The ins and outs of China sourcing
Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, September 29, 2003
Amid all the buzz about China, one issue is whether U.S. decorative fabric makers, home textiles resources and furniture manufacturers/suppliers are teaching the Chinese know-how in manufacturing, design, quality control, logistics and marketing skills that sooner or later will be used against them.
Last week was home textiles market week in New York and the beginning of the informal semiannual happening called jobber market. The fabric guys were out in force. At all levels, from major retailers to smaller-sized fabric and home textiles suppliers, the subject of China came up almost universally in conversations, whether people were positive or negative on the issue.
One thing many people agree on is that the move among some high-end fabric producers to create silks and other fabrics in China and at Chinese prices will not be a long-term positive for them.
Another key concern is that of quality and how to maintain it from initial order to reorders over and over again. As one fabric person said, "You order this in red and give them the color, reorder it and it comes in burgundy — and they say it's red."
Then there are the folks who forget to add in all the costs they never had to contend with when dealing with domestic resources.
Among the many elements affecting imports are the cost of design and product development, quality control, shipping, markdowns, credit, warehousing — and on and on.
As one major retailer pointed out last week, there still are many who use their first cost as their last and base their pricing accordingly.
With furniture market coming up, and more and more suppliers involved in global sourcing, it will be interesting to see how pricing shakes out.
