Price plummets mahogany furniture business transformation is imminent

From the reddish price of wood to this year's "surge tide", there has been a round of roller coaster market in the mahogany furniture market.

Zhang Zhulin, president of the Bao'an District of Shenzhen City, admits that the mahogany furniture industry has entered a bottleneck stage. Shortages of resources, corporate transformation, product upgrades, and industry integrity issues all pose enormous challenges to mahogany furniture companies.

For environmental reasons, many countries have banned the export of logs from the country. Since most of the raw materials of the mahogany furniture industry rely on imports, they face the risk of shortage of raw materials. Some manufacturers admit that the quality of redwood imported from Southeast Asian countries such as Laos in recent years is getting worse and worse, and prices are rising. Some manufacturers have begun to switch to African procurement. “From the beginning of last year, Africa has also controlled the export of timber, and most of the progress is made of logs, but now it is basically a plate.”

Zhang Zhulin, a veteran mahogany player, said that the mahogany furniture industry is also short of talent. "Craftsmen and craftsmen are hard to find."

According to industry sources, breakthroughs in style and innovation are also a major issue for mahogany furniture companies. At present, most of the products in the market are copying or improvement, lacking substantial innovation. Wu Bingliang, chairman of Wuxing Xinglong Ming Style Furniture Art Co., Ltd., said that the current market is following the mainstream, and it is still confined to the mid-end consumers fighting for common styles and low-grade wood.

Xiong Xiaokun, a light industry researcher with China Investment Advisors, also pointed out that in the mahogany furniture industry, the phenomenon of “hanging sheep's head and selling dog meat” is more common; product prices are generally high and some companies have positioned the product's selling price several times or even several times; There are also some local companies that attract consumers under the name of "the largest and strongest" in the country, but their strength is far from reaching the level that can represent the country.

Chen Xinfeng, chairman of Zhongshan Changfeng Furniture Co., Ltd., said: “As one of the manufacturing industries, the mahogany furniture industry must face transformation and upgrading in the future, and this transformation and upgrade will surely need to shift to the growth of new elements, that is, through design. The R&D, software, and branding have been achieved in several areas. Now, the mahogany furniture industry is relatively single-minded and homogenous, and the key to a breakthrough is the ability to grasp trends, adjust strategies, and respond to changes."

All indications indicate that the transformation and upgrading of mahogany furniture companies are imminent.

The mahogany furniture market has great potential

“In the early days, I was fascinated by mahogany furniture, which was stable, seductive, and easy to use. Now, some mahogany furniture prices (down) down, just come and see.” Lao Liao is a faithful mahogany Furniture enthusiasts, he struggled for foreign companies in his early years, and began to keep scouring the mahogany furniture market after retirement. "Buying what you like will basically use it for yourself, and sometimes it will also be bartered between Tibetans and friends."

In the mahogany furniture market, young people can also be seen. Belong to the 80 after the small Xu and his fiancée together in the store swing, ready to pick a few pieces of mahogany antique furniture decorated with new homes. In his eyes, solid mahogany is embedded with exquisite carvings, which are lively and interesting. However, for some eye-catching but expensive mahogany furniture, Xiao Xu is still prohibitive. "After all, it's not a collection, so I'm more concerned about cost-effectiveness."

It is understood that young people like Xiao Xu are not a few young people. “These young people not only accept the European style of decoration, but also have a soft spot for the Chinese culture embodied in mahogany furniture, and their enthusiasm for consumption continues to rise.”

“However, due to the high price of mahogany furniture, it is really the main consumer. It is still the owners of enterprises with strong economic and financial resources. They tend to favor high-end mahogany furniture such as huanghuali and lobular rosewood, and some prefer custom-made mahogany furniture. Furniture is unique."

As the consumer groups of mahogany furniture continue to expand, the enterprises that produce and operate mahogany furniture are also growing rapidly. The mahogany furniture industry in our country has developed vigorously and flourished.

Zhang Zhulin is a veteran mahogany player. He founded the “Shenfa” mahogany furniture brand which is well-known in the industry. In 1980, because the original factory was to be demolished, he moved the factory from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and has been developing in the Guanlan area for more than 30 years. At the beginning, less than 100 square meters of factory buildings, more than a dozen employees, simple equipment, simply can not talk about what conditions. However, due to the early start, the Blue Ocean Competition era made Zhang Zhulin drink the head soup of the mahogany furniture industry, and profits have risen steadily.

Jiang Yuquan, chairman of Shenzhen Wanshengyu Redwood Furniture Co., Ltd., moved from Humen to Shenzhen Guanlan in 1998. In 1996, he chose to start his own business in Humen, mainly to process mahogany raw materials into semi-finished products and sell them to some large mahogany manufacturers. During the "SARS" period, he began to reposition his own business, went to Burma, Laos, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to purchase raw materials in mahogany countries, establish raw material bases and processing plants, and extended their industrial chain layout. In the financial crisis, Jiang Yuquan went a step further and began to build his own mahogany furniture brand and sell finished mahogany furniture. Currently, he has five showrooms in prime locations in Shenzhen, 18 direct sales stores throughout the country, 8,000 square meters of exhibition space in Guanlan, and 10,000 square meters of factory space in Guantao, in Laos and Vietnam. Cambodia also has more than a dozen mahogany raw material factories.

Resource scarcity into double-edged sword

Tight raw materials are a headache for all companies in the mahogany furniture industry.

Wood is rare. The scarcity of resources has made the price of mahogany furniture higher than that of ordinary hardwood furniture, which has become a key factor in the firmness and even higher price of mahogany furniture. "If this is not the case, you may not be able to fry too much if you want to fry." However, the scarcity of resources is also a double-edged sword. With the increasing emphasis on environmental protection by the international community, many countries have banned the export of logs from the country. At the same time, because most of the raw materials in the mahogany furniture industry are imported, the mahogany furniture industry has to face the risk of raw material shortage. .

Some manufacturers frankly stated that they have been importing mahogany from countries such as Laos and Southeast Asia. However, in recent years, the quality of mahogany imported from China has been getting worse and worse, and prices have been rising due to tight supply. “Our costs are also rising. The cycle of mahogany production is long, they are based on the consideration of the rareness of mahogany wood, but for us, resources are gone and development cannot continue.”

Some manufacturers have begun to switch to African procurement. “From the beginning of last year, Africa has also controlled the export of timber. Most of the advances are round logs, but now they are basically plates.”

According to the customs data for January-April this year, the average unit price of China's rosewood logs rose by 4.5% from the unit price of imported mahogany logs in the same period of last year. According to the data, the main sources of raw materials imported from China are India, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central and South America. Among them, India and Southeast Asia supply most of the redwood raw materials that our country needs. In recent years, these countries have reduced the exploitation of mahogany raw materials, and control the export of mahogany raw materials, which has led to a decrease in the import of precious timber in China and the rising prices of domestic mahogany furniture.

Zhang Zhulin said that the shortage of resources in the mahogany furniture industry is not only reflected in raw materials, but also in talent. "Craftsmen and craftsmen are hard to find."

It is understood that at present, the degree of mechanization of mahogany furniture companies is not high, and traditional manual work is commonly used. Because most of the production process of mahogany furniture must be done manually, except that some processes can be used for machining. With the continuous improvement of the working environment and wage levels of domestic workers, fewer and fewer artisans are willing to follow traditional craftsmanship, making it difficult for many companies to recruit.

According to industry sources, breakthroughs in style and innovation are also a major issue for mahogany furniture companies. Most of the current products in the market are copying or improvement, lacking substantial innovation. Wu Bingliang, chairman of Wuxing Xinglong Ming Style Furniture Art Co., Ltd., said that the current market is following the mainstream, and it is still confined to the struggle of middle-end consumers with ordinary styles and low-grade wood.

It is worth mentioning that, in recent years, the custom of the style of mahogany furniture has prevailed. A mahogany manufacturing company stated that nearly half of its sales come from private orders. However, correspondingly, China's private customized market is not mature, and more is the psychological needs of customers in order to meet their wealth.

Some experts frankly stated that in any case, the future private custom will be the general trend of the development of mahogany furniture industry. According to industry insiders, there are also customers with customers in the private customized market, and market growth is also relatively strong. The privately-owned manufacturers of mahogany furniture revealed that they are targeting customers with assets of over 100 billion yuan, and these talents are the real buyers of private custom furniture.

New national standard is expected to curb market chaos

Xiong Xiaokun said that the prices of mahogany furniture products are generally high and some companies have positioned the product's selling price several times or even several times as much as its cost. Industry insiders told reporters that even if it is made of mahogany furniture, the price difference is also quite a lot.

The drop in the price of mahogany furniture and general hardwood furniture has made some businesses unable to satisfy the gains gained from normal operations in the face of tempting market cakes. They have begun to spread in the market by falsifying and shoddy acts.

According to the statistics of the China Consumer Association, complaints about mahogany furniture have increased dramatically in recent years. The amount of complaints against mahogany furniture accepted in the single year last year accounted for 31.85% of all furniture complaints.

Xiong Xiaokun said that many businesses in the industry are doing the trick of selling dog meat. The finger-joint plates spliced ​​with deep-processed pieces of solid wood are used as the base material of mahogany furniture, and then they are affixed with solid wood, or a large amount of white hides are included in the furniture parts, and then masked by the paint coloring. This type of fraud is high and difficult to find. Even if it is detected, the merchants can quibble and think that whether they are small pieces of spliced ​​fingerboards or sapwood, they are still mahogany.

In addition to the fraud of raw materials, some businesses also fool consumers on the process. For example, it is not produced in accordance with the traditional ramming structure process, but glued or metal parts are connected. Over time, the two will be separated from each other. Experts said that if mahogany furniture products are significantly lower than the market price, consumers must pay attention to whether or not there are trickery.

In order to standardize the mahogany furniture market, on August 1 this year, the national standard “General Technical Conditions for Redwood Furniture” (abbreviated as “the new national standard”) was finally approved by the AQSIQ and the National Standardization Management Committee after two years of revision. .

Unlike the "People's Republic of China National Standard (Redwood)" promulgated in 2000, the new national standard has technical specifications for mahogany furniture, including the terms, definitions, product naming, classification, major dimensions, requirements, and quality of the mahogany furniture. Such as a number of content, which all put forward higher requirements for the production of mahogany furniture companies. The new standard clearly stipulates that each piece of mahogany furniture must have a "Marchwood furniture product quality express card." When the consumer purchases, if they find that the mahogany furniture they bought is not the same as the board, they can use the “Muslim Wood Furniture Quality Express Card” as evidence for claims and claims.

For the implementation of the new national standard, the General Secretary of the China Furniture Association Traditional Furniture Professional Committee, Jiang Hengfu, said that this standard is a standard for Chinese traditional hardwood furniture developed for the first time at home and abroad, including mahogany. It is used to standardize the standard of the entire traditional hardwood industry. As a mandatory standard, its implementation will increase the standardization of industry enterprises, and it will also protect the interests of enterprises and protect consumer rights and promote the sound development of mahogany furniture industry. Play an active role.

However, at present, the market's reaction to the new national standard is not the same. An interview with the reporter found that not all businesses have already equipped quality cards on mahogany furniture products. The generally accepted view in the industry is that the new national standard is more focused on low-end mahogany furniture products, and has little impact on high-end products.

High-end mahogany furniture will continue to increase prices

China Redwood Committee recently released the "China Redwood Import Situation Analysis Report" pointed out that the supply and demand of the mahogany industry is basically stable, the price of mahogany products will continue to collapse, in the adjustment period. The mahogany high-end products market may recover first, and there are signs of a rapid increase in market share, while prices will also appear a certain degree of rising opportunities.

According to customs statistics, from January to April of this year, China imported 251,200 cubic meters of redwood logs, an increase of 142,800 cubic meters compared with the same period of last year, with a growth rate of 131.7%. The growth is very significant; the total import value reached 294.402 million US dollars. , a year-on-year increase of 142%.

In the Hongmu material market in Guanlan District, Shenzhen, apart from the slight decrease in the prices of some raw materials for handicrafts (decoration renderings), the prices of medium and large materials have remained flat and slightly increased. All brands of furniture companies have excellent materials and exquisite mahogany furniture. Product prices rose slightly.

According to industry sources, in some collectible high-end products in the hands of collectors, as long as they get the market to trade, the price will not only not fall, but will also rise, but the increase did not occur as fast as the last round of speculation. However, the high-end products of mahogany furniture still have room to preserve and add value.

Qiu Dehou, chairman of Guangdong Caiyan Co., Ltd., said that the Guangdong mahogany furniture industry market has extremely unique personality characteristics. “As affected by the geographical environment and policy guidelines, Guangdong is an exogenous economy in terms of economic form. This historical reason has led to the initiation phase of the mahogany furniture industry in Guangdong. In the strategic positioning of enterprises, foreign investment has been accepted by Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States. Corporate ideology has a greater impact, and when private enterprises really start to set up factories, they naturally combine the advantages of foreign capital companies in capital, management, and branding with the advantages of private enterprises in marketing, forming a mutual relationship. Supplementary and mutually reinforcing development atmosphere."

However, in the face of the pressure brought about by the price adjustment of mahogany furniture, Chen Xinfeng, chairman of Zhongshan Changfeng Furniture Co., Ltd., called on the mahogany furniture companies to adjust according to the market. “As one of the manufacturing industries, the mahogany furniture industry must face transformation and upgrading in the future, and this transformation and upgrading will surely shift to the growth of new elements, that is to say, through design, research and development, software and branding. Now, the mahogany furniture industry is relatively single-competitive and has a serious homogeneity, but the key to making breakthroughs lies in grasping trends, adjusting strategies, and responding to changes."

Wu Bingliang said that mahogany furniture companies must have a clear strategic positioning. "Only the integration of product positioning, brand positioning and corporate positioning, and the discovery of their own unique, difficult to be copied and copied competitiveness, mahogany furniture companies may be able to adapt to the market, invincible. For example, unique Excavate specific markets, target marketing, and then avoid homogenous competition.Utilize high-quality services and products to shape the unique personality, culture and good image of consumers in the eyes of consumers. The internal competition within the industry also reduces the degree of influence of the economic environment."

Shenzhen wants to build mahogany industry leader

Guangzuo, Jingzuo and Suzuo are the three schools of mahogany furniture, driving the development of the mahogany furniture industry in Guangdong, Beijing, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. With the changes of the times and the development of the industry, the mahogany furniture industry in some regions is in decline, and some areas of the mahogany furniture industry are rising again. Today, China's mahogany furniture industry has formed a three-footed situation in Zhongshan, Guangdong, Dongyang, Zhejiang, and Xianyou, Fujian. The rising star has also shouted the slogan to build a mahogany industry leader. It is understood that there are probably more than 100 mahogany furniture companies in Shenzhen Guanlan area.

Xiong Xiaokun, a light industry researcher at China Investment Advisors Co., Ltd., said that compared with other regions, Shenzhen has many advantages in developing the mahogany furniture industry. For example, Shenzhen has developed into the country's largest redwood production and timber distribution center. Nearly 80% of the country's mahogany raw materials are sourced from Shenzhen. Among the top ten brands in the country, Shenzhen accounts for six, and the output value accounts for more than 30% of the country's total. The disadvantages are mainly reflected in costs and transportation. “With the increase in the cost of raw materials and labor, the production cost of mahogany furniture has also risen; and due to the transportation distance, Shenzhen also has a bottleneck in the development of mahogany furniture.”

Shenzhen mahogany furniture company broke through

The mahogany industry has a long history. Why does the young Shenzhen have a close relationship with it?

It is understood that the information that Shenzhen announced that it wants to create a global leader in the redwood industry was held in June this year at the press conference for the preparation of the first Southeast Asia (China-Laos) Redwood Jumbo Cultural Forum. The forum will be held in Guanlan District in Shenzhen at the end of this year. It is expected that 800 people will attend the event by then. The organizers said that it is necessary to establish it as an "Oscar" for the world's mahogany industry. It also said that it will be the highest level academic exchange summit for the international mahogany industry, and it will be a gathering of Chinese mahogany industry elites and a collective of outstanding mahogany manufacturers in China. Image display. Shenzhen hopes to take advantage of this forum to lay the global redwood industry leader.

The person in charge of the Organizing Committee's office said that after the forum, the organizing committee will promote the Redwood Jumbo cultural product market in various forms, form a Chinese Redwood Jumbo Enterprise Alliance, establish a Laos Redwood Jumbo franchise brand, and plan to invest in the Redwood home Art Street is relying on Shenzhen to build the world's largest Redwood Zhenbao Cultural Industrial Park. Therefore, Shenzhen will eventually be formed as the center, through Laos, the entire Southeast Asian redwood resources will be rationally allocated, and a number of excellent mahogany manufacturing and brand manufacturers will be fostered in China to achieve leapfrog development. By then, Guanlan area in Shenzhen may become the largest and most high-end mahogany boutique display and marketing base in the country, and Shenzhen will also become the “owner” of the global mahogany industry.

According to industry insiders, as the valuable timber required for the development of China's mahogany industry depends mainly on imports, the advantage of being adjacent to Hong Kong's ports, and the advantages of inheriting the arts and crafts of Cantonese-style mahogany furniture and the advantages of human resources all make Shenzhen an ideal place for Redwood enterprises to take root.

Shenzhen Redwood Production Distribution Center

Shenzhen rosewood industry has developed since the 1970s. Today, it has a large number of well-known mahogany brands such as Shenfa, Taiheyuan, Midland, Youlian, Wanshengyu, and Jordan.

According to the person in charge of the Shenzhen Redwood Furniture Industry Association, Shenzhen's mahogany furniture market has shown a good situation in both production and sales, forming Luohu District Art Exhibition Center, Mingzhu Art City, Futian District Jinhaima Home Furnishing Expo Center, Fuyong Town, Bao'an District. , Guanlan Redwood Home Art Street and other five mahogany furniture exhibition base. Shenzhen Redwood Enterprise has won more than 100 national awards and many works have entered the National Museum.

The data shows that nearly 80% of the customers in Guangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and other parts of the country are purchasing mahogany raw materials from Shenzhen Guanlan area. At present, there are hundreds of mahogany furniture manufacturers in Shenzhen. Last year, the output value of Shenzhen Redwood nearly 10 billion yuan, accounting for more than 30% of the country. Among the top ten brands in the country, Shenzhen has six seats. They are Shenfa, Taiheyuan, Midland, Youlian, Wanshengyu, and Jordan, etc. The first-class woodcarvers and skilled craftsmen all over the country also gather in Shenzhen, Shenzhen. Nearly a thousand classical furniture professionals. Shenzhen has become the country's largest mahogany production and timber distribution.

It is understood that Shenzhen's redwood products are currently divided into two categories. One is the high-end collection-quality products, the main products are large sofas, pen holders, screens, hanging screens, etc., which the United States created the "Jiang Shan Duo Jiao" hit the first mahogany furniture Guinness Book of Records, and hit the highest auction of modern mahogany furniture Record. In 2011, Shenzhen Yayi Taiheyuan Silk Carving Tan's fine pen holder “Cold Bird Map” became one of the 18 wood carving boutiques in the National Museum of Tibet. The second category is high-end antique furniture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The main products include sofas, several cases, tables and chairs, sleeping beds, and cupboards.

In order to expand the influence of Shenzhen Hongmu, the Shenzhen Municipal Government is also actively operating. The Longhua New Area, the main gathering place of Shenzhen Redwood Enterprises, actively builds the "Redwood Furniture Expo Park" and builds the Redwood Furniture Museum and the Redwood Experience Park.