The world changes every minute, but design, good design, remains the same. This equation involves not only designers and producers, but distributors also, that thin yet vital thread which connects each piece of furniture with its potential new owner. Right from the start, Treku has always been rmly committed to its distributors, to their role as ambassadors for the brand and to their ability to contribute added value.

In addition to their professionalism (which stems from their passion and experience), their ability to select the best pieces from the huge range of furniture items available in the world and their expertise in assembling them, retailers also o er customers their rst contact with the product. In other words, they enable customers to touch, feel and visualise in three dimensions the shapes and volumes of a piece of furniture that has been designed to occupy and enhance a particular space. Like good wine, good movies and almost everything else that makes us feel happy, good design is capable of rendering cultural barriers almost imperceptible. Proof of this is Treku’s international presence and the bonds of brotherhood that link one customer in San Francisco with another one in the Basque Country, simply as the result of them both having chosen a particular piece from the same collection to adorn their home.

Francis Gainzarain, owner and director of the Bilbao store Marina Diseño, is well aware of the ongoing process of change in which we are all immersed. Not only has he witnessed the startling evolution of his own city (his store
is located just a ve-minute walk away from the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum), he has also experienced the drastic change that has occurred in the designer furniture industry. He believes that the most notable change that has occurred since he opened his business in 1979 is related to customers: ‘today they are much more demanding, and in general, much better informed.’ This means that the role of the distributor has also had to evolve, and today retailers must work harder, have better instincts and be more honest when selecting what to stock from the immense, globalised offer available.

But the ultimate aim remains the same: to o er a (nearly) perfect range of furniture to customers. Kiyomi Higuchi is storage buyer at Design Within Reach, a North American designer furniture company with over thirty stores across most of the country’s main cities. For the past fteen years, DWR has been Treku’s distributor in the US, a key part of our e ort to convey the philosophy underlying the Zarautz brand to a country that is, on the surface of it at least, so different from any European nation.

Nevertheless, there is an exciting niche in the American market for high-quality furniture, partly thanks to Design Within Reach’s efforts in disseminating the advantages of good design. Kiyomi does not see the Atlantic Ocean as a cultural barrier: the ‘refined simplicity’ of the Treku look is more than capable of resonating with avid collectors of quality furniture, regardless of its country of origin.

Iñigo Etxebeste, sales director at Treku, is more than familiar with this idea. ‘The differences in taste which exist today between France and South Korea are smaller than those which existed twenty years ago between the Spanish cities of Galicia and Valencia.’ And indeed, it is no coincidence that
the brand sells in over fty countries, all over the world, and has caught the attention of not just the general public, but of experienced distributors also. The world has changed, it has become smaller and more globalised, but at the same time, the barriers which once separated di erent tastes in the eld of designer furniture have become increasingly more tenuous.