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China's Da Vinci Furniture closes four Shanghai stores in ‘consolidation'

Retailer had been accused of selling Chinese goods as Italian-made

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, December 5, 2011

SHANGHAI, China — Online news resource Eastday.com has reported that China-based DaVinci Furniture Co. has closed four area outlets as part of a "temporary internal consolidation."

The report said that DaVinci will provide after-sale service relating to recent purchases, but will not sell any other goods for now. Officials did not say when the stores would reopen, the report said.

The news follows a controversy this past summer in which the company was selling furniture that consumers were led to believe was made in Italy, but was actually found to be made in China.

At the time, Eastday.com reported that Chinese government officials found that the furniture DaVinci was selling was made in China and shipped to a bonded zone before being stored in a Shanghai warehouse. Shipping the goods to a bonded zone lets them be classified as imported versus domestically produced.

Consumers also took the company to task for selling furniture made with particleboard that they thought was solid wood.

Consumers have requested refunds totally 1.5 million yuan, or $233,000 from DaVinci. However, the case has yet to reach the courts, Eastday.com reported.

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