Our story

Catas through the years
The story of Catas begins in 1969 in the Friuli Venezia Giulia furniture district, world-wide known for its productions in this specific sector. The Chamber of Commerce of Udine was the founder of the Institute with the aim to help local companies to develop in foreign markets and, at the same time, to comply with the technical standards of this sector. Catas development was supported by the associations (industry and artisans) of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, by the local Technical School and later on also by the University of Udine. 
In the nineties, after two decades of growth and expansion in Italy and abroad, Catas became a limited liability company with the declared mission to encourage and support the technological development of the wood and furniture companies.
In 1991 Catas was accredited by Sinal/ACCREDIA (the Italian Body for the Accreditation of Laboratories). The expansion of Catas continued until arriving in Lombardy (Brianza) with the opening in 1994 of the Lissone branch.
The 2000's started with an important acknowledgment: the authorization by the Italian Home Office to issue official test certificates in the field of fire reaction.
The desire to grow leaded Catas to acquire in 2009 the chemical laboratory of the Chamber of Commerce of Udine, launching and offering new services to the market. The following year Catas was recognized by CARB (the California Air Resources Board) for the certification of formaldehyde emission from wood-based panels, while in 2014 Catas was also accredited by ACCREDIA for that certification scheme.
Today more than 1,300 companies are CATAS Members, having a continuous collaboration with our institute.
Catas is a limited company whose shareholding is distributed as follows: