not find it very profitable to do so. Indeed, since the manufacturers and distributors in Belgium offer discounts of 40-65% for these orders, Bulgarian manufacturers faced with important transportation costs would probably be unable to compete. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE COMPETITION Belgian ProductionBrussels constitutes the prime center of national economic activity in Belgium and it accounts for 40% of the total office furniture market. Flanders and Wallonia respectively hold 43% and 17% of the market. The Belgian office furniture market is strongly caracterized by linguistic and political factors. In a study sponsored by the Division of Office Furniture of the Belgian Chamber of Data Processing, a survey showed that 62% of the companies surveyed deemed it important to buy Belgian products and 49% stated that they only buy products from manufacturers in their region.Domestic production of office furniture is in the hands of Belgian owned companies. There are 9 Belgian manufacturers of office furniture in Belgium, the main four being: MEWARF, BULO, T.D.S. ACIOR and ROBBERECHTS. The only foreign manufacturer in Belgium is GIROFLEX, a Swiss owned company. European and NonEuropean CompetitorsAlthough there are no foreign manufacturers of office furniture in Belgium, except GIROFLEX, there are already approximately 40 foreign distributors. It is very difficult to determine the exact importance of these distributors in Belgium since the statistics in this area are quite distorted as the market is characterized by resale in the distribution channel. For example, 80% of GIROFLEX seats are sold to foreign office furniture distributors in Belgium. The sales figures of these foreign distributors thus take into account the resale of the Giroflex seats. MARKETING MIX Belgium has a very liberal import policy regarding office furniture and has so far imposed very few local content constraints. The European Commission has entrusted the European...
