Designs for Hard Times

MANILA, Philippines - Battered but not beaten. This seems to be the battlecry of the Cebu furniture industry despite being one of the sectors hardest hit by global economic woes. As a counter-measure, the Cebu furniture sector is re-directing its focus on product development, a thrust embodied in this year’s staging of the Cebu Furniture and Furnishings Show (Cebu X) 2009.

Consistent cutting-edge designs and craftsmanship have earned Cebu X the tag “Design Destination of Asia,” and for its 20th year, it pushed the theme of resiliency through more creativity. For this year, P18 million was spent for the preparations and actual exhibition, P5 million more than last year. According to Eric Casas, president of the organizing group Cebu Furniture Industries.

Foundation (CFIF), “Even if everybody is so pessimistic because of the global economic crisis, we’ve really pushed our limits by pouring in P18 million to be able to come out with this kind of exhibition. And we’re not spending P18 million for nothing. This year, it’s a lot more interesting.”

Noteworthy in this year’s staging was the partnership Cebu X forged with the Department of Tourism, which subsidized P2 million of the expense and helped in the international and national media promotions. Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said that they believe the tourism and furniture industries are closely interwoven. “If there’s one industry that features and offers the best of the country – its culture and creativity – that’s the furniture industry,” says Durano. 

DOT is looking to create year-round programs and packages, similar to what they’re doing for tourism operators, media and the like, to give further exposure and attention to the Cebu furniture sector, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s furniture export sales, according to Department of Trade and Industry figures. 

The support extended by DOT to Cebu X is a recognition of the exhibit as a tourism draw. Over a thousand buyers from all over the world descend here each year for Cebu X. Last year, it generated attendance of over 1,500 buyers and made $15.4 million in sales, up slightly from the previous year’s $15 million. Casas believes that the island-province itself is the other main attraction for the buyers. “That’s the strength of Cebu X. More buyers are coming to Cebu because they feel that when they’re here, they’re able to do business, and then pleasure,” says Casas. 

But the effects of the economic slump could not be ignored. Visibly felt was the dip in exhibitor participation, given that 26 CFIF member companies have closed shop from 2007 to December 2008. Only 55 exhibitors occupied 1,740 sq.m. as compared to last year’s 85 exhibitors who occupied 2,784 sq. m. – a 34 percent and 38 percent decline in participation and space.   

International buyer attendance has, as expected, declined as well as two of Cebu’s biggest markets – the United States and Japan – are facing deep recession. CFIF said that Cebu X 2009 was visited by 1,035 buyers, although official sales figures were not yet available. Casas, however, stressed that what they were optimistic about was the presence of serious buyers. “If the buyers are traveling half way around the world, then they’re not here to window-shop, they’re here to do business.”  

Cebu X 2009, more than just a showcase of the “best of the best” in the furniture and furnishings, offered a look into what the furniture sector here has been doing to survive what industry leaders see as their toughest year.   

According to CFIF, Cebu exports, based on the number of containers, have plunged by 18 percent and the biggest bulk of that drop came in the final quarter of last year. This is apart from the retrenchment mode that the sector finds itself in. There are already 20,000-plus unemployed and displaced workers laid off by 95 furniture factories, according to Casas. 

Industry leaders are resigned to the hard fact that it’s not going to get better this year.

Pacific Traders Inc.’s Charles Streegan, who’s been in the furniture export business for 35 years, laments, “The state of the industry is terrible and this year’s lost.”  

Streegan, however, says that “this is a defining moment for the industry and a great opportunity for us to improve operations and work on product development as we wait for things to get better in 2010.” 

Internationally-acclaimed Cebuano furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue, for his part, says, “From this crisis, I think we will come out stronger.”  

“The challenge for us now is more on creating something unique that will make us a design destination in the truest sense of the word. The world actually doesn’t need another chair, so we have to come up with something that would make consumers really want to have it,” Cobonpue adds.  

This direction was highlighted through the setting of the Materials Manipulation Program, one of the four key areas under the Design and Product Development Programs (DPDP) undertaken by CFIF, which are all about working around the sector’s core competence in design and maximizing available resources. A tie-up with the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) and mentored by German consultants, this program employed fresh and exciting applications and technologies to re-create products out of existing, traditional or newfound materials.

“These include materials you’d normally find in the trash bin,” notes German consultant Ingrid Haufe.

The end results came in the form of truly out-of-the-box, strikingly-crafted pieces that are functional and cost-efficient – from sheets of paper transformed into tables, cow bones and other waste materials finding new life as bowls, bamboo strips woven into chairs, rattan into lamps, etcetera.

These “manipulated locally available materials” were fashioned for a purpose, which is also to meet the interest of European clientele, one of the emerging markets the Cebu furniture sector is targeting, along with Middle East. Some of the pieces were already debuted at the Ambiente show in Frankfurt, Germany last month with “very positive feedback,” reports Haufe.

The exhibit also displayed a fun furniture category consisting of whimsical conversation pieces, plus avante-garde products done in collaboration with some internationally-recognized names in Philippine design. Val Padilla, Luisa de los Santos-Robinson, Carlos Tanseco, Tes Pasola, Gregg Heutel, Josef Crisanto, Rene Ybanez, Cynthia Sarmiento, Arnel Santillan, Fernando Villarin, Jerry Cabiluna, Leo Sano and Marco Corti were commissioned during the run-up to Cebu X 2009 under the Design Mentorship program. 

There were also furniture products courtesy of the 40 top design students from the University of the Philippines (Diliman and Cebu College), University of San Carlos, and De La Salle College of St. Benilde who participated in DPDP’s Student Internship Program.  

The most innovative and the best of the bunch were recognized via the Mugna Awards (“mugna” means “to invent” in Cebuano). This year presented a fresh crop of winners, with the exception of Interior Crafts of Kenneth Cobonpue who won Best Home Accessory Design for coming up with the Little People Hanging Lamp, made of paper framed by steel wire.

The rest of the design awardees were Skyshine Furniture’s Louis XV chest (traditional); APY Cane Inc.’s decker chair designed by Josef Crisanto (transitional); Classical Geometry’s Salvaro bench designed by Clayton Tugonon (contemporary); Celloom Furniture’s Greco Collection designed by Pegimen Tigbao (outdoor); and Kirsten International’s Spiracle Table designed by Mirei Ong of St. Benilde (student design).  

As in past years, the designs at Cebu X 2009 continued to make waves among foreign buyers. On his first visit to Cebu X, Dean Clark, who supplies furniture to hotels in the US and elsewhere through his company Aspects Furniture Inc., says, “I noticed that the furniture and furnishings here are more natural, more primitive, and less highly-manufactured, which are what US and international hotels are now looking for. This exhibit is much, much better than what I expected.”

“At the end of the day, as much as we are affected, we still have business to do,” Casas says. “The people exhibiting in this show are definitely in for the long haul.”  

True, the troubles for the furniture sector are far from over, but Cebu X 2009 amply demonstrated “resiliency in action.” Indeed, for a design-powered industry that finds itself hurting and its back against the wall, what better way to cope than to turn to what it has mastered and known best – creativity.