Actiu Brings 60 Years of European Design DNA to North American Market

NeoCon has always been the industry’s great coming-out party, the place where countless brands have announced themselves, staked their claim and told the market a story about who they are. In a few weeks in Chicago, a Spanish furniture manufacturer with six decades of history, a technology park that was LEED and WELL Platinum before most of the industry knew those certifications existed and a design philosophy built around emotional intelligence would like to say “hola” to you at NeoCon. 

Actiu is arriving in North America. And they’re putting down deep roots. 

“NeoCon is not the beginning of the idea,” said Vince Berbegal, Actiu’s international expansion manager and director of North America, Australia and New Zealand. “It’s the public expression of a much broader strategic commitment. It’s like, ‘Oh, hello, USA; hola, USA.’“ 

The company has already invested $1 million into its U.S. platform and infrastructure over the past year, building out a team, establishing sales rep relationships and searching for the right physical presence. For NeoCon, Actiu will occupy a space on the 11th floor (11-107) THE MART, near Okamura and Narbutas. A permanent showroom in Fulton Market was considered, but nothing quite fit. 

The Actiu story starts in a workshop in Alicante, Spain, with a 17-year-old kid who had a habit of looking at problems differently than everyone else around him. 

Vince’s father, Vincente Berbegal, the company’s founder, began as an apprentice building joinery. But he saw something coming that others didn’t. “In the ‘70s, instead of doing joinery, he said, ‘Why don’t we do something to address a need?’” said Berbegal. “All of these TVs were coming, all these personal computers were coming and there was not furniture in Spanish homes for that.” 

The solution was a flat-pack furniture system with casters, cable trays and integrated storage for those enormous early printers. The furniture was functional, colorful and ahead of its time. The workshop took off. The founder bought out his partners, created what would eventually become Actiu, and kept leaning into the same instinct of identifying a need, designing something smart to solve it and building it to last. 

What followed was decades of expansion into workplace systems, task seating, breakout settings and conferencing supported by an ecosystem of local manufacturing partners drawn largely from the toy industry in Alicante’s industrial valley. “A toy is something small but has all these different materials,” said Berbegal. “Very small, complex things that require a lot of workshops and a lot of molding injection.” 

When that industry contracted, Actiu absorbed the expertise. 

The sustainability story is equally remarkable. In the 1990s, the founder unrolled a floor plan one day — Vince was about ten or eleven at the time — and announced plans to consolidate all operations under one roof, generate their own energy, and build what he described as a kind of self-sustaining technology park. “He was really ahead of time,” said Berbegal. 

That facility ultimately became the first industrial complex in the world to achieve both LEED Platinum and WELL Platinum certification. The certifications came later. The commitment came first. “We did not know about any of these certifications,” Berbegal explained. “(My father) was doing a workshop over in Madrid, and some guy from CBRE came around and said, ‘You guys, this is real, what you’re presenting?’ He said, ‘Yeah, of course it is, mate. Come check it out.’” 

Actiu’s North American footprint isn’t entirely new. For roughly 20 years, the brand maintained a presence in Miami through a long-term dealer relationship focused primarily on public seating, which included airport terminal seating for the new Miami terminal and marine passenger facilities for companies like MSC, Norwegian and Disney. When that dealer partner retired last year, Actiu faced a choice. 

The decision to go broader and deeper into North America reflects a genuine belief that the market is moving toward values Actiu has been building around for years. “The market is moving toward well-being, flexibility and human-centered workspace,” said Berbegal. 

The brand’s guiding philosophy is called “life-friendly spaces.” It is a framework that shapes everything from product development to sales. “Whether you’re working from home, from an airport, from a hotel, from an office,” Berbegal said, “when you walk out of that space filled with Actiu products, you feel better than when you walk in. That’s emotionally intelligent design.” 

On pricing, Berbegal is straightforward. Actiu positions itself in the mid-to-mid-high range — a deliberate choice to make quality design accessible without chasing the ultra-premium segment. He explained it with an automotive analogy: “It’s kind of a Volkswagen — a good Volkswagen, which is a medium to premium car with good performance. Volkswagen, Audi, that is the equivalent.” On price, Actiu would sit below MillerKnoll, Davis and select Steelcase ranges, roughly in line with Teknion in certain categories, and above value-tier brands like Allsteel and HON. 

The initial North American product offering will represent roughly 20% of Actiu’s full catalog, which is a deliberate choice to make the brand easy to understand and specify for new dealers and reps. The focus will be on ancillary products, breakout, soft seating, conferencing and executive. They are categories that tell the brand’s story clearly and move without requiring a steep learning curve. Workstations and full building products will follow as the brand establishes itself. 

Manufacturing will remain in Spain for now, with some flexibility on tops and surfaces to allow for local sourcing through dealer and rep partners. Longer-term, as volumes justify it, North American manufacturing is on the table.

For Berbegal, the timing feels right in a way that goes beyond market opportunity. The industry is finally having the conversations Actiu has been having internally for decades about authenticity, sustainability and designing spaces that serve the people who use them.