Dining Table Sourcing Guide

china furniture, china sourcing, dining table cost, dining table factory, furniture manufacturers, furniture sourcing, sourcing, trade furniture, trading

Dining Table Sourcing Guide

In Sourcing and Trading on May 12, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Is buying dining tables on your horizon? Don’t get into negotiations without good background information. Like any product, the pricing of tables and chairs depends on many things. We took 5 simple designs and got a lot of price quotes. Our goal is to give a good overview on how much a small to medium sized buyer should expect to pay for basic manufactured dining sets.

Along the way we encountered some interesting results. Prices quoted from China Furniture Manufacturers exceeded our estimates. Various factors could have caused the price differences, but we believe that the major reason was the order size. If your company is only ordering 1 container at a time, then some manufacturers in China may not be as focused on getting buyers good prices. However, there are many smaller furniture manufacturers in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia who are looking customers and don’t mind smaller orders.

As there are many different areas in China, we even tried to separate by region, assuming that, as in the past, different areas will have different prices. Again, this turned out to not be the case. Suppliers in Fuzhou and Zhejiang were close in pricing to the factories in Guangdong. The other explanation for the price difference is that the quality levels at the factories may be much higher. I can say that price and quality do make a big difference. A high-end factory will make a better product. This is why anybody who is seriously in furniture should visit the supplier before placing an order, or pay an expert to do it for them.

But, based on the companies we researched and the customers they work with, we’re suggesting negotiations will be needed when working with furniture manufacturers in China to get competitive market prices on simple wooden tables and chairs. Evidence that this is not just a trend but a real shift in Asian sourcing can be seen in a previous article we wrote FOB Asia. All the wood furniture is not FOB China, but actually “FOB Asia”; and from what I can tell, most is actually being manufactured in Malaysia and Vietnam.

As a side note, we have also recently heard from other people that the prices in China for higher end goods have been 15-25% higher, but they found their suppliers in China ship more reliably. So, price isn’t as important if your goods are late for your next market role out!