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Asia show organizers expect to see U.S. buyers

Philippines fair runs this week, with Malaysia, Singapore soon after

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, February 27, 2007

SINGAPORE — Officials with three major shows in the Pacific Rim say they don’t expect the new High Point dates in March to hurt their U.S. attendance.

Based on preregistration numbers, they expect U.S. attendance to increase or match that of previous shows.

Because of a change in High Point’s dates this year’s shows in Cebu, The Philippines; Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, start within a month before the spring High Point Market, which runs from March 26 to April 1.

The Cebu show runs from Feb. 26 to March 1 — overlapping High Point’s premarket. CebuX officials didn’t provide registration figures from the United States or other countries, but said U.S. preregistrations were up 87% from last year.

Event organizers also said they saw more registrations from Spain, India and Australia.

Singapore officials said registrations from the U.S. are up 5% from last year for the International Furniture Fair Singapore, which runs March 1-5. They said exhibitors and others involved with the show haven’t indicated that the new High Point Market dates would hurt attendance.

“So far, the indications are that it would not have any adverse impact,” said Quek Chin Tuan, CEO of event organizer International Furniture Fair Singapore Pte Ltd. “Thus, I believe there is enough of a break between the IFFS/ASF (Asean Furniture Show) for American buyers to visit both shows.”

Last year, IFFS drew 17,838 visitors, including 1,070 from North America.

Officials from the Malaysian International Furniture Fair in Kuala Lumpur, which runs March 6-10, said registrations from the U.S. were about on pace with last year.

“Basically the change of dates of the High Point spring market will not affect us significantly,” said Dato’ Tan Chin Huat, managing director of show organizer MIFF Sdn. Bhd. “Our exhibitors are export oriented, they are targeting more countries…High Point has two markets a year and U.S. buyers who wish to source for new products from Asia will keep coming to our show.

“Furthermore, the new dates for the spring market fall at the end of March, so it is still possible for U.S. buyers to travel to Asia before attending the market. I think that this will, in fact, affect those who wish to visit the Chinese shows, which fall on the second half of March,” he said.

Based on preregistrations, he expects an increase of 2% to 3% in overall attendance. Last year, the show drew 18,186, including about 470 from North America.

But one major U.S. retailer said he is skipping the shows in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur this year. Jake Jabs, president and CEO of Englewood, Colo.-based American Furniture Warehouse, has gone to the Asean shows for years. But this year, he said he plans to instead attend three China shows in Dongguan, Shenzhen and Guangzhou in mid-March.

Those shows are closer to the High Point Market, but that doesn’t worry Jabs. He and a team of buyers will spend about a day at each China show and visit some factories during a six-day trip.

“We’re not going to the Malaysia show or the Singapore show any more,” he said. “We just found there were not enough new goods. More and more, those shows are moving to China.”

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