Brazil Furniture Group opens High Point office
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, April 18, 2004
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT— Brazil Furniture Group, a collaboration of Brazilian bedroom furniture makers Renar and Rotta, has opened an office and parts warehouse here to support its U.S. business.
The move, combined with BFG's dedication to producing its own designs and more sophisticated U.S.-developed finishes, is well timed, said Marcelo Frey, managing director.
"With everything going on regarding China, more people are looking at Brazil as an option," he said. "All the things we've been doing the past couple of years are paying off now."
BFG has sent mixed containers of bedroom furniture to U.S. customers for three years. At the High Point market, the company shows the Renar and Rotta product in Center Point 216.
"We are working to be a company that's really a force in the market, and the two big concerns of Brazilian manufacturers targeting the U.S. are design and finish," said Frey. "We're working to develop our products, not take a design from someone who comes into the factory and gives us a sketch."
Both Renar and Rotta have finishing lines for assembled case pieces. "This is very unusual in Brazil," he said. "There are a lot of lines for finishing flat-pack components, but lines for fully assembled goods are very rare."
Akzo Nobel is developing finishes for BFG in High Point, and an Akzo technician works full-time for the Renar and Rotta plants. "We've been working for two years with Akzo Nobel, but more closely in the past year," Frey said.
Renar and Rotta are both third-generation, family-owned manufacturers of solid-pine furniture. Renar specializes in contemporary master and youth bedroom; Rotta, in traditional bedroom and wall units.
The companies each have a 170,000-square-foot plant in southern Brazil — Renar's in Fraiburgo and Rotta's in Cacador. Both factories control their own wood supply. Between them, the companies manage 10,000 square acres of forest.
BFG targets a core retail price point of $999 for bed, nightstand and dresser/mirror.
Rotta now does 100% of its business in the United States, up from 70% in 2001. The U.S. market now accounts for 70% of Renar's business, compared to 40% in 2001.
BFG's efforts have been noticed at home.
"We received the Brazilian Export Merit Award from the Ministry of Industrial and Trade Development," Frey said. "You have to be among the top 30 companies in volume for furniture export."
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