British furniture has been incorporated into the GREAT campaign, giving manufacturers and retailers in the industry the chance to promote themselves on the world stage.
The British Furniture Confederation has managed to get the furniture, furnishings and interior design sectors linked with the broader GREAT campaign, which originally aimed to promote the UK in general during the period surrounding the London 2012 Olympics.
Since then the campaign has continued and evolved, and now several different industries use it as a platform for their international promotional efforts - now including the furniture sector specifically for the first time.
Colin Watson, director of the BFC and managing director of the British Contract Furnishing Association, said: "Our industry is worth over £10 billion to the UK economy and the GREAT brand provides a memorable, coherent and impactful platform to enhance the way we promote British products and interior design abroad.
"It gets the world thinking and feeling differently about Britain, seeing it as a vibrant, inspiring and innovative place, world renowned for innovative design and cutting-edge and high quality manufacturing."
Each year, more than 500 events are held overseas as part of the GREAT campaign, meaning UK furniture manufacturers can now attend these or send representatives to raise brand awareness, improve brand perception positivity, and secure new sales and orders.
This will not only help to increase profits for those firms; it should also allow reinvestment into the industry, for the benefit of customers both abroad and domestically, as well as raise employment levels throughout the British furniture workforce.
Paul von der Heyde, chairman of the BFC, added: "Our industry employs over 120,000 people and has a worldwide reputation for design and manufacturing. It also has considerable potential to make significant progress in building exports, which already account for over £1 billion."
In addition to several government departments, GREAT has the support of celebrities from the Beckhams to Vivienne Westwood, making it an ideal campaign for brands in the interior design and furniture space to become involved with, in order to be associated with these icons of style, and also as a means of reaching out to new customers in new international markets.