Furntech has seven centres in South Africa:

• Mpumalanga-White River
• Western Cape-George & Cape Town
• Gauteng-Johannesburg
• Kwazulu Natal-Durban & Umzimkhulu
• Eastern Cape-Mthatha

The Furniture Technology Centre Trust (Furntech) was established in 2000 through a bilateral agreement between the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) (which was replaced from June 2006 by the Seda Technology Programme) and the Swedish Industrial Development Agency (Sida).

Furntech's mission is to be a productivity driven, globally competitive, outcomes-based training provider that offers comprehensive and innovative business incubation services in order to assist in job and wealth creation in South Africa's furniture and wood products sector.

Furntech's objectives are to:

The huge demand for Furntech’s services signalled the need to expand the organisation’s presence and for it to become the national institution of choice for the furniture and wood products industries. The organisation's Board of Trustees responded positively to the increasing demand for the organisation's skills development and business technology incubation services by expanding its presence from one centre in George in the Western Cape to seven centres in four provinces.

The Furntech Business Technology Incubation (BTI) programme is a sustainable model for incubating manufacturing companies in the South African furniture and wood products sector. The value adding and success of Furntech’s BTI model lies in its flexible combination of skills training and business development processes, infrastructure, and people. It is designed to nurture and protect new and existing small businesses by assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of starting up and developing their companies into sustainable businesses.

The process promotes entrepreneurship and encourages the formation and development of viable, registered small and micro businesses. It is particularly successful in assisting emerging enterprises in the second economy to develop into sustainable and employment creating participants in the formal economy.

A key contributor to the success of the Furntech’s BTI model is the emphasis we place on developing the technical and management skills of all the businesses we work with. Furntech's business technology incubation process benefits from its affiliation with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (seda) Technology Programme, and membership of the National Business Incubation Association of America (NBIA), the South African Business Technology Incubation Association (SABTIA), Africa Incubator Network (AIN), Infodev and the United Kingdom Business Association (UKBI) and Shangai Business Incubation Association (SBIA).

The incubation process has its foundations in Furntech's skills development objectives. The training and recognition of prior learning (RPL) policies are based on the Skills Development Act, and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) regulations. The key component of these policies is to add value to the skills development process so that both the employee and employer benefits.

The value adding process is based on the premise that the registered qualifications and unit standards specify minimum standards to be achieved, while Furntech promises to exceed these standards, wherever possible. The Furntech centres are accredited by:

Furntech’s technical skills development programme is being enhanced by partnerships and linkages with tertiary education institutions including the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in George, the University of Stellenbosch in Stellenbosch and the University of British Columbia in Canada. Furntech's relationship with TTC furthermore ensures that the organisation benchmarks its facilitators' skills to meet the needs of its stakeholders while developing the international competitiveness of all manufacturers in the sector.

Furntech's technology demonstration service to the industry is creating awareness of new technologies that challenge current thinking and methodologies. These demonstrations are leading to enhanced understanding, knowledge, and acceptance of new technologies, and to technology transfer and innovation.

The success of the Furntech Model is based on the combination of business technology incubation and skills development as significant drivers of international competitiveness and organisational development. An extensive network of local and international partnerships has been developed by Furntech to assist the incubatees and the industry to develop the skills to use technology and to gain experience and exposure to new opportunities in the national and international markets.

Furntech’s reputation has extended beyond South Africa and the company has been invited to participate in incubation conferences in China, the USA and the UK, and has consulted to the governments of Sweden, Zambia, DRC and India.