Experts

Experts: Furniture makers need more polish

By THEAN LEE CHENG

MALAYSIAN furniture makers need to polish up their marketing, business strategies and product design in order to gain an edge in the United States market, two visiting American furniture and design experts said.

J Holmes LLC president and chief executive officer Jeff Holmes said Malaysians must also practise good work ethic.

“Taiwan used to be the largest exporter of wooden furniture but they have lost their position. Malaysia is right now in a situation between Taiwan and China,” he said.

Holmes said Malaysia had great raw materials but their work ethic was changing. They must however change for the better, he told Star Business after presenting his paper, How Malaysia can Compete in the US Furniture Market at the seminar and clinic session on The US Furniture Market organised by the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

This is the first time the MTC is bringing in experts to give their views and forecasts and provide a critique to help furniture exporters interested to export to the US. Holmes said Malaysian furniture makers must not rest on their laurels. They must get to know their buyers and what they want now before the Chinese, who have cheaper labour, swallowed them up, he said.

He said China is emerging very strongly in the US furniture market, growing at a compounded rate of 35% for wood furniture exports since 1996, and Malaysia at 2%. Three years from today, India would be the country to watch.

On how Malaysian furniture makers can beat the competition, he suggested that they adopted an export strategy and a focused plan of action. “Find your niche and don’t try to take China head on,” he said.

Holmes said Malaysian furniture makers must learn how to control the distribution of their products and understand that their buyers buy from companies and not countries.

At the national level, countries can help the industry by creating response mechanisms for buyer inquiries, better advertising and marketing and help buyers who are keen to visit Malaysian factories. Brazil uses this technique very successfully,” said Holmes, adding that Malaysian furniture makers must deliver on promise.

Compared with China, Malaysia is faced with a relatively mature furniture industry and must leveraged on that fact instead of being overcome by it.

“Details like carvings are popular in the US market and gives value to the product. You may need to add value by outsourcing that labour intensive part that is needed in carvings. Get the carved parts done outside the country in Indonesia or the Philippines. That would help you to maintain your competitiveness against the Chinese,” Holmes said.

Holmes established the company in 1999 and was president and chief executive officer of Frisco Furniture Company prior to that. He has more than 20 years experience in the US furniture business. Another consultant, Carol Lamkins, said Malaysian furniture makers needed to improve on their marketing communication skills and create and sell a Malaysian brand.

She is a design specialist in interior design, housing, equipment and foods and is also a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers.

“Malaysia has incredible opportunity and she has not exhausted her full potential in the US,” she added.

Lamkins said she had gone for trade fairs and enquired about the furniture products exhibited but the Malaysian parties involved tended to be very meagre in providing information about the country or their products.

“They need to market their image and their products better and at the same time, build a better relationship with the American designers who would in turn familiarise them with the market. They have not reached out to the designers and they really need to do that,” she said.

Lamkins also said that furniture makers needed to be aware of the trends around them. Technology has resulted in the need for new designs, with the computer and sophisticated TV sets being only two of them.

“There is a great need for home office furniture as more people begin to work from home. Such furniture must be flexible. ‘’

The other potential area that Malaysians can go into is outdoor kitchen furniture, be it steel or a combination of steel with something else.

The US is the world’s largest furniture importer with global imports totalling US$23.35bil last year. It is also one of Malaysia’s main markets for wooden furniture, importing more than US$315mil worth of Malaysian furniture.