Furniture makers endure tough times amid pandemic
The furniture industry has been left devastated by the ongoing pandemic as persons tend to shy away from non-essential items during times of crisis, according to industry insiders.
Small-scale and non-branded producers were the worst affected as they lacked the administrative centre required to continue functions amid low demand for days gone by almost a year, said Salim H Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Furniture Industry Owners Association.
Around 60-65 per cent of the full total furniture market is led by non-branded producers.
Since the people are actually reluctant to buy unnecessary goods like furniture, the drastic fall popular has had an enormous impact on the sector, Rahman explained.
Small-scale producers that operate predicated on orders suffer from low sales, making it difficult to maintain their factories and showrooms.
However, this is not the case for big manufacturers, in line with the association chairman.
"We (branded manufacturers) get orders from the government and corporate sector found in large volumes. So, we weren't affected that very much," said Rahman, who's also chairman and taking care of director of Hatil Complex.
Branded producers started to receive orders several months ago but with another wave of Covid-19 infections sweeping the world, the price of raw materials rose as much of the exporting countries imposed lockdown once again.
"We have a period limitation to provide our products but we cannot meet up with the time," Rahman added.
Md Delwar Hossain is an business owner who had a household furniture factory found 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 bundle," Hossain said, adding that it was out of the question to sustain both the factory and showroom subsequently.
In response to a query, Hatil's Rahman said revenue for small-scale producers will be around 40 % lower by the year's end as the number would be 20-25 % for big producers.
When it comes to export income, Rahman said shipments have been halted for three months.
Besides, some countries remain under lockdown as a result exports may well fall by around 30 %, he added.
Furniture exports totalled $76.41 million in July-November, 2020, which is 3.15 per cent lower when compared to same period the prior year and 29.68 per cent short of the sector target, info from the Export Promotion Bureau shows.
According to a recently available study by the Access to Information (a2i) programme styled, 'Post-Covid-19 careers and Expertise 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, marketing director of Pran and owner of Regal Pieces of furniture, said they were impacted during the government-imposed lockdown between March 26 and May 30 but later things started to rebound.
"We have almost returned to pre-pandemic amounts as our goods are affordable," he explained. "I hoped to see some growth in 2020 nonetheless it turned out to be worse compared to the previous year in conditions of sales," Kamal added.
