Ercol

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Ercol is the name of a British furniture manufacturer. The firm dates back to 1920, when it was established in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, as Furniture Industries by Lucian Ercolani (1888–1976).

In 1944, Ercol was contracted by the government Board of Trade to produce 100,000 low-cost Windsor chairs – chairs with a bentwood frame and an arched back supporting delicate spindles. For the order to be a commercial success, Ercol perfected the steam-bending of wood in large quantities. The wood selected was English elm – a wood previously thought impossible to bend because it distorted. Ercol’s innovation meant the chair could be assembled from fourteen pre-formed components, and mechanisation meant that a chair could be made every twenty seconds.

In 1946, Ercol exhibited its bentwood furniture at the Britain Can Make It exhibition, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 1947, the first production-line Windsor chair, and other pieces from the range of Windsor furniture, went on sale. Ercol's mass-produced furniture found a ready market in post-war Britain, which demanded smaller pieces with simpler lines than their chunky pre-war counterparts. Ercol furniture was exhibited at the 1951 Festival of Britain, as it represented the latest style and fashion in furniture design and manufacture.

In 2002 Ercol moved to a new purpose-built facility in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, where it produces furniture made from North American elm and European ash, beech, oak and walnut from naturally regenerative forests. This facility has won a number of awards for its architecture, design and environmental features. The building's heat and hot water is provided from wood waste, whilst the company does not use solvent-based stains and lacquers, instead using the more environmentally friendly water-based versions.

Ercol's ranges of upholstery, dining, cabinet and occasional furniture are on sale through a network of retailers in the UK, Japan and Korea and directly to other territories, whilst a range of ex-display and factory seconds are available from its factory outlet in Princes Risborough. Ercol's Gina recliner was the first piece of domestic furniture to be awarded the Ergonomics Excellence award by FIRA, the UK furniture industry's independent furniture test house.

Ercol has been awarded the Manufacturing Guildmark by the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers in recognition of its commitment to design and to quality of manufacture. Ercol's Napoli range of sofas and easy chairs, introduced in the Autumn of 2007, was voted "Best Fabric Sofa" at the industry's Interiors Birmingham 2008 show. This range was designed for ercol by young British designer Shaun Dare, who used ercol's skill with bending solid timber to create the range's modern bent oak frame.