Furniture manufacturers told to tap the local market niche

CEBU, Philippines - While waiting for the anticipated rebound of the global furniture market, local manufacturers are urged to seriously consider the local market specifically the booming real estate sector in the Philippines.

Eduardo Zuluaga of the Chamber of Furniture Industry in the Philippines (CFIP) said that there is “actually” a promising local market for furniture makers here, and that Cebu can leverage on this, considering its prestige in the furniture making in the world.

“There’s a market niche that has not been tapped in the Philippines. There are a lot of new hotels, resorts and condominiums being built, especially in Cebu. The market is here,” Zuluaga said.

With thousands of condominiums that are currently on the construction, and hotels and resorts to be put up, local furniture makers can tap this growing institutional market, he said.

In Metro Manila for instance, there is a sizeable market that doesn’t mind to pay “crazy” amount of money, just to have a good “designed” furniture piece on their homes.

Zuluaga further suggested that Cebuano furniture makers have to actively penetrate the Metro Manila market, saying “rich people in Manila that ‘hate’ their money are willing to spend and buy good and uniquely designed furniture and home furnishings.”

In the furniture industry, Zuluaga said players are also holding their future on their hands. Now, that the traditional export market is still at large, the booming local market will take the center-stage and will keep the companies’ plants alive.

“We can create a fad or a movement to stay alive,” Zuluaga said reiterating that the market is right “in our own backyard.”

Although, some furniture exporters in Cebu are already tapping the local institutional market and stay on business amid the weak global demand, some makers are still struggling to make the local market as an alternative.

Zuluaga suggested that Cebuano furniture makers have to make aggressive marketing penetration in Metro Manila and not only limit their scope in Cebu and neighboring provinces to get sizeable orders from institutional clients.

Although the furniture industry here acknowledged that the active domestic market may have served as an “industry savior” during the difficult global market situation, industry players said local demand is not enough to sustain the life of the business.

“We really have to go out there and look for more markets abroad. Domestic market is only a ‘band-aid’ solution especially that local sales come from institutional clients and demand is not constant,” said Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF) president Angela Paulin.

Paulin however, admitted that the shift of other furniture companies to entertain local clients had made the industry survived, but focusing on local market alone, can not sustain the industry’s life-long survival.

At the height of the global crisis, most furniture companies in Cebu were able to get good orders from local institutional clients, such as new hotels and resorts in famous tourism destinations, like Boracay, Palawan, Bohol and big clients in Manila, and in Cebu. (THE FREEMAN)