How Fritz Hansen’s CEO for Asia made this Danish brand a household name in Asia, especially South Korea

Nonfiction is a South Korean cult beauty and lifestyle brand founded by Cha Hye Young from experimental group Studio Concrete. In October this year, it collaborated with Danish furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen to release an original, limited-edition home fragrance and scented candle. Named Long Autumn, it has notes of cardamom, oak, maple, patchouli and vetiver.

“Fritz Hansen is a big fan of patina; we like materials such as leather and wood for the furniture to get old, to get patina,” said Dario Reicherl, CEO of Fritz Hansen Asia, on natural materials’ timeworn beauty that provided the inspiration.

Releasing a perfume may not be the most conventional way to market furniture but then Reicherl does not conform. “Marketing in the furniture world is extremely conservative, with very, very little innovation. I consider that extremely boring,” said the Italian who has resided in Singapore for 15 years.

He handles the Australasian market for the 150-year-old brand, whose iconic pieces such as the Egg armchair and Series 7 chair designed by Arne Jacobsen have become synonymous with timeless Scandinavian design. Under Reicherl’s unorthodox leadership, regional sales have increased five-fold over nine years.

“I avoid at all costs looking at others or visiting stores of other furniture brands. For me, the inspiration must be genuine, pure and real. I come up with ideas by talking with creative people and consumers, as well as my travels,” commented the gregarious and forthcoming Reicherl.

Spending up to 220 days a year on the road means that he has no shortage of inspiration. In fact, Reicherl has always been nomadic. His family moved with his father frequently for his job. Reicherl later studied hospitality and did sales and marketing for aviation industry in Europe.

In his early 20s, he travelled widely in Europe and the United States, but a work trip to Japan selling kitchen systems pivoted his career path. “It was mind-blowing,” Reicherl recalled. “Within my first 12 hours in Tokyo, I told myself that I needed to move to Asia.”

After working for a time in Japan, he relocated to Singapore to open a store for an Italian furniture brand. In 2014, Fritz Hansen offered him a job. It was a dream come true. “When I started in this industry more than 20 years ago, I fell in love with Fritz Hansen because they keep the past alive with pieces like those by Poul Kjaerholm and Arne Jacobsen yet they also welcome contemporary designers like Jaime Hayon and Cecilie Manz to make new classics. I promised myself one day I would work for the brand, and I was lucky enough to get that offer,” shared Reicherl.

During that time, Fritz Hansen was marketed in multi-brand stores. Feeling like it was lost among other brands, Reicherl took Fritz Hansen out of those stores and opened a mono-brand shop – the first of 41 throughout Asia. In October this year, the cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung were added to the list.

At the same time, Reicherl started introducing other novel ideas, one of them being the House of Fritz Hansen eight years ago in Bangkok, Jakarta and Seoul. “The House of Fritz Hansen is an actual house. Of course, it’s also a retail space but it doesn’t feel like one. It’s decorated as if someone was living there, which helps people visualise the furniture in a real setting. They may also get inspired by the colour of the walls, the curtains or the way we hang the paintings,” Reicherl described.

Next came the Fritz Hansen Lounge in Singapore, Taipei and Seoul. “The Fritz Hansen Lounge was to help the design community,” Reicherl explained. Creative businesses could rent the space for personal events. Individuals were also welcomed to do their work there using the beautiful furniture if they booked in advance.

The idea came from Reicherl spending a lot of time in airport lounges. “They became a sort of office where I can be very productive. I arrive two hours before my flight and finish some work with nobody disturbing me because I don't know anybody. And it’s usually nicely decorated,” he elaborated.

From the retail spaces came pop-up concepts. In 2019, there was Fritz Hansen An (Fritz Hansen Hermitage) – a location-centric event celebrating culture, community and architecture in Honjima, a remote island on the northern coast of Kagawa Prefecture in Japan with Edo-era streetscapes. The ageing population had emptied the island of residents, leaving it with no supermarket and less than 10 elementary school students.

The Danish brand partnered with Kagawa-based furniture retailer CONNECT to refurbish a traditional Japanese house wth Fritz Hansen furniture. In 2022, Fritz Hansen Jima (The Island of Fritz Hansen) extended the project with a cafe at the pier, brewery, public facilities and the island's only guesthouse outfitted with Fritz Hansen pieces. Among them, Series 7 chairs mutated into curious objects with stone bases paid homage to Honjima as a stone supplier for Japanese architecture. 

Fritz Hansen Stay in 2021 gave fans a totally immersive experience. Collaborating with Jamyungseosil, the brand offered design-savvy travellers an overnight experience in a pop-up hotel that is designed in the traditional hanok style with views over Gahoe-dong and the surrounding mountains. An emphasis on slow living married timeless furniture with music, art, incense and activities such as Ikebana floral workshops and traditional Korean wrapping classes.

While these experiences may not result in immediate sales, they project qualities of connection, storytelling and craft associated with the brand. “Every day, together with my team, we are thinking of new ideas” said Reicherl. “For us, giving is more important than taking. When you give people something in that you inspire them or make them smile, they will feel thankful to the brand and most probably, they will also become your clients.”

Such experiences are especially successful in South Korea, which is now Fritz Hansen most profitable market in Asia apart from Japan where the company has been a reputable brand since the early 1960s. “Fritz Hansen was almost unknown in South Korea in 2014. Today, walk down the streets of Seoul and ask anyone, most will recognise the brand like they do Nike,” said Reicherl.

South Korea is a success story for many competitors. “The South Koreans approach it for the brand rather than product or designer. That is what makes me very excited,” said Reicherl. “We rewrote the rules of how to brand furniture in this classic new market where there were not many important brands just 10 years ago.”

This year, Fritz Hansen turns 150 years old. Celebrations conceived by Reicherl’s team include a rare exhibition in the historic Seoul Station featuring collaborations with local artists and designers. “It’s the biggest exhibition we had ever done. The exhibition reached over 52,000 visitors in South Korea,” said Reicherl. There was also a pop-up exhibition at The Stage in the Isetan Shinjuku store in Tokyo featuring collaborative creations by seven Japanese creators. Shared Reicherl: “The reason was not for sales but to create art from furniture.”

Many of Reicherl’s projects stem from personal passions, such as nature. (The outdoorsy CEO takes his team hiking as bonding activities). On Jeju Island later this year, Fritz Hansen will unveil another original concept – the Fritz Hansen Pavilion. “We want to integrate Fritz Hansen with the surrounding farms and nature. A farm doesn't have to be ugly; it can also be beautiful, bold and design driven,” he remarked.

Fritz Hansen’s ecological philosophy and furniture designed to last a lifetime are totally in line with this celebration of Mother Nature. Likewise, the values of natural wine that avoid the use of additives. On this mid-week evening, we are perched on stools in natural wine bar Wine RVLT where Reicherl gives me a brief education on the drink’s sustainable and health benefits. “Natural wine is another personal love. I love the taste and the stories behind the wines.”

One of the bottles we have is from family-run, Austrian natural winery Gut Oggau. In 2021, Reicherl contacted the founders, resulting in a collaboration that saw four Grand Prix chairs dyed in the brand’s red wine to celebrate both makers’ mutual love of nature, craft and quality. The winery that uses biodynamic practices to care for the soil and vines also produced 120 special bottles of red wine with the Grand Prix drawn on the labels.

Eschewing the typical image of a CEO, Reicherl is sometimes seen behind the DJ deck at Fritz Hansen parties. DJing is another obsession of Reicherl who, as a teen, would play at clubs. He observes that spinning records is not unlike his human-centric job. “Playing music and creating emotion for people is a big part of who I am. It’s not just about the DJ’s skill but also the sensibility; you have to understand how a song may affect people.”