HIGH POINT – Industry veteran Shawn Cantrell has joined Lifestyle Enterprise as president of the company’s upholstery division. He comes to Lifestyle from HHC/Moto Group USA, where he served as president and CEO.
Before that he was president of Prime Resources International and before that was vice president of sales for Davis International. He previously was senior vice president of sales and marketing at A-America and also has worked in merchandising at Rooms To Go.
“Shawn brings with him a wealth of knowledge, experience and vision to our team,” said James Riddle, chairman of Lifestyle Group. “We are truly excited about what the future holds for Lifestyle with Shawn’s contribution to our leadership.”
In his new position, Cantrell reports to Gabriele Natale, managing director.
“Lifestyle has a strong foundation and offers a great advantage to the industry with their sourcing capabilities,” Cantrell said.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce has made a preliminary determination that two producers of uncovered innerspring units are part of a China-wide entity that is subject to a 234.51% duty on shipments of their products to the U.S. market in 2018 and early 2019.
The companies are Jietai Machinery Ltd. (HK) and Green Asia Parts LTD (Green Asia). On Feb. 28, domestic producer Leggett & Platt requested an administrative review of these companies to determine their duty rate for shipments made from Feb. 1, 2018, through Jan. 31, 2019.
The DOC initiated a review for both companies on May 2. As part of the process, the DOC determined that neither company had entries during the period of review and that no interested parties filed comments based on this data. The duties are applied to manufacturers but paid by importers of record of the subject merchandise, which includes uncovered innerspring units used in the production of youth and adult mattresses.
The DOC has determined that these companies have not demonstrated their eligibility for a separate rate states that would allow them a lower duty rate.
Interested parties are allowed to comment on the preliminary results within 30 days after the Oct. 2 publication of the preliminary results. The DOC plans to issue final results of the review within 120 days or four months of the publication of the preliminary results.
A movement is underway among manufacturers around the world to explore ways to vastly improve their environmental footprint – and consumers are paying attention.
In the world of leather processing, JBS Couros has approached this watershed moment with the development of Kind Leather, a revolutionary new concept that minimizes waste and provides greater control over the products needed to treat the raw material.
Before the Kind Leather concept was born, we processed the entire hide, which resulted in unnecessary waste; today, we identify the very best parts to produce an exceptionally soft and beautiful leather, and send the remainder – rich in collagen – to other industries such as pharmaceuticals, health and beauty.
This change comes at a crossroads in the way people consider products for purchase. There’s no question that consumers are asking more questions about the entire production cycle of the products they buy. And when it comes to leather furniture, JBS Couros has the answers they are looking for. Kind Leather processing produces a quality product that is more sustainable, which is an increasingly important requirement across major consumer industries and for society as a whole.
IMPRESSIVE RESULTS
Kind Leather’s production make it one of the most sustainable- and impressive – projects in the industry. For example, wet-blue shipping CO2 emissions are reduced up to 65 percent, 46 percent less water is used and 42 percent fewer chemical products in its tanning processes. Additionally, nearly 30 percent fewer chemical products are used during the finishing stage. And the entire process reduces trimming waste by 51 percent, and energy consumption by 20 percent compared with traditional methods.
The unique production concept developed for Kind Leather yields in relevant reductions in production inputs.
We have already seen a positive reaction from some of our major customers. As a result, we plan to produce 30 percent of our leather using Kind Leather processes by the end of this year. After that, the concept will be implemented across the entire spectrum of JBS Couros products and platforms.
Today, six months after it was officially launched in Hong Kong, we can say that Kind Leather is the future.
SUSTAINABILITY – A CORE OBJECTIVE
For many years JBS Couros has been working to perfect its sustainability practices and has become a leader in combating deforestation, animal welfare and traceability. Today, sustainability is at the core of the company, guiding all of our activities.
A pioneering monitoring program using satellite images ensures that all leathers processed by the company are originated in farms with no involvement in deforestation or other rural conflicts.
Kind Leather is presented under a unique shape, which contributes to the sustainability objectives. It also marks a new way of representing this unpaired and millenary raw material.
The sustainability of the Kind Leather process is underlined by its thorough end-to-end traceability program, which gathers data throughout the leather production chain, from the farm to the end product.
Beyond the environmental advantages, there are also economic and social benefits of sustainable leather. Higher productivity in finishing plants and in cutting rooms, and higher cutting yields, results in economic gains. With better ergonomics and reduced efforts throughout, there are social benefits as well.
STORY WITH SUBSTANCE
Furniture dealers now have an unprecedented sustainability story to share with their customers. And it’s a message consumers in the 21st Century want to hear. We are also creating informational point-of-sale tools so that our dealers can provide an additional resource for their customers in identifying Kind Leather, and learning about the many benefits.
We have spent two years testing and researching the Kind Leather concept, and are proud to introduce it to our valued partners in the furniture industry; together, we can spread the important message of sustainable leather processing among today’s educated and socially-conscious consumers.
Please join us in ushering in Kind Leather – an operational evolution perfectly suited for you, your companies, your customers and future generations.
Visit our permanent showroom at High Point Market and learn how Kind Leather is Truly Sustainable Leather. October 19-23 JBS Couros 312-314 South Hamilton Street Suite 203, 2nd floor sponHigh Point, NC 27261
FREMONT, Calif. – E&E Co. Ltd., also known as JLA Home, has recalled about 1,800 three-drawer dressers that officials say pose serious tip-over and entrapment hazards if not anchored to the wall.
While no injuries or incidents have been reported, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said these units do not comply with the performance requirements of the U.S. voluntary industry standard, ASTM 2057-17.
The recall involves the three-drawer INK +IVY Renu dressers, which are made with multi-colored pine wood and sit on metal legs. Each unit is 36 inches tall and weighs 73 pounds. The Ink + Ivy brand name can be found on a hanging tag attached to one of the dresser drawers. Stickers on the back of each unit also read “E&E CO. LTD” and also show the date when it was made, PO numbers and the words “Made in Vietnam.”
The CPSC has advised consumers to immediately stop using the units unless they are properly anchored to the wall and put them in an area that children cannot access. The agency has also advised consumers to contact E&E for a full refund with a free dresser pick up or a free tip-over restraint kit and a one-time free in-home installation of the kit. Consumers also can request a pre-paid packaging label to ship the recalled dresser back to E&E for a full refund, or a $400 Designerliving.com store credit.
For more information, consumers can contact the company toll-free at 844-701-5979 from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Or they can go online at http://www.ee1004.com/ and click on the recall tab.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — One of the major growth areas and opportunities for furniture manufacturers here is in upholstery. One of the most important categories for the U.S. market, it’s a segment of the industry that is relatively new to Vietnam.
It’s also one of the largest categories still produced in China and one that is quickly shifting to Vietnam due to 25% tariffs on almost every type of residential furniture, seating included.
According to import data, upholstered seats and chairs were among the top five exports from China in 2018, representing a combined $4.12 billion, or about 30% of the $13.5 billion in China furniture shipments to the U.S. that year.
Vietnam saw a 28% increase in upholstered chair shipments to the U.S. that year, but it was still a paltry $522.6 million. Upholstered seating still wasn’t even in the top five categories, meaning it, too, had a lot of room to grow in Vietnam, particularly in light of the shift that’s still occurring.
Furniture Today witnessed some of this shift during its tour of Vietnam factories in August. It was clear from the visit that factories are willing to take on more business as they expand their capacity in the upholstery segment, both stationary and motion.
But while there’s plenty of opportunity, there also are some major challenges including training workers as well as retaining workers in a tight labor market.
For complete interviews and factory tours for each company, please visit our Vietnam video gallery.
Probably the biggest examples of a major work-in-progress is motion furniture manufacturer ManWah Holdings’ 2.5 million-square-foot expansion of the existing 1.5 million-square-foot Timberland motion furniture plant it acquired last summer.
With the expansion, which broke ground last November and was completed around Aug. 1, a facility that before only shipped 170 containers per month was shipping 1,100 containers a month of finished goods by mid-August. This is expected to rise to 2,000 per month by the end of this year and 3,000 per month by early next year.
“ManWah needed capacity for the export market,” said Kevin Castellani, director of corporate communications, of the facility, which employed 3,000 in August, a figure expected to grow to 8,000 by next summer. “It has 20 million square feet in China, but we needed more capacity.”
Company Chairman Wong Man Li took ownership of the plant around the first of July 2018. The expansion broke ground in November, representing a $400 million investment in land, building and equipment, including new corporate offices, a new showroom, dorms and a new canteen for the workers.
“It was the right time and the right place, and Mr. Wong had the capital means to make a commitment to more than double the size of the facility,” Castellani noted. “And he invested a tremendous amount of money to get it done quickly.”
The expanded production area alone encompasses a massive seven buildings that are each five to seven stories high. There were 60 motion upholstery lines in place in August, and about 80 are expected to be in place by year end, Castellani said.
The campus not only produces finished goods, but also is a highly vertical operation in that it produces its own foam, motors, mechanisms and other components, including zippers. It also does its own product testing and has a raw materials warehouse that holds some $10 million alone in leather hides.
The plan is to have Vietnam produce good and better portions of the line. The upper part of ManWah’s motion line will continue to be made in China.
While ManWah’s expansion may be the largest, it is just one of many taking place now in the upholstery segment. Some factories have been ramping up for more than a year, partly in anticipation of the tariffs, but also to remain competitive in the stationary and motion upholstery segment overall.
China-based UE Chairs, which produces both office chairs and motion upholstery, began production in Vietnam earlier this year. It recently announced it is undertaking a $35 million addition to its existing plant, which will expand both sofa and office chair production.
For example, in the motion category, the expansion will double UE Chairs’ capacity from 250 to 500 containers a month of motion upholstery by the end of 2020.
Not just tariffs
Not all the shift is due to China tariffs. In fact the shift to Vietnam and other countries has occurred for several years. China not only has become more expensive due to rising labor costs. It also has faced tightening environmental regulations that have forced furniture producers to make the decision to move to other areas, including outside the country.
Some, such as Kaiser Furniture, ramped up their Vietnam production before tariffs, seeing the category as a growth area for its business.
Kaiser, which produces middle- to upper-middle-priced furniture, began operating its new 2.2 million- square foot plant — K2 — in 2018. This $100 million facility is in addition to the company’s estimated 3 million-square-foot wood, metal and upholstery plant — K1— also located in the Binh Duong Province.
The new plant also produces metal products, upholstery and wood furniture and plans to enter the motion business in 2020. Officials estimate it will produce about $120 million in wood, metal and upholstery per year.
While K1 already produced upholstery, officials said the company needed additional capacity for upholstery and metal furniture. K2 ultimately will have three upholstery production lines, including a second one that just opened in mid-September that will produce the motion line by 2020.The other produces stationary upholstery, and the third will handle both, said Charles Lo, CEO.
K2 also has one wood pallet finishing line and one hanging wood finishing line as well as a metal vacuum plating line, a metal powder coat line and a liquid plating line. Such vertical capabilities help produce both wood and mixed media elements that can be used throughout the line.
Shing Mark currently leases one of its facilities to Kuka for its motion line. But it also is building a new 1.2 million-square-foot upholstery plant that will be part of its 9 million-square-foot, 36-building campus in the Dong Nai Province.
An investment of some $20 million in building and new equipment, the operation will produce fabric and leather stationary upholstery in mid- to upper-middle price points, noted Victor Chao, chairman and founder. He expects by the end of this year it will be able to produce some 600 containers per month of finished product, which is in addition to the 1,200 container-per-month capacity for case goods and metal furniture on the existing campus. The upholstery plant also will be vertical in nature, producing its own foam, for example.
Motion seating is being produced at the Wanek Furniture plant in Binh Duong Province.
Wanek Furniture Co. also is expanding its upholstery production at its Millennium plant in the Dong Nai Province.
Currently producing mattresses and cut-and-sew kits, it has about 570,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space, said Andrew Lien, general director of Vietnam operations.
This ultimately will expand to more than 1.3 million square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space by 2023, Lien noted, with additional capacity for both motion and stationary upholstery and case goods production. The total anticipated investment is expected around $130 million.
Over time, this will grow capacity to 3,000 containers per month, up from 180 containers per month, and boost employment from a current 1,800 workers to nearly 8,000.
“These facilities will allow us to continue to grow our manufacturing operations and fulfill the need of our expanding customer base,” Lien said. “We are shipping to more than 150 countries now as we continue to grow in Australia, New Zealand, China and other parts of Asia out of Vietnam.”
While not all expansions are directly tied to tariffs, others say they are indeed as customers are looking to resource.
High-end case goods and upholstery manufacturer Rochdale Spears, for example, is investing about $8 million in a new 350,000-square-foot upholstery plant nearby its existing manufacturing in the Binh Duong Province. The facility, set to open early next year with an unnamed customer taking up much of the capacity, will be able to make nearly $30 million to $40 million a year in middle to upper-end stationary upholstery, said Geoff Hawkes, CEO and co-founder.
This is up from the $8 million the company is already shipping in the category with products such as sofas, armchairs and sectionals for its Sonder Living line. Once these existing production lines move to the new plant, it will free up space in the company’s existing 1.7 million square feet of production facilities for additional case goods production, Hawkes noted.
Skilled worker challenge
Like others, Hawkes said that it could be a challenge finding skilled workers. But he said the company is ready to meet the challenge.
“Yes, it is difficult,” he said. “There are not a lot of upholstery workers, but we are putting in place (worker) training. We also are well-known in the marketplace and have been rewarded for that.”
Despite such optimism, developing upholstery in Vietnam could produce some headaches at least over the short term as workers new to the segment have to learn how to build to U.S. comfort and standards, particularly at the upper-middle end of the spectrum.
“The biggest challenge is upholstery: Vietnam is really not ready for good upholstery yet,” noted Angela Zhao, deputy general manager for Markor International Home Furnishings, which acquired an ownership stake in case goods and upholstery manufacturer Starwood Furniture Manufacturing in early 2018 and a stake in high-end case goods and accessories manufacturer Jonathan Charles around the same time. “Vietnam is making upholstery, but it is lower end.”
Markor has sourced in Vietnam for many years. Yet anticipating a greater presence in Vietnam, Markor set up a team there in the latter part of 2017 to begin a transition to better goods, both case goods and upholstery, but largely upholstery.
“We are sending more people here,” she said of Markor product development, production and engineering and even purchasing staff on the ground in Vietnam. “It seems that a lot of things in upholstery are not ready yet,” she added, referencing the need for higher grade fabrics and leathers for its middle to medium-high-end line.
As of August, it had sent about 50 Markor team members to help out particularly both the A.R.T. line as well as Jonathan Charles. Part of this is to educate Vietnamese staff on the ground about Markor systems and get set up for larger production runs. But it is also helping train workers to Markor’s quality standards, including finishing on the wood side.
In addition, the company has sent some Vietnamese workers and engineers from both Starwood and Jonathan Charles to its Tianjin, China, facilities to learn about Markor’s production there firsthand.
“It is not simply about investing money,” Zhao said. “That’s not going to work. The key is people. You have to have the cultures work together.”
These are factories Furniture Today visited during its August 2019 trip to Vietnam. The figures, including employment and capacity cited are based on estimates from each factory. Unless otherwise noted, these figures were based on the state of employment and capacity at the time of each visit.
INNI HOME Date founded: 2001, China. Moved to Vietnam at end of 2012
Headquarters: Hong Kong
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: Gary Tang, owner
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 270,000 square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 580
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 580
Capacity of factory: 50-60 containers per month
Available capacity: Operating at full capacity
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Casual dining, accent and occasional furniture
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 18
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 97% to U.S., the balance to Canada
KAISER GROUP CO. Date founded: 1997, Shenzhen, China. Has been in Vietnam since 2003
Headquarters: Binh Duoung Province, Vietnam
Web site address: www.kaiser-furniture.com
Name of top officer: Charles Lo, president, CEO and founder
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 5 million square feet (Kaiser plants 1 and 2)
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 6,500
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 6,900
Capacity of factory: $25 million per month, FOB HCMC
Available capacity: Plants including new upholstery plant are producing close to 60% of full capacity. Officials estimate it will take three years to reach full capacity in recently opened upholstery plant.
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: bedroom, dining room, occasional, stationary upholstery, hospitality furniture
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 22
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 100%
LODE STAR CO., LTD. Date founded: 1998
Headquarters: Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: NA
Number of Vietnam production facilities: Company has three plants including a new case goods factory
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 1,200
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 1,300
Capacity of factory: 220 containers per month
Available capacity: Two plants running at roughly 60% capacity
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Solid wood bedroom and veneered dining room and occasional furniture
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 19
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 100%
MAN WAH HOLDINGS LTD. Date founded: 1992, in Vietnam since 2018 with purchase of Timberland
Headquarters: Hong Kong
Web site address: www.manwahholdings.com
Name of top officer: Wong Man Li, Chairman
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 4.5 million square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 3,000-plus, expected to reach 8,000 by next summer
Total number of employees in Vietnam: NA as many Chinese management travel between both China and Vietnam plants
Capacity of factory: 1,300 containers per month as of August. Expected at close to 2,000 containers per month by year end and up to 3,000 by the middle of 2020
Available capacity: Running at 100% capacity with a backlog of orders. Capacity continues to expand as company moves into new facility
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Motion upholstery
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: More than 20 years
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 100%
ROCHDALE SPEARS Date founded: 2003
Headquarters: Hong Kong
Web site address: www.rochdalespears.com
Name of top officer: Geoff Hawkes, CEO and Co-founder
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 1.7 million square feet. Expected to reach nearly 2 million square feet in December with addition of new upholstery plant
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 3,900
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 4,200
Capacity of factory: 450 containers per month
Available capacity: Two main plants are running about 370 containers per month
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room, occasional, upholstery, home office
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 14
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 95%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 75%
ROYAL CORINTHIAN Date founded: 2016
Headquarters: Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: Thomas Luk, president
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 200,000 square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 400
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 420
Capacity of factory: Looking to expand to 80-100 containers capacity per month by year end and possibly 150 per month by end of 2020
Available capacity: Plant is producing about 50 containers per month
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Metal shelving, metal table bases, metal beds, metal components
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 3
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 98%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 98%
SAN LIM FURNITURE Date founded: 1990 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Began production in Vietnam in 2002
Headquarters: Dong Nai Province, Vietnam
Web site address: www.sanlimfurniture.vnn.vn
Name of top officer: Tony Sulimro, president and founder
Size of Vietnam production facilities: Three main plants including wood and metal furniture production facilities totaling nearly 2 million square feet
Total number of production workers: 4,200
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 4,450
Capacity of factory: 800 containers per month
Available capacity: Plants are shipping about 600 containers per month
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room, occasional, home entertainment, home office
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 29
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 100%
SHING MARK ENTERPRISES CO. LTD. Date founded: 1972 in Taiwan; opened plants in China in 1992 and Vietnam in 2006
Headquarters: Taipei, Taiwan
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: Victor Chao, chairman and founder
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 9 million square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 8,000
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 8,150
Capacity of factory: 1,000 to 1,200 containers per month. 1,800 expected by year end with new upholstery plant
Available capacity: Existing plants running at near full capacity
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room, occasional, home office, home entertainment, vanities – all in middle to upper-middle price points
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 47
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 90%, 10% to China
STANLEY FURNITURE CO. Date founded: 1924
Headquarters: U.S. headquarters, High Point; Vietnam global headquarters, Ho Chi Minh City
Web site address: www.stanleyfurniture.com
Name of top officer: Richard Ledger, CEO
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 600,000 square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 500
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 500-plus
Capacity of factory: 300 containers per month
Available capacity: Expected to ship about 100 containers per month by year end
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room, occasional and home entertainment
Number of years selling to the U.S. market from Vietnam: Since spring 2019
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 100%
STARWOOD FURNITURE MFG VN CORP. Date founded: 2004
Headquarters: Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: Thomas Luk, president
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 1.2 million square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 2,200
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 2,200 plus
Capacity of factory: 300 per month
Available capacity: Factory is shipping 250 containers per month in early September
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room and occasional furniture, home entertainment, vanities and home office
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 15
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 99%
THOMAS CAREY Date founded: 2015
Headquarters: Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: Thomas Luk, president
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 350,000 square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 500
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 510
Capacity of factory: 250 containers per month
Available capacity: In August, factory was estimated to be shipping 70 containers per month of case goods and 50 containers per month of upholstery
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room and occasional/accent furniture, stationary upholstery and vanities
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 4
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 98%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 90%
VIETNAM FURNITURE RESOURCES (Manufacturing arm of Jonathan Charles)
Date founded: April 2004
Headquarters: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Web site address: www.vfr.net.vn
Name of top officer: Jonathan Sowter, CEO
Size of Vietnam production facilities: 370,000 square feet, four buildings
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 1,490
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 1,700
Capacity of factory: Up to 80 containers per month
Available capacity: Currently producing 60 containers per month
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room, occasional and accent furniture, upholstery, lighting and accessories
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 15
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100% to 52 countries
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 30% to U.S.
WANEK FURNITURE Date company established in Vietnam: 2008
Headquarters: Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
Web site address: NA
Name of top officer: Todd Wanek, president and CEO
Size of Vietnam production facilities: Just over 2 million square feet, including recently expanded Millennium plant in Dong Nai Province.
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 10,400 (estimated)
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 13,000
Capacity of factory: All production facilities including three Wanek plants and the one Millennium plant are expected to clear more than 72,000 containers this year
Available capacity: Wanek facilities running at roughly 90% capacity in August.
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Stationary and motion upholstery, wood furniture/components, cut-and-sew kits
Number of years selling to the U.S. market from Vietnam: 11
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market from Vietnam: 90%
Other Major Players
Note: These are factories that Furniture Today did not have time to visit, but they provided information to be included in the report.
HONAI FURNITURE COMPANIES Date founded: 1993
Headquarters: Dong Nai Province, Vietnam
Web site address: www.mnhonaifurniture.com
Name of top officers: Michael Gunther and Oanh Nguyen
Size of Vietnam production facilities: Campus for Honai Co, Honai 2 Co. and Honai M&M includes seven production facilities, multiple warehouses for timber and kiln drying operations covering more than 2 million square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: More than 2,800
Total number of employees in Vietnam: More than 3,000
Capacity of factories: 400 containers per month. Additional capacity for new 800,000-square-foot plant of 400 containers will be available in the next couple of years
Available capacity: Changes each month as new customers come on board. As existing capacity is filled, company will slowly increase capacity at its newest plant
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Bedroom, dining room, occasional, entertainment, accents and office furniture. Company is just starting to produce kitchen cabinets.
Number of years selling to the U.S. market from Vietnam: 15
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 85%
UE FURNITURE CO. LTD. Date founded: 2001, Established in Vietnam for six months this past August.
Headquarters: Anji Zhejiang Province, China.
Web site address: www.uechairs.com
Name of top officer: Simon Siow, general manager of the Sofa Division
Size of Vietnam production facilities: Sofa production facilities, 250,000 square feet; Office chair production facilities, 280,000 square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 350 for sofa division, 250 for office chair division
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 365 sofa division, 260 for office chair division
Current capacity: 250 containers per month for sofas and 320 per month for office chairs
Available capacity: Not available pending completion of new plant in 2020
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Motion upholstery and office chairs
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: China, 18 years; Vietnam, 6 months
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market from Vietnam: 100%
HUONG NGA FINE ARTS CO. LTD. Date company established 1998
Headquarters: Ho Chi Minh City
Web site address: www.huongfinearts.vn
Name of top officer: Ms. Dinh Thi Huong Nga
Size of Vietnam production facilities: One plant totaling 25,000 square feet
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 92
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 100
Capacity of factory: 7 containers per month
Available capacity: Running at full capacity
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Lacquer accent furniture
Number of years selling to the U.S. market: 11
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 80%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 30%
LIEN THANH GROUP Date company founded: 2003
Headquarters: Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
Web site address: www.lienthanhgroup.com
Name of top officer: Tran Anh Vu
Size of Vietnam production facilities: Three locations totaling 450,000 square feet.
Number of production workers in Vietnam: 280
Total number of employees in Vietnam: 300
Capacity of factory: 60 containers per month
Available capacity: Plants are running at roughly 85% of available capacity
Types of furniture produced for the U.S. market: Wood furniture
Number of years selling to the U.S. market from Vietnam: 6 years
Percentage of overall sales that are export: 100%
Estimated percentage of overall exports to U.S. market: 80%-85%
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Furniture manufacturers here have been in high demand as China tariffs have forced many importers to look outside China to avoid a 25% tariff on finished goods.
Indeed, much of the wooden bedroom — along with some coordinating dining and occasional furniture — previously shifted to Vietnam since the mid 2000s as importers sought to avoid antidumping duties as high as 216% on the category.
But by late 2018 there was still plenty of wood furniture left in China to re-source. This included occasional and accent furniture, home entertainment and home office, plus wood kitchen dining furniture. These two categories accounted for $4.1 billion in shipments or just over 30% of the total $13.5 billion in shipments from China in 2018.
Destination FT: Furniture Today explores furniture industry in Vietnam
For complete interviews and factory tours for each company, please visit our Vietnam video gallery.
Upholstery shipments — wood-framed seating and wood-framed chairs — accounted for roughly the same amount of shipments from China in 2018. These and other types of upholstered furniture are also shifting to Vietnam and other countries in the region.
Vietnam is perhaps the most obvious choice as its infrastructure has been in place for years, particularly on the wood side of the business. It is less developed in upholstery, but that category, too, is slowly ramping up during this rapid transition.
How these factories have responded varied from manufacturer to manufacturer. While some were eagerly taking on new business and expanding their operations to meet the additional demand, others were staying the course in order to continue serving long-time existing customers.
Yet, even those expanding or taking on new business were doing so strategically in light of competition for workers and rising labor costs. Land costs also are at a premium, causing some to weigh expansion plans based on their existing campus footprint.
Buying or leasing land at $200 or more per square foot, compared with less than $10 some 15 years ago is having some deciding whether such an investment will pay off in the long term.
“This is hurting the furniture business,” said Thomas Luk, president of case goods and upholstery manufacturer Starwood Furniture. “More impact will be felt for the furniture industry next year. In general, furniture is more complicated to manufacturer compared with other industries and requires much more land and more labor, leading to low output per person compared to other industries. This makes it difficult to compete with other industries in terms of keeping workers and executives. Eventually this will cause prices to increase for furniture products.”
The challenges appear more acute for upholstery as the segment is less developed that wood furniture.
But even on the wood side, available capacity is filling up quickly as major U.S. retailers have scoured the landscape for alternatives to China. On top of that, there is demand for capacity from the cabinet and vanity industry where proposed antidumping and countervailing duties on these categories are causing a mad scramble to Vietnam.
Starwood and its sister company Thomas Carey have taken on more vanity products due to the ability to produce the units in larger production runs. Running many SKUs in large collections by comparison can be inefficient as the order rate on some smaller pieces is far less than a bed or dresser, for example.
“For us, capacity is a relative term,” noted Ray Lu, director of product development at Starwood. “With traditional furniture that is not where we can hit our growth in terms of capacity, but with the possibilities of vanities and other (categories) that is where we can increase by 50% this year in terms of overall sales and revenue while maintaining the same number of workers and the same amount of equipment and land.”
Vanities currently represent about 30% to 40% of existing production, up from 0% in 2018, officials noted.
Yet, Starwood has had to weigh demands for its available capacity against a need to serve its existing customers. These include its U.S. marketing arm Home Insights Furniture and sister company Turnkey Solutions, plus the brands of manufacturing partner and factory co-owner Markor, which include A.R.T. Furniture and Caracole.
Starwood officials note that the increased shift of product from China has been occurring gradually over the past several years due to heightened environmental regulations in China. The China tariffs — first 10%, then 25% — have simply escalated demand and quickly.
Starwood sources say the demand has been so great customers have requested orders on product without even having been to the factory.
“The person has not even been here yet, and they have sent us a PO (purchase order) asking ‘Can you make this for us?’” Lu said. “With the tariff at 25% we are seeing PO being placed with us with nothing confirmed. … It has made a lot of these furniture guys move with no questions asked.”
The company has no expansion plans but rather has been using its existing case goods and upholstery plants — including Starwood and Thomas Carey — to handle any additional business, including the surge in vanities.
“Labor is certainly a challenge to begin with both in terms of workers and executives,” Luk said. “In addition, there is the challenge of the transition of taking on new business categories such as bathroom vanity and home improvement products.
“We have more business than we can handle on the furniture end, so we’re being selective on the business we take for existing case goods and dining categories by only serving our U.S. marketing arm and limited key and loyal customers, while expanding output rapidly to vanity and home goods categories due to the tariff and anti-dumping against China.”
Jonathan Charles veneers
High-end furniture, accents and lighting producer Jonathan Charles — in which Markor also has an ownership stake — said it, too, has had many requests to build product. But it also has been strategic in its response.
“We get approached all the time from different companies asking us to manufacture for them,” said company CEO Jonathan Sowter, noting that some of the demand has been for vanity production. “We cherry pick the companies where we think we can bring value to their product line.
“We have seen a big shift recently where people in the vanity unit industry are approaching us every week. … For us, we are not in the business of looking for new customers. Our business model is to do more business with our existing customers so we can all grow and be successful together.
“So we aren’t really affected by this shift to Vietnam because we are already working with the right people we want to work with,” he added. “We just want to do more business with them.”
Another company that has had to weigh increased demand alongside its existing customer base is case goods manufacturer San Lim Furniture. It has been doing business with major brands in the U.S. market for the past 15 years and doesn’t want to compromise any of those relationships just to get new business.
“Because we cannot supply everybody, we stay loyal to our existing customers,” said Tony Sulimro, president, noting the tariff situation has had many knocking on its doors, asking for available capacity.
This includes requests from the vanity and kitchen cabinet industry, which Sulimro has turned down as that business would require major changes in its production layout and finishing processes.
Instead the company is focusing on improving its existing manufacturing processes, which include not only case goods manufacturing, but also a metal plant that produces metal components — including metal bases — for its wood line.
The plants, which include about 2 million square feet of production, are running at about 75% of full capacity, have room to grow with the current customer base. It also has boosted efficiencies with investments in new equipment. While such automation has lowered worker headcount by about 15% from five years ago, it has helped control the cost of finished goods.
“We have enough (order) quantity to manage our factory,” Sulimro said. “Our customers are growing with us, and we are growing together.”
Charles Lo, CEO of case goods and upholstery manufacturer Kaiser Group said while his plant produces vanities as part of collections it is not accepting vanities or kitchen cabinets being moved from China.
“We are not producing kitchen cabinets,” he said. “There are a lot coming here now, but we have said no. We don’t have the machines or the people for that kind of product.”
Instead, the company is focusing on new business for a new plant it opened last year that will produce stationary and motion upholstery as well as metal and wood furniture. Upholstery and the other categories in its original plant, which fall in the middle to upper-middle price points, remain its core competencies and thus a natural area for expansion.
Case goods manufacturer Lodestar also has received requests to do new product and has taken on some additional product due to China tariffs. But it also has turned down a lot of offers to build product for other customers, said Jimmy Warren, vice president of product development, customer service and technical support.
“We didn’t feel like it fit our business,” Warren said, noting that most of the requests have been for occasional furniture and some dining, including tables and chairs.
The company instead largely has grown business with both new and existing customers because it had the available capacity, Warren said. This new business includes some kitchen cabinets its factory had the capacity to produce.
Lodestar will further boost its capacity when it completes a new 800,000-square-foot plant across the street. The plant — which will have two finishing lines: a pallet and a hanging line— will produce about 60 containers a month of bedroom, dining room and occasional furniture, Warren said.
He said the new factory will address the need for additional capacity. But it also will replace another area factory that the company will eventually need to close because the government wants to buy the land.
Other companies are poised to grow with both existing business and new customers. This includes Stanley Furniture, which began production in its own 500,000-square-foot operations in the Binh Duong Province this past spring.
The plant, which assembles and finishes wood furniture, is steadily filling its capacity. For example, it expects to produce roughly 100 containers a month of the full 300 per month capacity by the end of this year.
“I think we are perfectly positioned because we are a brand owner that is in control of its supply chain,” said Stanley owner and Chairman Walter Blocker, who estimated the investment in the plant, equipment and raw materials at about $20 million. “And we are vertically integrated in Vietnam, which is the most competitive place to manufacture high-quality furniture today in the world, I believe.”
He said the company also has an advantage in that it has secured a talented labor force that helps create efficiencies that customers ultimately see in the value of Stanley’s finished goods.
“We are not bringing in borax and spray painting it,” he said. “We have very skilled workers, and we also have a very efficient process, so that the labor cost in relation to my finished product is not that big.”
He agreed that rising labor costs are an issue in Vietnam, but not one that would necessarily affect his cost of doing business, over the short or long term.
“And then you have the Vietnamese culture, which produces a very, very high quality work, a very high quality and sense of morality and personal responsibility,” he said. “They want to learn, they want to understand, and they want to do it well.”
Samson Holding also has invested in Vietnam, having recently acquired a 70% stake in Timber Inds. a division of Green River Group. The nearly 2 million-square-foot facility, which has a capacity of 500 containers per month, will rise to about 700 containers per month as it begins producing product for Universal Furniture, one of Samson’s U.S. brands.
A key goal is to shift Universal product out of China to Vietnam to avoid the 25% tariff on finished goods. In announcing the acquisition in mid-July the company said that Samson’s Jiashan, China facility would help Timber Inds. with engineering support during the transition period. The China facility, it noted, would continue to produce Universal products during the transition and then would primarily serve both China and other international markets.
In its July announcement, Samson Holding said that Universal would have an exclusive production line in the Timber facility that would begin production sometime this fall. That production line will occupy roughly a third of the space, and officials said there are no plans to make changes or modifications that would affect existing customers.
“I think what needs to happen to make the company successful is the same thing that would need to happen at any factory: You need to have the right people in place and the right equipment and the right training,” Samson Holding Executive Director Mohamad Amini told Furniture Today. “We are very fortunate to be able to bring very mature employees, technicians and engineers to the facility to help with the process and the transition.
“The challenge will be to make sure we can find all the people we need from Vietnam for the additional line and to get all those people in place,” he added, noting that the company will need about 700 workers — ranging from production workers to engineering and quality control management — above and beyond what the plant employs now.
Meanwhile, other companies such as Kaiser, Rochdale Spears, Shing Mark and Wanek Furniture also have boosted or are boosting capacity to serve what they view as an ongoing demand for product from Vietnam, including upholstery.
These and other manufacturers expanding in Vietnam say they are prepared for the opportunities and the challenges the country faces in the future, particularly relating to rising labor costs and the need to attract more talent to the industry.
“Cost is definitely a concern, but it’s not just labor costs and labor shortages,” said Blocker. “It’s also the cost of land, the cost of using an increasingly stressed infrastructure and the cost of sourcing raw materials and componentry in certain industries that have been dominated by China. …
“Not every industry will be able to make the transition that furniture has because the componentry and raw materials coming into those other industries; it will take a long time for them to make it work.”
Yet many, including Blocker, are optimistic about Vietnam. They note the shift will continue to not only require investments in labor, but also in new equipment, which will help Vietnam factories remain price competitive and also more consistent in quality and shipping.
Some interviewed for this story, for example, said that lead times have been elevated to some extent due to worker turnover. As more companies compete for that work force, turnover and stressed lead times may continue to be an issue. But officials believe the situation will eventually even out as more young people enter the work force.
“We have 1.1 million people entering the work force every year, and our population is 100 million,” Blocker said. “It’s a very young population, and we have a platform here that is sizable. Secondly, the education in Vietnam and the Vietnamese work ethic means productivity will continue to improve.”
And while no one expects Vietnam to replace China’s manufacturing clout anytime soon, they believe it remains and will continue to remain a viable resource for years to come.
Man Wah sewers
It’s why motion furniture manufacturer ManWah Holdings invested some $400 million in improvements to the Timberland campus in the Binh Duong Province following its acquisition of the plant in July 2018. This included an additional 2.5 million square feet of production space and new equipment to outfit the new buildings.
“ManWah is as committed to Vietnam as we are China,” said Kevin Castellani, director of corporate communications, of the investment by company owner Wong Man Li. “Again, we have 20 million square feet of manufacturing in China, and this is going to be 4.5 million square feet when it’s done. …
“Every line that we have is going to have new sewing machines, new cutting machines, new stretching machines. We are doing everything we can, and the investment will continue. (Li) has built right now what we believe is going to be the largest vertical upholstery factory in Vietnam to date, and that investment is going to continue.
“So yes we are very committed to Vietnam in the long run.”
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — The rush to Vietnam from China has resulted in one of the tightest labor markets here in years, a situation that is starting to play out for manufacturers in a host of industries, including furniture.
In fact, this manufacturing migration has been among the key concerns of factory management as they struggle to maintain quality and lead times for product shipped to the U.S. market. As many have seen firsthand, U.S. retailers can be unforgiving if there are any missteps in the process, ranging from inconsistencies in finish to delayed shipments.
But many are taking steps to be proactive in retaining workers amidst such high demand for talent. While none can guarantee there won’t be turnover, they believe they can curtain enough departures not only to maintain the status quo, but also to help grow their business through plant expansions.
Starting point: Pay
Many not only monitor pay in the industry, but also what other industries are paying to remain competitive. In addition, they must keep their pay on pace with government mandated increases in the minimum wage, which sources say have been around 10% per year on average.
The consensus appears that production workers earn about $300 to $500 or more per month, which includes overtime towards the higher end of this spectrum. This is not only above the minimum wage for the region, but it also competes with many other industries, sources say.
Many companies say they keep track of salaries in the area to make sure they stay competitive with other employers. This includes providing attractive benefits packages that include health insurance.
For complete interviews and factory tours for each company, please visit our Vietnam video gallery.
“We are above average in terms of pay,” said Andrew Lien, general director of Vietnam operations for Wanek Furniture Co. “It is something we are very focused on. We do a lot of trending and watching the market for competitive wages, and we do our best to stay ahead of it. And in most areas we can.”
Wanek also tries to improve working conditions. For example, it estimates 60% of its Vietnam facilities are air conditioned, a rare perk in that country’s furniture industry.
While the company has seen some recent turnover of middle management supervisory level employees, Lien said this hasn’t been any worse than normal for Vietnam.
Geoff Hawkes, co-founder and CEO of upper-end case goods and upholstery manufacturer Rochdale Spears, said that his company also monitors pay in the region in order to remain competitive.
“We scour the market twice a year to make sure we are in the high range of payers,” he said. “We are paying at the higher scale in terms of wages.”
Turnover trouble
Still turnover can be an issue. Chris Bourton, vice president of operations, said that the company has lost some employees to other companies that have entered the marketplace.
But here too, he said the company is analyzing the situation to understand why those workers have left and what type of package they are being offered.
“And what we are finding is that we are quite competitive still to the new companies, and we are trying to ensure that we are a good employer. That is a good way to retain. So far we seem to be Ok.”
“We recognize that the labor market will be impacted due to a higher demand for skilled labor,” added Hawkes. “Those who are easily enticed by apparent gold rush opportunities will move to new organizations. Our mantra at Rochdale Spears is to invest in our people; we are building talent for the future. We employ people and they stay with us. You will always have staff turnover, however, we are pleased to say that we have not seen a significant increase.”
As in China, some of the turnover in Vietnam occurs right after Chinese New Year, when workers either return home or seek new opportunities elsewhere.
A worker at Inni Home is seen finishing metal table bases.
Accent, occasional and dining furniture specialist Inni Home said it lost about 15% of its workers earlier this year right after Chinese New Year. Officials attributed this to the increase competition for workers in the area.
“Many factories have moved here, and they raised the salaries,” said Linda Zhang, general manager, of the competitive environment. “It has gotten better, but we had to raise our salaries … so we can keep our experienced workers and the office staff. That has been quite a challenge. We have to hire new workers, and those workers need time to train.”
This, in turn, caused some delays in shipping times, as she noted it takes at least six months to train workers due to the complexity and skill required to produce items in the line.
“Our line is different because it is not mass production,” she said. “It is even more of a challenge for the workers because there is a higher (skill level) requirement for them. They need to catch up.”
Case goods manufacturer Starwood Furniture said it too has struggled to keep workers.
“The challenge is to get workers to work long term for us,” said Thomas Luk, president, noting that some other industries pay higher than the furniture industry. “It is very, very difficult for us to increase (wages) by even three or five percent.”
But he said that his manufacturing campus is in a good spot geographically as it is surrounded by a lot of neighborhoods, thus making the facilities easy to get to on a motor scooter or even a bike.
Community spirit
While pay and proximity to the plant are major incentives, culture and a sense of community is also key to retaining workers in Vietnam sources say.
And sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most.
Motion furniture manufacturer ManWah Holdings Ltd. has a great task ahead in that it has one of the biggest expansion projects on tap in Vietnam. It has added 2.5 million square feet of manufacturing that will bring its facilities to nearly 4.5 million square feet. This also will boost employment from 3,000 to 8,000 workers by next summer.
The company has the advantage of building onto an existing plant that already produced motion furniture and already had a skilled labor force to make that product.
But the company believes it will be able to recruit the additional workers not only with competitive pay, but it also has leadership that supports the local community.
This includes donating bicycles to local schools and also giving scholarships to local students. This sends an important message to the community, notes Kevin Castellani, company director of corporate communications.
“Acquiring new employees, that has always been an obstacle, but our owners have gone into the community, and they have contributed to the community,” he said. “We have become involved in the community and that has attracted employees to us. We also treat employees better, and we pay them better than most other factories. … We want long-term commitments from our employees, so our owners have made a commitment to treat our employees, better than they could be treated at other factories.”
The company also has created better working conditions such as improved ventilation and has built new dorms and a new cafeteria as part of its enhancements to the campus.
Jonathan Sowter, CEO of high-end furniture manufacturer Jonathan Charles, has lunch every day he is at the plant in the worker cafeteria. This, he said, lets workers know that he is one of them and thus part of the team.
Like all of his production workers, Sowter also is a furniture craftsman himself and knows how to do every job on the factory floor. In that respect, he has an even greater connection with his workers.
“I am a craftsman, and Vietnamese are great craftsmen,” he said. “It’s nice to be in a country where it is easy to train people, and they want to learn how to do something. They are very proud people, very hardworking but very proud. It is easy to be high end when the worker is proud and wants to do a good job.”
He also is married to a local Vietnamese woman and said that the workers can sense he loves the country, where he has resided for 25 years.
Noting that a quality workplace isn’t just about getting a paycheck, he said that generally the company doesn’t make a counter offer in order to retain workers.
“You end up getting into a bidding war,” he said. “Keeping people by being the highest payer isn’t always the best policy. We want to keep people by being the best employer.”
He said evidence of this is in how the company has treated its workers over the course of its 15-year history in Vietnam.
“We are quite proud of how we treat our workers,” Sowter said. “One of our proudest statistics, which is unique in this industry, is that we have never had a strike in 15 years in an industry and a part of the country where strikes are very common. … That means we are doing something very well, and I think the reason for that is that we have our ear very close to the ground.”
Describing the Vietnamese culture as very engaged in — and proud of — their work, some companies have also have created a culture that allows workers to help implement improvements to the manufacturing process.
“I think we are empowering people; that is one of the things we are doing in order for them to feel part of the company, allowing them to come up with ideas on how to fix the company rather than management telling them what to do,” said Bourton, of Rochdale Spears. “We have found that has made a contribution to (lowering) the number of strikes and the number of complaints.
“We have seen an immediate effect on that, but also it makes sure that people are trained better and gives them opportunities to move around the company. It is just treating them as they want to be treated.
“These individuals,” he added, “have become very capable masters in production. They remember things quite quickly, and they want to do a very good job. … Here, people also are very creative. I didn’t see that level of skill in China. I was very surprised to see it here. They quickly adapt and very quickly get it correct.”
While it pays competitively in the marketplace, including a merit-based pay system that provides incentives for piece work, Wanek Furniture also allows its workers to be part of the manufacturing solutions by inviting them to suggest improvements to various processes.
“Our Idea Network is something we promote to try to get employees to buy into the operations,” said Lien, of Wanek Furniture. “That helps us a lot in addition to the training we do to provide a sense of accountability and ownership with the employees. … They are graded on many different criteria — health and safety, cost savings, process improvements, machine improvements — the employees can submit anything they feel will help improve their environment or make their day go better. And then we evaluate and reward employees for those ideas.
“When employees start to take ownership in their job, you start to feel that sense of accomplishment.”
Creating that sense of accomplishment and an overall satisfaction with their work, could very well define who wins the war for employees in Vietnam moving forward.
AUSTIN, Texas – Full line furniture resource Four Hands is launching a collection with British designer Tracey Boyd at the upcoming High Point Market that is inspired by Boyd’s travels around the world.
The 20 pieces in the Tracey Boyd for Four Hands collection include sideboards, occasional tables, benches, bedroom storage pieces and dining chairs.
The company said that the collection focuses on the “balance of shape, texture and pattern” that incorporate inspiration and design from her travels around the world, while using “new materials, colors and finishing techniques that spotlight contemporary and unique design.”
Examples include pieces in the Stratus group that are made with bird’s eye maple in an Emerald Green stain and the Trefoil, a storage piece that features modern marquetry in a “soft, round and new modern print similar to block printing.”
“Design for me is all about taking contrasting materials and unpredictably using them to create an individual aesthetic that is livable, comfortable and beautiful,” Boyd said. “Taking pattern inspiration from my textile and fashion background, I love to create unusual decorative surfaces that give my designs a unique profile. I believe furniture is at the forefront of the design world; providing a longevity that is important in today’s world of super-fast consumerism, furniture has become the fashion with which you dress your home.”
“Teaming up with Tracey Boyd was a natural fit,” said Adam Dunn, Four Hands creative director. “We have similar design philosophies and share visions of taking unique materials and blending them in a way that is both contrasting and complementary. Like Tracey, we also look to shape and fashion for inspiration. Combining her background in apparel and her love of travel, Tracey’s global approach adds a fresh perspective to our existing Four Hands collection, complementing it with a softer, more colorful approach. Together, we’ve worked to create pieces that use globally sourced materials and effectively translate Tracey’s world journeys into unique and unparalleled pieces.”
During the Oct. 19-23 High Point Market, the collection can be seen at the Four Hands showroom in space 4101 of Showplace.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Chinese mattress imports, already trending sharply downward, dropped again in August, giving China just a 1% share of the U.S. mattress import market that month, a new report says.
Raymond James, an analyst firm which tracks the mattress industry in addition to several other industries, released the August mattress figures from the U.S. International Trade Commission. Its analysis of those figures is closely watched by bedding insiders. In its latest report, Raymond James noted that Chinese mattress imports in August were 7,068, a 99% decline from the year-earlier figures. That gave China a 1% share of the August mattress imports, a market it has dominated in recent years.
In January 2019, China had an 82% share of the mattress import market. That figure rose to 87% in February, fell to 64% in March and fell again to 39% in April and 33% in May. China’s June share was 9%, and that fell to 2% in July, according to the Raymond James analysis.
Substantial antidumping duties and tariffs on Chinese-made mattresses have combined to virtually eliminate China as a mattress importer, bedding observers say.
NEW YORK — An assembly of 10 leading Afghan rug manufacturers will showcase top-quality hand-knotted pieces at a specially organized sales event here Nov. 1-3.
The Afghan Artisan Rug Pop-up will fill the second floor of the Metropolitan Pavilion, at 123 W. 18th St., with an array of hand-woven rugs that range from the traditional to the ultra-contemporary. Each rug in the assortment was made from hand-spun wool using natural dyes.
The three-day event is organized by the Kabul Carpet Export Center to help promote the sale of Afghan rugs as well as support the many women artisans who weave the rugs by hand. Managed by Impact Carpet Associates, a partnership of carpet industry veterans with longtime experience producing rugs in Afghanistan, KCEC is made possible by support from the United States Agency for International Development.
“KCEC is acting as bridge between international buyers and carpet producers to create an effective way of supporting the women who are the backbone of the carpet industry,” said Najlla Habibyar, KCEC chief of party on the Afghanistan side for the pop-up.
Earlier in her career, Habibyar served in senior positions with USAID and as CEO of the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan.
“Without these women, there would be no carpets,” she continued. “This is not only their livelihood, but their form of artistic expression. The beauty they create on their looms is their way of challenging the harsh difficulties they face every day.”
Afghan Artisan Rug Pop-Up – Afghan women weavers at work.
Project director and KCEC managing director Rob Leahy said artisan rugs and carpets, particularly those made in Afghanistan, are in danger of disappearing if the craft is not supported and promoted by way of events like the pop-up.
“Rug-weaving is a skill that has been passed from mother to daughter over generations,” Leahy, a veteran of the rug industry since 1971 and owner of Fine Rugs of Charleston, told Furniture Today. “With increased competition from machine-made carpets, and with hand-knotted carpets being made in fewer places, if we do not support these artisans, then the craft will die out.”
Also helping to launch this initial Afghan Artisan Rug Pop-up are: marketing director Richard Ringrose, formerly vice president of ABC Carpet and Home, and production director Alex Zahir, was born in Afghanistan and has been a producer, wholesaler and retailer of Afghan carpets in the U.S. for the past 25 years.
Afghanistan is one of world’s leading sources of high-quality, hand-knotted rugs, most of which are made by home-based women weavers who use knotting techniques that vary from one ethnic group to another and have been handed down over generations.
Nearly all the dyestuffs used in Afghan rugs are natural, most of them sourced locally. For example, onion skins are used for a golden range of earthy colors; walnut husks yield rich browns; pomegranate skins add yellow; and madder root makes deep reds.
“Although rugs are now shipped by air freight rather than by caravans, the timelessness of their artistry remains unchanged,” the organization noted.
Entry will be free to the Afghan Artisan Rug Pop-up. Hours of operation will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 and 2, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nov. 3.
HIGH POINT – The Malaysian Timber Council is traveling to the Oct. 19-23 High Point Market with 10 Malaysian furniture manufacturers as part of a mission to market the industry to new and existing OEM customers.
Malaysia remains one of the most important source countries for the U.S. market, shipping $429.6 million in household furniture in the first half, according to Richmond, Va.-based Mann, Armistead & Epperson Ltd.’s September 2019 Furnishing Digest Newsletter. That’s up from $367.3 million in the first half of 2018, a 17% increase.
This shift is partly due to tariffs on China made furniture, but also due to Malaysia’s increasing capabilities in laminate bedroom and other wood furniture due to investments in automation, materials and technology. Such investments continue the country’s strong foothold in promotional to lower mid-priced wood furniture.
It is also becoming an increasingly important resource in upholstery and bedding, some of which also falls in promotional to lower middle price points. According to the Furnishings Digest Newsletter, mattress shipments and upholstery shipments grew in both the first and second quarters of this year compared to the same period last year.
The Malaysian manufacturers coming to the High Point Market include:
Hup Chong Furniture, a manufacturer of bedroom, living room and entertainment furniture
Feng Yuan Industries, a manufacturer of dining room furniture
Teck Seng Industrial, a manufacturer of bedroom furniture
Furnizone Industries, a manufacturer of panel base wardrobes, kitchen cabinets, cocktail tables and bedroom furniture
Novel Furniture, a manufacturer of bedroom furniture
Jemaramas Jaya, a manufacturer of office furniture
Simewood Product, a manufacturer of wood furniture including dining sets, occasional tables and cabinets
Kuek Brothers Furniture, a manufacturer of bedroom and occasional furniture and wardrobes
Tawei Furniture, a manufacturer of dining furniture, occasional tables and cabinets
U.D. Panelform, a manufacturer of bedroom and living room furniture
The Malaysian Timber Council is a non-for-profit organization that promotes the development and trade of products – including furniture – that are made with Malaysian timber products. The goal of its visit to High Point is to create business ties between the Malaysian manufacturers and customers in the U.S. market.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Vietnam remains the No. 1 mattress importer in August, with a 31% share of that market, but Indonesia and Cambodia are growing rapidly, an analyst says.
Raymond James, based here, which tracks mattress imports monthly, said that Indonesia had mattress imports of about 125,000 in August, which made Indonesia the No. 2 mattress importer that month, behind the 181,506 mattress imports from Vietnam.
Mexico, which lost four points of market share in August, falling to a 16% share, was the No. 3 mattress importer that month, while fast-growing Cambodia, with about 80,000 mattress imports in August, was the No. 4 mattress importer that month, Raymond James said. Mexico had mattress imports of 95,790 in August.
China, long the largest mattress importer to the U.S., has seen its share slashed in recent months, and commanded just a 1% share of the mattress import market in August, according to the Raymond James analysis of the monthly import figures released by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
HIGH POINT – A group of eight Vietnamese furniture manufacturers will be showing at the Oct. 19-23 High Point Market, offering outdoor and some indoor residential furniture. Together, they are showing in about 2,000 square feet in space T-902 of the Suites at Market Square.
The producers have operations in the Binh Dinh Province, which is roughly 450 miles north of Ho Chi Minh City, where most indoor furniture production occurs.
“The strength and expertise of this group of exhibitors is their capability in building quality wooden outdoor furniture, and some of that can be used as indoor furniture,” said Al Bolton, managing director of High Point Exhibitions Inc. His company helped get these and other international companies from Brazil, the Ukraine and other countries placed in the Global Sourcing Pavilions located on the top floor of the Suites at Market Square.
The overall space is about 10,000 square feet, up from about 6,000 square feet in previous markets. While roughly 5,000 square feet of that space was previously held by Chinese manufacturers, the exhibitors from Vietnam, Brazil and Eastern Europe more than made up the difference.
The exhibitors from Vietnam include:
Binh Phu Company Limited, which produces wooden outdoor furniture
Dai Thanh Furniture Joint Stock Company, which produces wooden indoor and outdoor furniture
Hoang Hung Company Limited, which produces wooden indoor and outdoor furniture
Nghia Phat Wooden Furniture Company Limited, which produces wooden outdoor furniture
Phu Tai Joint Stock Company, which produces wooden indoor and outdoor furniture
CONOVER, N.C. – Luxury furniture manufacturer Vanguard Furniture has reorganized its case goods team, adding two industry veterans to the mix and promoting a third.
The company recently hired 30-year industry veteran Carl Bundy as vice president of case goods product development and merchandising, a new position. Before joining the company, he was vice president of product development at Caracole and also worked in similar capacities at Fine Furniture Design, Drexel Heritage and Lexington Home Brands.
In his new role, he reports to company president Andy Bray and will be responsible for case goods development and product engineering.
Randy Sigmon joined the company this past July as quality control manager of case goods and was recently promoted to director of case goods operations, also a new position. Also reporting to Bray, he will be responsible for day-to-day case goods operations at Vanguard.
Before joining Vanguard, he was manufacturing manager at SpartaCraft for four and a half years and previously worked for Bernhardt and Hickory Chair.
Megan Barrett, who joined the company in July 2017 as product development manager, has been promoted to director of design, also a new position. She reports to Bray and will coordinate the creation of designs internally and externally with outside designers such as Thom Filicia and Michael Weiss.
Before joining Vanguard, Barrett was director of design at Sherrill Furniture and also was a lead designer at Heritage Home Group. She also has received the WithIt 2017 “WOW Future Leader Award.”
Bray noted that the changes are timely given the increasingly global nature of the industry.
“Vanguard is in the design and fashion as much as it is in the furniture business,” Bray said. “This is further complicated by the increased importance of global sourcing and supply chain management, the integration of multiple designers, and the complexities assembling and finishing parts from different locations. New talent requires both hard technical skills and soft interpersonal relationships.”
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce announced this week that it is made a preliminary decision to rescind an annual review of the 2018 shipments of 86 Chinese wooden bedroom furniture producers.
The annual review determines whether the manufacturers the manufacturers will have any change or adjustment to their current antidumping duty rate for bedroom shipments to the U.S. market during the period of review, in this case 2018. By having their reviews rescinded by various interested parties, they can maintain their current duty rate. For a list of the companies, click here.
The DOC announced the preliminary review results on Oct. 10. In that announcement it said that interested parties withdrew the review requests for all but four companies that had no shipments during the period of review. These companies include: Eurosa (Kunshan) Co. Ltd. and Eurosa Furniture Co. (PTE) Ltd.; Shenyang Shining Dongxing Furniture Co. Ltd.; Sunforce Furniture (Hui-Yang) Co. Ltd., Sun Fung Wooden Factory, Sun Fung Co., Shin Feng Furniture Co. Ltd. and Stupendous International Co. Ltd.; and Yeh Brothers World Trade Inc.
Companies with no shipments for a given year are subject to the all-China duty rate of 216.01%.
The DOC said interested parties are invited to comment on the preliminary results and may submit case briefs and or written comments within 30 days of the Oct. 10 publication of the notice in the Federal Register. Rebuttals are due five days after the due date for case briefs. The final results of the annual review are expected within 120 days or four months after the Oct. 10 publication.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday the government had reached a “phase one” trade agreement with China and won’t be moving forward next week with the scheduled tariff increase to 30% on some $250 billion in imports.
In return, China has agreed to buy $40 billion to $50 billion in U.S. agricultural products, according to a New York Times report. It also agreed to some provisions on intellectual property that would give U.S. financial service companies greater access to the Chinese market, and agreed to guidelines on how it manages its currency.
Trump said the two sides reached a verbal agreement that would take several weeks to write out but that the two sides could sign something formal next month, according the report. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the parties have “a fundamental agreement on the key issues,” but there remains significant work to do.
HOUSTON, Miss. — A new leather program debuting this October High Point Market at upholstery manufacturer Franklin Corp. combines an earth-friendly story, aggressive pricing and Brazilian cut-and-sew for domestic production to achieve shorter lead times with no tariffs.
“Renevarre,” which translates from Italian into English as “Renew,” will launch with four leathers ranging from natural grains with two-tones to oily/waxy articles with slight pull-up that are very natural looking. The leathers will be available initially on four motion frames, five stationary, four recliners and lifts as well as accents.
Two to four colors per style will offer the dealer flexibility and the consumer special order options. Cut-and-sew will be performed in Brazil to supply domestic production in Mississippi in order to enhance lead times relative to Asian sourcing.
The leathers come from one of three tanneries carrying “Blue Angel” certification. Blue Angel is a German environmental label awarded since 1978 by a coalition of environment and consumer protection groups, industry, unions, trade, media and churches. It covers some 10,000 products across around 80 product categories.
“Blue Angel sets very high standards for environmentally friendly product design and has proven itself over the past 40 years as a reliable guide for a more sustainable consumption,” said Peyton Passons, vice president of sales and marketing at Franklin, who added that of the three certified tanneries, only one serves the residential upholstery market.
“It is an Italian leather producer, and we have partnered with them to curate our new leather program, Renevarre. This leather is Blue Angel certified, but we elected to create and market our own brand, Renevarre, since Blue Angel is not known in the U.S.”
He noted that leather production can create massive amounts of waste and pollution in the forms of contaminated water, dangerous levels of chemicals and loss of renewable energy.
“Renevarre certifies the life cycle of the product from the use of the raw materials, through production, use and disposal,” Passons said. “Air quality is improved. Water and fuel usage is greatly reduced. Sustainability is enhanced by transforming all waste into fertilizers to be used in agriculture.
“Strict guidelines are in place to exclude the use of toxic substances like Chromium VI in the manufacturing process.”
Passons cited research that showed 98% of consumers are concerned about environment issues, and 92% are very interested in purchasing environmentally safe home furnishings if style and cost considerations were comparable.
“With Renevarre, we are giving the customer what they want: great comfortable product made in the U.S. that is environmentally friendly and doesn’t break their budgets,” Passons said. “These price points are more aggressive than what we have had in the recent past in leather.”
Stationary sofas will retail from $999 to $1,399, and stationary sectionals from $2,499 to $2,999. In motion, sofas will run from $1,199 to $1,399, while recliners and lift chairs will range from $599 to $1,099.
Franklin, which shows at High Point Market in Furniture Plaza 200, aims to begin shipping Renevarre in January.
HIGH POINT – Thirteen Brazilian case goods, upholstery and accessories manufacturers will be showing their lines in the High Point Market’s Global Sourcing Pavilion on the top floor of the Suites at Market Square during the upcoming October market. Abimovel, the association representing manufacturers in southern Brazil, also will have a booth in the space.
The manufacturers along with Abimovel will occupy about 4,000 square feet of the estimated 10,000-square-foot space, said Al Bolton, managing director of High Point Exhibitions, which identifies and bring such companies to the market.
Bolton noted that the Brazilian companies and others, including Vietnam and Eastern Europe, have helped fill a void that occurred as Chinese manufacturers – many of which are beleaguered by tariffs – pulled out of the space. In the past, there have been as many as 25 companies from China. Now there just five, Bolton said. Yet despite the departure of many companies, the space has grown from a typical 6,000 square feet to about 10,000.
“The playing field is more level,” Bolton said, noting that these manufacturers from other countries outside China “will be considered more seriously than they were in the past.”
He said that their appearance in High Point is timely not only due to the tariffs, but that U.S. retailers are “hungry for new looks” these companies can offer.
Brazil continues to grow in importance for the U.S. market. In the past few years it has had resurgence of late, largely due to a more favorable currency than in years past. In addition to Abimovel, the group of Brazilian exhibitors includes:
Artecouro Leather Sofas, a manufacturer of leather upholstery, including sofas, loveseats and chairs.
Bertolini U.S. Inc., a manufacturer of RTA home theater, kitchen, office, storage and display furniture
Moveis Carraro, Ltd., a manufacturer of bedroom, dining and home entertainment furniture, plus office and storage furniture.
ristais Sao Marcos, a manufacturer of decorative glassware, vases, sculptures, candle holders, centerpieces and table lamps
Finestra Moveis, a manufacturer of bedroom, kitchen and accent furniture made with solid pine.
Moveis Henn Ltd., a manufacturer of bedroom and RTA furniture
IMCAL Industrial de Moveis Caneira Ltd., a manufacturer of occasional, home entertainment and storage furniture.
Lider Design, a manufacturer of home entertainment and home office furniture and accent furniture
Mobler, a manufacturer of fabric and leather upholstery, RTA and kitchen furniture
Multimoveis, a manufacturer of home theater, kitchen and office furniture and RTA furniture, including storage and display units
Rudnick, a manufacturer of bedroom, home entertainment and office furniture and RTA furniture
Sier, a manufacturer of dining room furniture, including tables, buffets, credenzas and chairs
Tres Irmaos, Furniture a manufacturer of bedroom and entertainment furniture
The companies are showing in space T-900 to T-1303 of the Suites at Market Square.
SMITHVILLE, Miss. — Stationary and motion upholstery manufacturer Behold Home has entered in a business arrangement with Manwah Holdings for a new Behold Home Import collection. The new collection will be shown at this week’s High Point Market in the Behold Home showroom, Centers of High Point|Manning, space 102.
The first introductions in the new collection will include several exclusive motion frames, which will be held in inventory along with other Behold Home and Washington Furniture product it their new distribution center.
“With the investment in our new 400,000-square-foot distribution center, we now have the opportunity to expand our product offering in an effort to better serve our existing customers,” said Lyle Harris, CEO of Behold Home. “Our strength has always been speed to market, while mixing Behold Home and Washington domestically produced upholstery. Now we will be adding to that mix our new factory-direct motion import program manufactured by Manwah.”
The new Behold Home Import collection will become part of Manwah’s warehouse, mixed-truck-load program, and shipments of the collection will be available after Jan. 15, 2020.
The new program will start with several exclusive frames in better leathers, PU leathers and fabrics.
“Behold Home has a quality standard that we refused to compromise in creating this motion import program,” said Harris, “and the Manwah factory met all our standards.”
Guy Ray, CEO of Manwah USA, added, “This business agreement with Behold Home is a new type of association between two major industries players. Behold Home’s, financial commitment will allow them to expand upon their already successful domestic distribution program.”
Manwah has recently completed a 4.5 million-square-foot factory in Vietnam. This totally vertical factory produces more than 70 production lines. The agreement with Behold Home is based on a limited number of exclusive frames.
NEW YORK — An assembly of 10 leading Afghan rug manufacturers will showcase top-quality hand-knotted pieces at a specially organized sales event here Nov. 1-3.
CONOVER, N.C. – Luxury furniture manufacturer Vanguard Furniture has reorganized its case goods team, adding two industry veterans to the mix and promoting a third.