Guadalajara goes contemporary
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, February 27, 2005
Guadalajara, Mexico — Expo Mueble, Latin America's largest trade show for furniture, took another decided turn toward modern styles at its latest edition this month.
Until a year ago, contemporary had little presence at an event dominated by classic traditional and rustic. Then at the winter 2004 show, several major case goods exhibitors such as Dixy took their introductions in contemporary directions.
This year, even manufacturers of traditional goods for the U.S. market, such as Delsa, leaned in a more transitional or contemporary direction with many intros. Expo Mueble abounded with new contemporary product from smaller exhibitors as well, some fairly high-end, which just a couple of years ago were all rustic-leaning traditional.
The contemporary trend in case goods reflected U.S. manufacturers' efforts a few years ago to cater to an emerging consumer market favoring clean lifestyle looks.
"A significant part of our market is going for these newer styles," said Rigoberto Chavez, president of Muebles Rich, formerly an all-traditional case line. "The large cities — places like (Mexico City), Monterrey and Guadalajara — have changed very quickly toward contemporary.
"But the smaller, medium-size markets keep on with the traditional preferences," he said. "We see a new opportunity in the domestic market, but we can continue with both concepts."
Changing tastes reflect a changing attitude across the country in recent years.
"When you have a country that has gone through the political changes we have since the election of President Fox, a lot of things in all areas of life tend to change," Chavez said. "The new generation is entering an era very different from the one we grew up in. Modernization is very popular with them."
Several former specialists in rustico styles even took that venerable look in contemporary directions, combining straight, clean lines with rustico's traditional solid pine and iron hardware.
Rusticos Chipilo, a 12-year-old export-oriented company, began developing more contemporary styles last year. While updated, the furniture still has recognizable rustic features with solid Brazilian pine, painted hardware and bases that replicate the look of iron. Sample retail prices include a massive buffet in solid pine at $269 and a beefy armoire at $339.
The company hopes the new styles and sharp pricing will rebuild U.S. sales, which were off 15% to 20% the past two years because of Chinese competition.
"We're counting on these new styles to help," said Rafael Rodriguez, controller. "Cleaner lines make for more efficient manufacturing and more competitive pricing. Plus, we ship within two weeks of an order."
China always looms in the background here. Last year, manufacturers experienced a flood of renewed interest in Mexico because of the U.S. antidumping investigation of Chinese-made wood bedroom furniture.
While the relatively low duties on most wood bedroom furniture from China dried up some of that interest, savvy manufacturers here took advantage of the spike in activity to promote their long-term worth as a source.
Those producers are capitalizing on problems with Asian sourcing that go beyond price. The distances from Asia stretch out the time it takes to ship product, reorder parts and correct problems with product, said Blas Garza, CEO of case goods plant Galleria.
"If you're flowing containers from Asia and product shows up in the warehouse with problems, that problem affects three inventories," he said. "You have product in the warehouse, product on the water, and product in process at the plant."
Garza said those issues, as well the fairly low minimum orders that Galleria requires, were reasons the company recently landed the business of a big American retailer, which he declined to identify.
"They can order two containers, we process it quickly, and it's eight hours to the border," he said. "It's still hard to keep up with all the changes. If you'd mentioned resins to me eight years ago, I wouldn't have considered it, but now that the Chinese are heavy into resins, it's another way to compete."
The tide of Americans seeking new Mexican sourcing has ebbed, but it hasn't gone away, said Mario Amayo, national sales director for Delsa, long a case goods supplier for U.S. companies such as Kemp Enterprises.
"For us the interest is still coming back up," he said. "We're now concentrating on bedroom, our strength. We showed no dining or imported product at this show."
Amayo said his U.S. customers want to spread their sourcing risk.
"The same thing that happened with China could happen with Vietnam," he said. "The worst thing that would happen here is our exchange rate goes higher, and U.S. companies win when that happens. We're also giving 30-day delivery."
The interest in Mexican sourcing is not spread equally, however, according to Amayo. He said the largest factories are attracting the most activity.
"There are only four or five plants in Mexico that can approach the type of volume you see out of plants in China," he said, adding that Delsa now has a dedicated facility to produce for Kemp. "Not everyone can handle the business."
Toro Furniture is another growth story. An Ocotlan-based manufacturer of case goods and occasional, the company within the past two years has more than doubled its plant space to almost 500,000 square feet and opened a new warehouse.
"We've added new customers, and we're doing a lot more business with existing ones," said José Luís del Toro, president of Toro, which does direct sales to retailers such as American Furniture Warehouse in Thornton, Colo. "We've needed the capacity not only for our original rustic lines, but also for our more contemporary and straight traditional looks."
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Guadalajara goes contemporary
Mar 1, 2005
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