Dongguan market spreads its wings
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, April 23, 2007
Dongguan, China — Exhibitors showing here at last month's 17th International Famous Furniture Fair drew buyers from around the world seeking furniture designed and scaled for their respective markets.
With 760 exhibitors showing in 2.5 million square feet of space, the March 17–21 event drew 110,000 buyers, 13,000 of which were international buyers. That compares to 12,300 foreign buyers in March 2006.
Most exhibitors showed in temporary space at the Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center in the Houjie section of Dongguan. Others, including Fairmont Designs, Kuka Technics and Fine House Furniture, occupied permanent spaces across the street along the city's aptly named Furniture Road.
The offerings ranged from traditional case goods and upholstery to urban contemporary-style leather. As with other shows in Shenzhen and Guangzhou held the same week, there also was a lot of cottage-style bedroom and dining room, which has become increasingly popular in the domestic Chinese marketplace.
Dongguan City-based Mei Ou Furniture was among those with a highly traditional mix of case goods and other wood products, including occasional tables, nightstands, game tables and dining tables and chairs.
With 80% of its sales coming from exports, some of the company's items were smaller-scaled pieces for customers in Korea and Japan, its two largest markets. Mei Ou also does business with Europe, but doesn't have any significant business in the United States because it has been assigned a high duty on bedroom furniture, said Melody Young, a sales representative.
European and American traditional styles also were popular at Shanghai-based Fine House Furniture, which has a two-story showroom on Furniture Road, the first floor of which featured more American traditional styles of case goods and upholstery. The second floor had more European classic-style furniture on display, featuring fancy-faced veneer and marquetry treatments, and gold leaf elements on carved chair and table legs.
During the show, Fairmont Designs' two-story, 36,000-square-foot showroom featured a mix of mostly traditional American and European-style bedroom and dining room furniture.
The first floor was designed more for the domestic market, with smaller-scaled bedroom and dining room pieces that featured lighter cream or champagne-colored finishes. Bedroom groups also had items unique to the domestic market, such as a four-door closet, a necessary item for Chinese or other Asian consumers with smaller homes and little built-in space for clothing.
Fairmont Designs groups such as the Santa Barbara collection also featured five-drawer dressers with a top that opens to reveal a mirror and hidden storage space for jewelry or makeup.
"This is our strong point," said Susan Ing, vice president of retail operations. "We can improvise to suit the local customer."
The second floor featured larger-scaled products geared toward export customers in the Middle East and Australia.
Another company with a highly traditional mix of case goods was Zhejiang Feilali Furniture. It also showed a mix of smaller-scaled dining room and bedroom geared toward homes in Japan and other Asian markets.
Singapore-based Star Furniture Inds. had a more clean-lined transitional and contemporary mix of bedroom and dining room furniture tailored to buyers in the European market. Made mostly with ash and oak veneers, other products included bar units, glass-top occasional tables, TV consoles and contemporary-style upholstery with heavy wood frames and chrome accents.
Star has shown in Dongguan for the past five years, with many customers coming from Europe and Australia, said Violet Chan, senior international marketing executive.
The company does not typically do much business in the United States, due largely to its high duty on bedroom made in its Dongguan City factory. It has sold some sofas and occasional tables in the United States and gets some inquiries on its dining sets, Chan said.
Contemporary-styled leather and fabric upholstery was another hot category at the show. Some of the major upholstery exhibitors included Hangzhou-based Kuka Technics, Houjie-based Louis Horizon, Shenzhen-based D&M Sofa and Shenzhen-based Kai Nun International.
Louis Horizon's line of contemporary leather sofas and sectionals drew strong reaction from buyers in Europe and the United States, which each represent about 20% of the company's sales. A typical leather sofa, loveseat and chair combination wholesales at $500 FOB Dongguan.
Los Angeles-based occasional chair and upholstery maker Sigla Furniture showed here for the first time. It decided to exhibit largely because it has a factory in nearby Dongguan that produces some 4,000 chairs a month.
The company's mix includes pieces with highly traditional-style frames, but with trendy, colorful fabrics that provide a more transitional, even contemporary flavor. President Ben Bakian said the portion of line shown here, which represented about 20% of Sigla's total mix, drew strong reaction from European, Canadian and even some U.S. buyers attending the show.
Kuka's three-story, 60,000-square-foot permanent showroom displayed half leather/PVC sofas on the first floor, full-leather sofas on the second, and bycast sofas, chairs, ottomans and beds on the third.
Kai Nun International showed a line of mostly contemporary fabric and leather upholstery. It has exhibited here for eight years and likes the show because it draws international buyers, including those from Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
