Importing Furniture from India

[Flynnwood]

I recently read this (Feb 2013), the rise of Oak Furniture Land.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/busi ... mogul.html

Has anyone had any experience of importing oak furniture from a manufacturer in India?

Can anyone recommend one?

If Oak Furniture Land are truly paying Google £250,000 a month ... I have more than a plan and plenty of experience in the search space in order to compete.

I did find one manufacturer in India (via the net) but they had no access to powertools, so production would be slow.

All responses appreciated, and I'm completely open to discuss further.

 

[Dan.patten]

Doesnt surprise me he is making a killing, have you ever seen a piece of furniture from that place, i asked the salesmen when they planned on finishing the furniture they had on display - he was less than impressed.

Overall i was wholly unimpressed with the quality of timber and workmanship that went into their mass produced furniture, in my opinion the only reason it sells well is the general public see the word solid wood and think it must be good quality furniture, we as woodworkers know better

It was that visit to oak furniture land that inspired me to take up woodwork.

 

[Jelly]

Looking at those prices & the quality, it may well be possible to mass produce in the UK and turn a profit...

However I can't see how you'd start such a thing up, the margin would dictate the need to sell in volume, which would require a huge capital investment in manufacturing, and in the infrastructure to sell enough units.
Furthermore it would be harder from a marketing point of view to compete on price whilst trying to also use quality or british manufacture as a USP, People may assume that such traits attract too high a price premium to be affordable.

 

[kostello]

I think oak furniture land are just like dfs



Just a vehicle for selling finance products....


Oh and it is solid oak, just bits 2" square......

 

[Ollie78]

I popped in to one of these oak furniture land places a few weeks ago. It was absolutely rubbish in every respect. I could not find one acceptable piece of work in the whole place.

The main reason they sell anything is through a huge lack of knowledge in the general public about what good quality furniture should be like.

I encounter this when quoting for work and having to explain why I can`t compete with Ikea prices and still make stuff out of solid mahogany.

I am sure a source for actually very well made stuff from places where labour is dirt cheap could be found, not necessarily India, perhaps Malasia, Thailand or similar.
The problems I can see will be guaranteeing `responsibly sourced timber`, quality control and import taxes.

Good luck

Ollie

 

[Richard S]

I'm not sure that it is a "huge" lack of knowledge, although that plays a part, more that shopping trends have changed. When our grandparents married they bought one set of furniture and kept it pretty much their entire lives, now we change our furnishings and decoration almost as often as we change our clothes. As even reasonable quality second hand furniture has virtually no value who can blame people for not wanting to pay bespoke prices for mass produced items. Fortunately these type of customers are not the same ones as independent makers appeal to, there will always be an, all be it small, percentage of the populace who cherish quality and are willing and able to pay for it.
It is easy to knock this kind of enterprise, but what he is doing is supplying a demand, if there was no demand for this type of furniture there would be no business and whilst I would not want to buy it myself I have to applaud his entrepreneurial ability to see the gap in the market. From the customers perspective it is only fair to say that at least it is relatively inexpensive, if you think that poor quality construction and materials are the preserve of this company you want to have a look at what other more "up-market" retailers are selling for 2,3 or 4 times the price.

 

[Togalosh]

Good luck with dealing with 'businessmen' in that neck of the woods.. you would need a lot of it if you wanted to keep your shirt. This is not unfounded or racism but my opinion based on experience.. I 'd say the same about buying anything secondhand off an old Englishmen. What would be your legal redress if things got difficult? You cannot rely on your local chamber of commerce to help you - that's for sure.

I've an Indian friend who imports furniture from back home (to him or course). I helped him unpack a container full of it the once....well.. it was packed up in any old fashion with old crisp boxes & anything else they could find as packing (I was surprised that they ate Golden Wonder out there too). A lot of it needed fixing & I was shocked at how it was constructed..1 step up from nails & spit with lots of mahoganny filler & hope. They made a double S shaped stool out of one section of wood with the grain running upward so it snapped at every bend, showing that the designer did not understand wood or care if it lasted or if it was afe to use. To think they are cutting down so many beautiful trees to make such god awful rubbish is depressing.

This is not to say that you couldn't have the exact opposite experience in both respects -I am often wrong. I'd ditch any rose tinted glasses may take in favour of a bag of salt before going over there to source a fabricator. Also do not take a firm handshake with an unflinching look in the eye as any sign of trustworthyness. However if cool styling, good prices & almost Ikea-like standards can be got then you might have a chance ..but hell - in this market??

RichardS I'd disagree with your opinion that people change their furniture so often that they don't care about quality. People (like my Dad) redecorate a hell of a lot but do they really change their dining table to suit their new scheme? Not that I see. I'd say people buy what they can afford at the time but a lot want the best quality & style possible...if they get them they;ll keep certain special pieces of furniture forever because they mean something more than an avocado bathroom suite or duff sofa even if the cost was the same. Second hand G Plan & Shrieber has become very sort after (round here at least) as it's good quality, affordable but now has an appeal - a bit kitsch.

Only time will tell if Oak Furniture Land will be here once the economy picks up or if their wares will last to see the secondhand market.