Oblivious to the downturn, at least one company is sitting back and enjoying life

China has been going through its coldest winter in nearly 30 years, and many furniture makers, going through a chilly period of their own, may have been consoled in that at least they are not alone. And then there is Foshan Hong Qiao Furniture, a company whose name means rainbow, and whose summers never seem to end.

Last year, Hong Qiao's business grew 20 percent - following several years of growth - and it forecasts that in the coming two or three years its revenue may double or even triple.

"At the moment our focus is on office chairs, but we have started to produce other kinds of office furniture," says Zuo Boliang, the company's general manager.

"If only 30 percent of our chair buyers purchase other office furniture such as tables, sofas and bookshelves, our trade will double or triple.

"It's already a conservative estimate because based on our experience, a chair is only 10 percent of the office furniture."

Thirteen years ago Zuo Boliang and his elder brother Zuo Boyang set up a company making office chairs called Jinxing (meaning golden star) but found the name had been registered, so they changed it to Hong Qiao.

With years of experience in making chairs and interior decoration, they invested 60,000 yuan (7,200 euros, $9,640) in a 300-square-meter workshop and started with three other workers to make their first chairs.

In the first few years revenue doubled, tripled or grew even faster because "there were many opportunities, and any kind of product was welcome in the market", Zuo Boliang says, sitting in his modern office of more than 60 sq meters on the seventh floor of the headquarters of Hong Qiao Furniture. The office has a door that is activated by remote control, and there is a toilet attached. The building contains exhibition rooms on three floors covering 8,000 sq meters.

Growth was so explosive in the first year or so that in 2001 the workshop was expanded to become a 3,000-sq meter factory, four years later that expanded to 50,000 sq meters, and last year it grew further, to 60,000 sq meters.

But for Zuo, 38, that is still not enough. He complains that the size of the factory, which produces 4,000 chairs a day, limits the company's development because it is now producing more office furniture other than chairs.

"I really hope that the government will give us preferable policy when we renovate our old factory," he says.

Hong Qiao office chairs, mainly aimed at middle and high-end markets, are sold at home and abroad.

The chairs first went onto the overseas market in 2001, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India and later in Europe and the US. After the company had a stall at the Canton Trade Fair three years later its exports started to surge.

"Before that we had no export department and no translators," Zuo says.

Today half the company's products are exported to markets including Europe, North America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa, and it seems that not even the global financial crisis has managed to dent business.

"For us the global financial crisis only lasted several months. Several months later our business gradually recovered."

Europe has not been a big market for Hong Qiao, Zuo says, because Europeans have tended to prefer local products, "but when the European economy went bad, people there switched to Chinese products because our quality is fine and prices are much lower".

Even if the European business struggles, "we still have other markets, so generally our export is growing steadily year by year", Zuo says.

But that does not mean the Zuos are happy with their lot. Where some people would be content with the rainbow in front of them, the two brothers only see another horizon, the aim being to make the company world famous.

Asked just how famous they want to be, Zuo smiles and talks about Herman Miller, the US furniture company famous for its Action Office system. The Furniture Industry Research Association has acclaimed the company's Aeron office chair for its ergonomics, and it is on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

No doubt with the aspirations of such acclaim in mind, Hong Qiao Furniture has drawn on the services of top-flight designers from Germany and Italy, and last year called in a highly regarded Japanese designer, Toshiyuki Kita, to design its new office system.

"We invested 2 million yuan in designing this," Zuo says, pointing to a chair that looks like it would be at home on a sci-fi movie set. "There's not a single nail, and each part can move in line with different people's needs."

The 8,000-sq meter exhibition hall in which the chair sits has 70 sample rooms, covering areas ranging from 11 sq m to more than 100.

"In those rooms we want our customers to experience what kind of office atmosphere they want," Zuo says.

The company, which employs 400 people, is also working on automation.

"We have more than 200 patents registered and we have put two newly developed machines into service. There will be more soon. Before, our workers could cut metal pipes only one at a time, but the new machine can cut six at a time, greatly reducing labor costs."

The company wants to develop a new series of chairs that targets the highest-end market, he says. Other matters are afoot, too. The company says it is negotiating with several overseas companies looking for a partner in China.

"They want to sell products in China but they have no channels or do not understand the market enough, so they want to work with us," Zuo says, saying he cannot reveal who they are because the matter is not finalized.

With an eye on quality, the company says it has spent 3 million yuan building a testing room.

"If a customer finds any quality problem with our products within five years of buying them, we will replace them with brand new ones," Zuo says.

Globally, Hong Qiao has more than 300 franchised stores and 1,500 dealers.

"We have a lot of loyal customers, some of whom have been with us for many years," Zuo says.

"So I don't feel under pressure. I think the prospects for the market are very bright. And this year will be better than last year because we have more product categories."

Outside Hong Qiao's factory, Shunde was doing its best to be seen from under a blanket of thick winter fog.

yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/18/2013 page15)