GTH exporters not giving up on crisis

The Gifts, Toys and Housewares Association of Exporters in Cebu (Cebu-GTH) is riding the flow of the crisis and far from giving up.

“We are riding on with the crisis. In our business, where we make affordable home furniture accents, like basketry, we are not as affected by the furniture makers," said Cebu-GTH president Ramir Bonghanoy.

However, the industry still has to determine the real bottomline effect of the global economic meltdown after the first quarter of this year, as the first three months is the ordering season.

So far, Bonghanoy said the industry is "surviving" with drips of orders from international buyers and volumes are not as big as the usual.

"Even our big brands clients are very cautious, orders have shrunk," he said. Most GTH exporters in Cebu are serving big brands like Louis Vuitton, Ann Klein, Banana Republic, Liz Claiborne, Kenneth Cole, among others.

Bonghanoy said although the crisis really has "shaken" the GTH sector, industry players have been able to manage the effect of crisis effectively by adjusting to the specific needs of their clients without spending too much on machinery and large inventory.

"In our business, we can adjust quickly. Besides, our products are not as expensive as furniture. We are still surviving," said Bonghanoy, who owns Bon Ace Fashion Tools, which makes components for Louis Vuitton products, among other brands.

While, the sector is yet to calibrate its business movement for this year, Bonghanoy said everyone is "holding on."

"Although we are cautious, we still are spending on aggressive marketing strategies," he said explaining that attending international shows is still part of the plan, seeing the long term effect for its business.

GTH-Cebu former president Jenifer Cruz, also said that players are now extra careful in selecting which international show to attend to, as this will incur considerable expenses for the company.

What saved the industry from being totally crippled, is the sustaining orders from what the industry described as "savior markets," like Brazil, Russia, India, China and Middle East.

Unlike furniture products, consumers can easily change their home accents, with or without crisis, because buying an item or two cannot hurt their pockets, Cruz said.

Since the crisis, started to "scratch the ground" last year, only two GTH-Cebu company members had declared temporary shutdown, Bonghanoy said workers affected were minimal.

"We are mostly employing contractual workers—crisis or no crisis. That's why the emphasis of lay-off is not emphasized clearly in our industry. But, I admit, that renewal of contracts this time, is not as aggressive as it used to be," he said.

To date, GTH-Cebu has a total of 103 company members. These are all surviving, Cruz said.

The industry however, is not hoping for growth this year, "survival is our growth," Cruz said.     

Of the US$30 million average home furnishing exports of the Philippines, about 40 percent of comes from the GTH sector.