Furniture enterprises are trying to survive the third year of the epidemic: the money in their pockets is almost consumed
"On the first day of the exhibition, five exhibitors signed up to join (dealers). Three of them have been paying attention to the improvement process of the company's products, and now they finally decided to join." Liulongxiang, manager of poetry home, said in an interview that the first half of the year was affected by the epidemic, especially in April, and the company did feel the pressure. Coupled with the postponement of many exhibitions, the company needs to adjust its direction in time, but offline exhibitions are still the most efficient way to get customers, and will also be the focus of work in the second half of the year.
Reporters at the scene saw that the venue was crowded, and furniture dealers from all over the country shuttled through the venue.
Many furniture manufacturers said that they faced many difficulties in both export and domestic sales in the first half of the year. They were cautious and optimistic about the second half of the year and planned to further expand the domestic market. Under the current complex situation, the holding of offline exhibitions has also boosted the confidence of the industry.
The export situation is more complex
"At the beginning of the year, our expectations for exports this year were good. We expected a wave of orders before Easter, but we didn't expect a conflict between Russia and Ukraine." Bijinrong, CEO of Nicator, said in an interview that in the long run, the development of the domestic market will be better than that of exports.
Nikator is a German high-end furniture brand, which was founded in 1734 and entered in 2000. Initially, it was OEM for foreign countries and was mainly exported to the European market. In recent years, with the development of the market, several production factories have begun to switch to domestic sales. Some factories have completely supplied the domestic market, and some domestic sales account for about 50%.
Bijinrong said that this year, the proportion of domestic sales will definitely be larger, which is related to the export situation and the strategic adjustment of the enterprise itself. On the one hand, the export OEM is relatively passive, which is easily affected by external factors, and the initiative to make a brand for the domestic market is stronger. On the other hand, at present, the export market is facing the problem of insufficient orders. European and American markets are relatively obvious, and Southeast Asia and the Middle East are relatively better.
Data released by the General Administration of Customs on July 13 showed that from January to June this year, the total export volume of furniture and its parts was 226.47 billion yuan, compared with 226.13 billion yuan in the same period last year, an increase of 0.2% year-on-year.
Yihan think tank believes that overseas, according to the research of consulting firm Smith Leonard, the demand for new orders of American furniture fell by 21% from January to April, and the orders of nearly 70% of market participants fell. With the decline in demand in North America and other regions, it is expected that the subsequent export growth rate will continue to decline, and there is a certain pressure on the acquisition of orders.
Similarly, zhangweiming, executive chairman of Shunde Furniture Association, chairman of Shunde Furniture Association brand alliance and chairman of sofini furniture, also said in an interview that the export situation this year is not ideal, so now the best way for enterprises to survive is to do internal and external circulation together, with exports and domestic sales, so that the development of enterprises will be more stable.
However, some enterprises reported that the export situation in the first half of the year was relatively stable and had little change. Yang Wen, the National Investment Promotion Director of livable home, said in an interview that from the perspective of container loading, the export situation of the parent company was relatively stable in the first half of the year, with little change. Although the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had some impact on the export business, there was no sharp decline in orders, which was generally stable.
Livable home was founded in 2018. Its parent company is Dongguan Rongma Furniture Co., Ltd. It started its business in leather. In 2006, it began to do foreign trade in upholstered furniture, mainly in the European market. At present, its export business accounts for about 80% to 90%.
Referring to the production scheduling, Yang Wen also said frankly that in the past, the production scheduling was basically half a year later, especially at the end of 2020, some foreign trade orders could not be received, and production could not come. Now the production scheduling is basically 2-3 months.
Decline in domestic demand for furniture narrowed
Generally speaking, March is the traditional furniture exhibition season, which should be the time when the industry recovers and enterprises actively compete for orders. Due to the outbreak of local epidemics in many places this year, various large furniture product fairs originally planned to be held in Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places had to be postponed or suspended. At the same time, the market atmosphere began to change.
In April this year, Wang Ke, chairman of Guangdong Furniture Association, mentioned at the 2022 economic analysis (video) conference of Guangdong furniture industry that Guangdong furniture industry is facing eight new problems: the total retail sales of furniture nationwide fell at the beginning of the year; Furniture price adjustment pressure rises; The epidemic affected furniture exhibitions; The epidemic affected furniture production; The epidemic affects market sales; The whole packaging market starts the battle; Real estate cooperation projects exploded; The price of raw and auxiliary materials rose.
According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, in the first half of the year, enterprises above the national furniture quota achieved a total retail sales of 73 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.0%. In June, the national retail sales of furniture was 15.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%, the previous value was -12.20%, and the decline in domestic demand for furniture narrowed. Although domestic sales were under pressure in the first half of the year, the interviewed enterprises all planned to increase the domestic market.
Sophini is an established enterprise with a history of 38 years. It is the first generation of Shunde upholstered furniture brand, and its products are mainly exported to the European market. Zhang Weiming said that functional sofa accounts for as much as 30% of the European and American upholstered furniture market, but it is still a very new category in China, with a huge blue ocean market to be developed.
At this exhibition, sofini's cost-effective sofa series products. In this regard, Zhang Weiming said that in the post epidemic era, the income of some people has decreased, resulting in lower consumption budgets, but furniture is just needed, and the demand will still be there. Under such circumstances, consumers tend to find products with higher cost performance.
"This year is the third year of the epidemic, and the money in the pockets of enterprises is almost consumed, which is the most difficult time since the epidemic." Zhang Weiming said that dealers are very cautious about opening stores now, but as a brand enterprise, it still needs to take a positive attitude to develop products.
"In the past two years, the traditional distribution channels have been relatively difficult, and the data has fallen sharply." Liu Longxiang also admitted that thanks to the relatively diversified sales channels, the sales in the first half of this year increased slightly compared with the same period last year, basically flat. From the perspective of channels, the dealer channels of poetry home appliances account for about half, and the remaining half are designer channels, soft decoration company channels, and OEM orders. Next, we will continue to explore more sales channels, including cooperation with customized brands. This year's goal is to achieve 50% growth.
This year is the fourth year of the establishment of livable home. It is an important brand for Rongma furniture to open the domestic market, focusing on the whole house smart furniture solution. Yang Wen said that the market has great potential, but this year's domestic market situation still has a relatively obvious impact on the progress and plan of brand expansion. Affected by the downward pressure of real estate, the epidemic and the international situation, the development of the domestic market this year will certainly be relatively slow, but the situation cannot be bad all the time. As the epidemic situation improves, the industry may gradually recover at the end of the year or next year.
Similarly, Bi Jinrong is optimistic about the situation in the fourth quarter and believes that it may make up for the losses in the first three quarters to a certain extent.
