Furniture makers endure a down economy amid pandemic
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The furniture industry has been kept devastated by the ongoing pandemic as people tend to shy from non-essential items during times of crisis, according to industry insiders.
Small-scale and non-branded manufacturers were the worst damaged as they lacked the capital required to continue businesses amid low demand for the past almost a year, said Salim H Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Pieces of furniture Industry Owners Association.
Around 60-65 % of the full total furniture marketplace is led by non-branded producers.
Since the people are now reluctant to acquire unnecessary goods like furniture, the drastic fall popular has had an enormous effect on the sector, Rahman explained.
Small-scale producers that operate predicated on orders are suffering from low sales, which makes it difficult to maintain their factories and showrooms.
However, this is simply not the case for big manufacturers, according to the association chairman.
"We (branded manufacturers) receive orders from the federal government and corporate sector found in large volumes. So, we weren't affected that many," said Rahman, who's also chairman and taking care of director of Hatil Complex.
Branded producers started to receive orders two or three months ago but with a second wave of Covid-19 infections sweeping the globe, the price of raw materials rose as much of the exporting countries imposed lockdown once again.
"We have a period limitation to deliver our products but we can not meet up with the time," Rahman added.
Md Delwar Hossain can be an entrepreneur who had a furniture factory in Naryanganj and a showroom found in Jatrabari, both of which were eventually turn off in November.
Simply because sales totally dropped off in the April-June period this past year, when the coronavirus outbreak was at its peak.
The situation didn't improve though as sales were almost 80 per cent lower during the July-November period compared to previous months.
"I did not look for any incentive package," Hossain said, adding that it was impossible to sustain both factory and showroom subsequently.
In response to a query, Hatil's Rahman said product sales for small-scale producers will be around 40 % lower by the year's end as the number will be 20-25 per cent for big producers.
In regards to export income, Rahman said shipments have been halted for 90 days.
Besides, some countries remain under lockdown thus exports might fall by around 30 %, he added.
Furniture exports totalled $76.41 million in July-November, 2020, which is 3.15 % lower compared to the same period the previous year and 29.68 % short of the sector target, info from the Export Promotion Bureau shows.
According to a recently available study by the Usage of Information (a2i) program styled, 'Post-Covid-19 jobs and Skills in Bangladesh', approximately 6 lakh workers were let go in the household furniture sector and the quantity may rise.
The marketplace size of the sector was around Tk 10,000 crore in 2019.
Kamruzzaman Kamal, advertising director of Pran and owner of Regal Furniture, said these were impacted during the government-imposed lockdown between March 26 and May 30 but later things began to rebound.
"We have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels as our goods are affordable," he stated. "I hoped to check out some expansion in 2020 but it ended up being worse than the previous year regarding sales," Kamal added.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net