes lamps”. For 12 years he ran his own design
studio and performed as a structural engineering consultant.

If you seek a unique table lamp to bring a special ambience to your bedroom, Peer is your man. If you have a 10,000 sqm office building you need properly lit for 300 employees, again Peer can provide everything from design to manufacturing to installation. And, when you want to create just the right mood for your seaside penthouse, PP Design is pretty much the only game in town.

Last year, Luc, Matthew and Peer formed an alliance to promote their products and services under one flag … The Trio Group. So what’s the big deal? Three interior design companies huddling together for profit … what’s so unusual? What unites these three amigos is their dedication to a philosophy; providing quality design and furnishings at an affordable price and standing behind their product.

Those are some pretty high ideals that many in the interior design business only pay lip service to. But, one would expect three experienced European design and décor companies to do things the European Way, right? What makes this design consortium special? The Trio Group enjoys a unique advantage that allows them to achieve their haughty goals. They all own their factories in Thailand. Complete control over all the elements that go into making a superior product is the secret weapon of The Trio Group.

Any economics student will tell you that the combination of capital, raw materials and manpower equal output. By building their own facilities, members of Trio have a firm grip on their capital investments. Only the top-shelf materials like wood, leather, tiles and stainless steel are used. And, the ability to select local workers and train them the “European Way” ensures all three get the most from their manpower. The result is top quality for the lowest cost.

This top-to-bottom control gives all three companies flexibility. New and unique designs can go from the 3-D computer screen to the factory floor to the showroom at blistering pace.

Speedy launches
Peer Piechnik told me if he wanted to introduce a product in Germany, the timeframe could be years. Here in Thailand, his space age visions can travel from his brain to production at … pardon the pun … “the speed of light”. Luc Parietti showed me a huge shipment of nice cherrywood he bought at an extreme discount. “I just couldn’t pass it up,” he said.

Euro Design’s production engineers quickly designed a new sleek bedroom suite that could be cut out of one sheet of the wood, with no waste. The result was an incredibly well-built set of furniture at a fraction of what you’d expect to pay for such quality. Because there are no middle men between buyer and factory, Trio members can also be flexible on pricing.

Big developers, hotel projects and other high volume buyers can enjoy deep discounts from The Trio Group simply because there aren’t so many mouths to feed on the way from the factory. And for homeowners who buy from any of them, the lack of a middle man means they get customer service from the guys who built the product. Many a condo owner is surprised when they call Euro Design to solve an issue and find themselves face-to-face with Jack Lefebvre, the factory manager. When Luc, Matthew and Peer say they “personally” stand behind their products, they aren’t kidding.

To the passive observer, it might appear that the principals of Trio are practicing a bit of snobbery, claiming their European roots somehow make their companies superior. But, 10 minutes with any of them will reveal that nothing could be further from the truth. According to all three, it is the application of their knowledge and process combined with the workforce, raw materials and freedom to operate in Thailand that is unbeatable. “You can’t do what we do, for the cost we do it, anywhere else,” says Luc. “We are in a unique situation and take full advantage of it.”

It is refreshing to see companies working in unison that in many ways might be considered competitors for a piece of the home furnishings pie. It is also comforting to know that what binds them together is their “customer is king” philosophy. And, as guests in a country where we know there are things we will have to learn to do without, it’s nice to know that having a beautiful home is not one of them.