[Edaily Reporter Kim Se-yeon] Leading domestic furniture company #Hyundai Livart is achieving success in its marine furniture business, in contrast to its sluggish home furniture business due to the real estate market downturn. The company announced that sales from this business have doubled over the past three years. Industry observers attribute this to Hyundai Livart expanding its business scope by moving beyond its previous model of simply selling furniture to providing comprehensive interior design services.

According to Hyundai Livart, the company’s ship furniture business revenue reached 30 billion won last year, setting a record high. This is double the figure from 2022. The company explains that demand is surging because it offers a comprehensive service—from space design to furniture manufacturing, installation, and post-installation maintenance—rather than simply supplying custom-made furniture.
Recently, the company signed a contract with a domestic shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, to supply ship furniture and interior design for crew welfare spaces on container ships. Under this contract, Hyundai Livart will design and supply custom-made ship furniture for the cabins, community lounges, restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms—all part of the crew welfare spaces—on 13 container ships, each measuring 399.98 meters in length and 61 meters in width, equivalent to the size of four soccer fields.
Hyundai Livart has recently been securing contracts to supply interior design and furniture for approximately 60 ships annually. The driving force behind the strong performance of its ship furniture business has been the application of its proven comprehensive interior solution capabilities—honed through hotel construction projects—to the ship furniture sector. When awarded contracts for the entire interior design of a ship, revenue per vessel ranges from 500 million to 700 million won. This is double the revenue generated when supplying only ship furniture (200 million to 300 million won). Since 2024, the proportion of turnkey contracts (providing everything from design to construction and furniture placement in a single package) has exceeded half of total ship furniture sales, driving the expansion of the ship furniture business.
Hyundai Livart’s operation of specialized ship furniture factories near Ulsan and Mokpo—areas with a high concentration of shipyards—has also bolstered its competitiveness. This is because the company can respond quickly to client requests by leveraging its strategic location.
A Hyundai Livart official stated, “Marine furniture requires durability to withstand extreme maritime environments, such as salt, humidity, and vibration. It is a field that requires specialized manufacturing to meet stringent safety regulations and enable features such as chairs that can be attached and detached from the floor,” the official said. “We will continue to expand our business-to-business (B2B) operations by leveraging the strengths and know-how we have accumulated in various sectors, including home furniture, marine furniture, and hotel interiors.”