Asian connections
Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, March 19, 2006
High Point — The secret has long been out about the skills of Asian furniture manufacturers.
Today, hundreds of domestic furniture producers and all-import companies have developed sourcing relationships throughout China and other parts of the Far East.
But today's world of sourcing is, in some ways, different than in decades past. Years ago, companies were just learning about the major manufacturing players and developing relationships with those companies. Now that these relationships have had time to develop, many have seen fit to establish even more extensive alliances.
The result is a network of sole-source partnerships, dedicated plants and even joint ventures involving some level of ownership in the factory.
For this report, Furniture/Today interviewed a host of companies that have developed such alliances. In candid interviews, the subjects describe the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario. Key advantages they identify include securing capacity in those plants and having more direct control over the actual production and quality-control process.
Furniture/Today also talked to companies that have chosen not to form such alliances. These companies are instead working with a host of source partners, but leaving the door open to choose new factories if necessary.
This coverage is based solely on information gathered during interviews and not from any type of official public record detailing ownership of Asian factories or U.S. marketing arms.
But based on these conversations, it is clear that some companies see alliances as a trend of the future given the control they gain over quality, consistency in production and delivery. Whether that trend develops on an even larger scale in the future remains to be seen.
This report will run in two parts. The second part, which will appear March 27, will discuss U.S. investments in Asian plants as well as the growing presence of U.S. and Italian leather producers in China.
In addition, part two of this report will look at Asian manufacturers that have developed marketing arms in the United States. These producers say the divisions provide additional insight that helps them better design, market and distribute products to the U.S. market.
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