NZ furniture makers getting a tanning

By MICHAEL OTTO

A leather furniture sales bonanza has left local furniture manufacturers feeling that they are getting a tanning.

A big increase in low-price Asian furniture imports in the past year has made leather an option for consumers who could not previously afford it.

Barbara Christie, merchandising planning manager for Freedom Furniture, has seen a 100 per cent rise in leather furniture sales during the past 12 months.

"We used to sell a leather sofa for $3500 - but now you can buy the equivalent for $1700-$1900," she said.

"So someone buying a $1499 non-leather sofa sees a leather one and it becomes within their price range."

Target Furniture manager Robbie Bielby has experienced the same trend.

"We have basically doubled our leather sales," he said.

All Target's leather furniture was imported, he said.

Local manufacturers are bearing the brunt of the flood of cheap foreign leather.

Karl Katte Furniture's managing director, James Katte, said competing with imported products had been a problem for years but was especially difficult now.

"It has definitely had an impact - I'm doing far fewer sofas than I used to."

Wally Briggs, managing director of New Plymouth's Brigg's Furniture, said: "It's having a tremendous impact on makers of New Zealand product because it's coming in at half the price.

"It hasn't hit us yet - but places are closing down and we are not seeing any other places coming up to replace them," he said.

Some local manufacturers questioned the quality of some of the imported product.

People needed to check that the frame was as hard-wearing as the leather, said Mr Katte.

John Stowers a director of Dalma Furniture, said he would not be surprised if there was a downturn in low-price imported leather furniture sales soon.

"It is leather but what is underneath is coming apart," he said.

If you had a five-piece suite going for $2000 "you would have to be suspicious", said Morgan Furniture's Bob Stride.

But some of the complaints were just defensive ploys from local manufacturers, he said.

He considered the furniture that Morgans imported from China and Thailand to be "excellent quality".

Mr Bielby felt the same way about Target's imported pieces.

The executive director of the Furniture Association of New Zealand, Marcia Dunnett, said the falloff in buyers attending Asian trade shows because of Sars meant there was a lot of discounted stock being sold.

Auckland retailer Mike Ellis said the high Kiwi dollar was also a factor.

Ms Dunnett thought local manufacturers needed to target the upper end of the market by making more use of designers.

Imports of furniture from China have risen by 53 per cent in the past year to June and overall furniture imports have increased by 20 per cent in the same year, but exports rose only 4 per cent.

The managing director of Bradford's Interiors, Mark Pheloung, said his company's leather furniture sales made up between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of total furniture sales.

He said sales at the upper end of the market had been good for years and would continue to be so.

The middle-to-upper end of the market did not seem to be much affected by low-price imports.

Interior designer Deborah Moon of Deborah Moon Design in Mt Eden said she preferred the look of local leather products over the imported material.

"New Zealand leathers are beautiful and we prefer to use New Zealand manufacturers and support them."

Mr Pheloung thought shoppers could still get reasonably priced quality fabric suites as well as leather ones - neither was prohibitive, he said.

Freedom's Ms Christie said fabric pieces made up 84 per cent of her furniture sales.