"Fill Green, Feel Good": TIFF 2012 Features Eco-friendly Furniture
Thai furniture industry recovers quickly from last year's disastrous flooding
2012/06/21 | By Judy LiThe Thailand International Furniture Fair (TIFF) 2012, co-organized by the Department of Export Promotion, Furniture Industry Group of the Federation of Thai Industries, and Thai Furniture Industries Association, was held on Mar. 14-18 at BITEC in Bangkok. The five-day event drew more than 120 leading furniture companies from Thailand and beyond to man over 600 booths, which presented a vast variety of eco-friendly furniture items under the theme of ‘Fill Green, Feel Good'.
“We hope that this emphasis on green furniture-making technologies will once again underline Thailand's exceptional furniture design and production capabilities in meeting the increasing world demand for eco-friendly furniture,” said Minister of Commerce Boonsong Teriyapirom at the opening ceremony.
This year's event put heavy emphasis on distinctive furniture designs as well as compliance with environmentally friendly production standards.
Last year the Thai furniture industry was struck by the severe impact of the huge floods that swept through most parts of the country, pushing growth of furniture exports down to a level slightly lower than the previous year. However, after the water receded signs of recovery quickly emerged. “Our exports during the initial part of 2012 indicated a significant growth, both to Asian countries and emerging high-potential markets such as Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, South Korea, China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates,” noted Teriyapirom. “We can now happily anticipate that this year's total furniture exports will be worth over US$980 million.”
TIFF 2012 featured five exhibitions:
--Industrial Cluster Development exhibition, presenting the design capabilities of the Thai lifestyle industry.
Sophisticated Equipment for Quality Products
Among the prominent exhibitors was the Deesawat Industries Co., founded in 1972 and now one of the leaders of the thriving wood industry in Thailand. The company, based in the Laksi Area of Bangkok, has over 200 skilled workers at a 28,000-square-meter production facility that uses sophisticated woodworking equipment to ensure the output of quality products.
Thanks to constant improvement and design development, Deesawat has built up a solid foundation and strong foothold in the world market. The company has won the Design Excellence Award (DE-Mark Award) in each of the last three years and was awarded a ‘Green Factory Certificate' in 2010 by the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion of Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Today Deesawat has established own brand, ‘DEES,' and operates four showrooms in Bangkok. “We specialize in solid timber millwork using materials including teakwood, rosewood, white oak, walnut, and blackwood,” commented a senior Deesawat official. “Focusing on eco-chic furniture manufacturing, most of our designs are in a tropical contemporary style for those who admire coolness and the preservation of nature.”
Among the company's products are high-quality, natural contemporary wooden furniture items such as chairs, lounges, benches, stools, and side tables for exterior furnishing. “Our products are equally suited for residential, restaurant, hospital, park, and corporate environments, and all manner of public areas,” the official stated.
“We have recovered quickly from last year's big flood,” he went on. “The furniture market in Thailand is booming as many households change their flood-dampened furniture, and the business climate in the market is expected to be even better next year.
“Compared to world's leading furniture companies, Deesawat is relatively small; but our products are distinctive, with a taste of Thai culture. Most of our products are made of wood, with 80% of the materials being locally sourced and 20% imported. Wood is an eco-friendly renewable material. Today the global market seems to be turning from the West to the Orient, and we are going to further explore markets in Asia, particularly China and Taiwan.”
Established in 2004, the Relux Innovation Co. is an exporter of various kinds of products under its own ‘Relux' brand. In late 2007 the company launched multipurpose pushcarts with antique designs in the market.
Hand-made Pushcarts
Today Relux is the only manufacturer in Thailand of pushcarts, which serve mostly as food stands. “Our pushcarts are made mainly of quality metal and steel, and they are almost 100% hand-made,” emphasized Alisra Veeranopparat, the company's export director. “We sell ready-made products and also accept special orders for carts with logos and designs provided by the customers.”
“Since our pushcarts are all hand-made, it usually takes a long time to develop them; in general, a 12-person team can develop one small-sized cart in 30 days; a medium-sized cart requires about 45-60 days, and a large one 60-90 days.”
Relux runs three factories with a total of 120 workers in Bankok, turning out pushcarts along with various furniture items. About 80% of the products are exported, mainly to the United States, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Last year the company suffered losses of about two million baht (around US$66,666) because of flood damage, but has recovered quickly and regained its strength. “We are glad that we can attend TIFF 2012,” Veeranopparat said. “Some furniture manufacturers in the country are still busy dealing with the aftermath of the flood.”
Bua Bhat Factory Ltd. was established about 25 years ago in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. “My aunt is a designer, and she founded this company,” explained Tosspol Bhaatiyasevi, the firm's marketing manager. “Her idea was to use fabric or cloth discarded by local textile plants to make cushions, pillows, mats, and other seating items.”
Working at Home
Bua Bhat is Thailand's only manufacturer of such handmade soft furnishing for homes. “Our factory has a workforce of 40 persons, but more than 200 other people work for us on a family OEM basis,” Bhatiyasevi commented. “Our outside workers are mostly women, often mothers with small children. This allows them to earn money while remaining at home and maintaining a traditional Thai-village lifestyle.”
“Actually our products are made of 100% new materials discarded by garment factories, which we up-cycle into handmade soft seating items. In compliance with the global eco-trend, we always keep recycling in our mind and in our everyday lives.”
Bua Bhat exports 80% of its products, mostly to Europe and the U.S., and puts a minimum of US$2,000 on the orders it accepts. “Although our major clients come mainly from Europe and U.S.,” Bhatiyasevi noted, “this year we met some new buyers from Asia at TIFF.”
Ming's Co. is a Thai furniture manufacturer established by a Chinese Thai. “My father set up the company about 30 years ago,” reported the firm's managing director, Thunyawat Wongpaisarnkit, “and in the beginning we produced Chinese-style furniture for sale to the local Chinese Thai. Thailand has millions of Chinese who massively migrated from China a century or two ago.
“Thailand also had a lot of U.S. servicemen based here, so we sold the furniture to them. Then we went on to export our products to the U.S. starting some 20 years ago, and later on expanded our market to Europe,” Wongpaisarnkit said.
“With the rise of China, the Chinese style seems to have become a fashion in recent years and our high-end Ming-style furniture has gained increasing popularity in the world market. We are also happy to see our business balloon in the domestic market,” he added.
“TIFF is a good venue for us to display our products and reach foreign buyers. We have received a lot of inquiries at TIFF 2012,” he concluded.
Using an Unwanted Plant
Performax Co. has been involved in furniture-making since 1995, turning out items made of the water hyacinth. “The Water hyacinth is widely seen in Thailand, and is a kind of tropical water plant that can multiply itself within a few weeks,” explained Shutima Khantiphan, a Performax director. “It has beautiful violet flowers, but it proliferates so rapidly that gardeners discarded it into public waterways, which it now congests.”
“Taking advantage of its strong fiber, endurance, and beauty, we take this unwanted plant and laboriously process it into household furniture that presents a warm and natural ambiance. Thais also use the plant to make other kinds of products needed in daily life.”
Thanks to the eco-friendly trend, Performax has seen the popularity of its products grow in the international market. “We export 95% of our furniture products,” reported Khantiphan. “The United States, Europe, and Japan are our major export outlets, with Japan taking the lion's share of 50% of the total.”
The company has a 200-worker factory on the outskirt of Bangkok. “Last year a lot of factories were damaged by the prolonged flooding, but our factory survived and has operated very well,” the director noted. “In addition to the water hyacinth, we intend to take bamboo into our materials pool so that we can create more different kinds of natural furniture.”
Siam Glory Woodwork Co., a Thai hardwood furniture supplier, displayed a variety of attractive crude hardwood furniture at TIFF 2012. “We provide natural hardwood furniture to upscale markets both at home and abroad,” stated Sirichai Treepichpakdee, general manager of the company. “Half of our products are sold on the domestic market and the other half are exported to the U.S. and Europe, mainly Italy and the U.K.”
“We create our furniture depending on the shape of the hardwood we get, and we try to maintain as much of the original look of the hardwood as possible. In the beginning we could obtain enough materials locally; now we have to import hardwood burls from neighboring Laos and Myanmar, since the Thai government recently prohibited the felling of hardwood,” Treepichpakdee said.
“Every piece of our furniture is a work of art that often takes a long time to finish. As the rich people in Japan and China like high-end hardwood furniture items, we believe those markets are promising. The only thing we worry about is the supply of hardwood,” he said.
Siam Glory's artistic hardwood furniture drew intense attention from visitors at TIFF 2012. “We have received many inquires during the exhibition,” Treepichpakdee noted, “and the success of the show this year gives us great confidence in the future.”