Thai mart boasts 100 showrooms
By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, February 25, 2002
BANGKOK, Thailand — The Thailand Furniture Mart has opened here, providing the country's furniture manufacturers with permanent showrooms in the heart of Bangkok's business district.
Nearly 100 permanent showrooms occupy 70,000 square feet in a complex that also offers conference rooms, a business center and support services.
The TFM is the first permanent exhibition center for furniture in the country, said Nualjira Napawan, an official with the Thai Trade Center in Miami, and it puts under one roof the major Thai furniture and accessory manufacturers for importers, wholesale buyers, distributors and independent sales representatives.
Built with help from the Department of Export Promotion, in Thailand's Ministry of Commerce, the Mart is "the country's showcase of Thai furniture products," Napawan said.
The international Bangkok Furniture Show will be held March 4-8 in the TFM.
Exhibitors include Acme Inds., a case goods producer and one of the country's largest furniture makers. Other tenants are Diamond Sofa (leather upholstery), Bangkok Interfurn (dining and occasional), Deesawat Inds. (outdoor), Universal Parawood (dining), and Thai Parawood (rubberwood specialists).
The TFM is expected to help boost Thai exports, which lagged last year. The country's major markets are the United States and Japan. Pisith Patamasatayasonthi, chief executive of Bangkok Interfurn Group, said Japan has been in recession for years and has yet to show signs of recovery.
Thailand's major competitors in furniture are China and Malaysia, and companies in those countries have been cutting prices, forcing Thai producers into a price war, Pisith said.
