FURNITURE NEWS
TEAK FURNITURE
Teak furniture has a high reputation amongst manufactures and buyers because of the qualities of the material - teak wood. Teak offers a number of features that make it the leading choice for buyers looking for great value from their furniture purchase.
Teak furniture is:
- Durable
- Beautiful
- Eco Friendly
Let's have a look at what makes teak furniture so good
Teak Furniture is Durable
Teak wood is an extremely dense grained hard wood, high in natural oils. This dense grain texture makes the wood highly resistant to swelling, shrinkage, rotting, and warping. The high oil content means that it has an inbuilt preservative, giving the wood a long life, especially in the outdoors.
This means teak furniture is the first choice for buyers seeking furniture that is strong, resistant to sun, rain, wind or snow, and will last a long time. Furniture made from other woods such as Cedar and Cypress are softer than Teak, and are more fragile, making them not as strong or as durable, or able to live up to the demands of modern furniture . Furniture made from Oak, Pine & Maple . . .
Future issues here will deal with the latest furniture news, and focus on topics such as furniture materials, indoor furniture, outdoor furniture, rustic furniture, carved furniture etc and showcase and highlight furniture resources
FURNITURE DESIGN NEWS
THE LATEST BED DESIGNS
This month we wanted to focus on the main furniture feature of any bedroom - the bed. Teak wood lends itself to simplicity in design and form, and some of the hottest new bed designs we have seen lend themselves perfectly to the use of teak.
A lot of modern style beds are combining Asian & European features together to create a very new look. We are currently designing a number of new beds that combine the following "Eurasian" features.
- A very low bed platform, halfway between normal bed height and Zen style.
- A bed platform that extends out much wider than the mattress, creating . . .
Future issues here will deal with other bedroom furniture designs, as well as the latest designs in furniture from other home rooms, including living rooms, dining rooms and home office studies.
SELLING & BUYING NEWS
DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH?
We have all heard stories of online fraud, where buyers find a company online and pay online for goods that never show up, or are scammed into giving details that are used to access their accounts. The list is endless. The same is true for the furniture trading world. In the process of finding buyers, we have been exploring a large number of trading portals, hoping to access targeted buyers who have expressed an interest in finding modern teak furniture manufacturers or particular furniture pieces.
What we have been surprised at the lax security and assessment processes at most trade sites. We have come across numerous companies who have misrepresented themselves. We know this because we know these companies. The market is really not that big. The main misrepresentations have to do with the size and capacity of the company, and that the company is a "manufacturer". Most times, the company we know is just selling on consignment.
So how do you know who it is you are dealing with? We came across this great site http://www.exportbureau.com/export_fraud.html#scambusters that gives tips on how to make sure that who you are dealing with is legitimate. They also have links to other great sites that list export import scams.
Nothing will ever beat seeing and touching products yourself, and meeting with the people who run the business. But if we can't do that, we are going to have to rely on sites like these that expose the scammers, and that give great advice on how to deal carefully with a remote trade relationship.
Future issues here will deal with other buying and selling topics, such as trade portals, fraud sites, export and cargo issues, buying tips etc.
BALI NEWS
BALI ACCOMMODATION VENUE
If you come to Bali a lot, you pretty much know most of the accommodation venues in the southern and central areas of Bali. If you are looking for a change of venue, why not take a break at the Secret Island Resort, a natural and quite accommodation venue located just to the east of Bali in the Gill Islands.
The resort has a great setting and offers a host of recreational and spa activities. The bungalows are basic but offer incredible views over the islands and ocean.
If you are looking for a quite and serene getaway, then make sure you check this place out!
Future issues in this section will list resources focused on Bali, or the latest news. Topics we intend to cover initially will be concerned with providing links to people, services, products and companies in Bali we know and deal with.
KAYUKU FURNITURE NEWS
OUR FURNITURE SHOWROOM
We opened our new furniture showroom in January 2006, in Kerobokan. We sell the majority of our furniture B2B, and the furniture showroom was another means to attract buyers. In other parts of the world, a furniture showroom would normally mean retail and direct selling to customers, however Bali is different. The majority of people visiting the shop are overseas buyers, and not local customers. Direct sales form only a small part of total furniture sales, and will continue to do so.
The Opening
We probably chose the worst month of the year for opening a store as it is normally a quite time in Bali for overseas buyers, who tend to travel in the Northern Hemisphere summer, and the latter part of the year. We spent the first months wondering what we had done!! Then slowly the number of buyers started to increase, and so did the number of furniture sales.
Our Location
We think we have an ideal location, as we are located on one of Bali's busier shopping streets, Jalan Mertanadi in Kerobokan. JM is a popular and well known street to travel to for regular buyers to Bali.
The only drawback is the dust from traffic, and the shops across the street. Despite being a retail area, the guys across the road still do their production on site, and this causes a lot of dust in the air (the police come every few months, and production ceases for a few days, before starting back up again!). We have to clean the furniture every two hours!!
The only drawback with the location of the road on JM is the dust from traffic, and the shops across the street. Despite being a retail area, the guys across the road still do their production on site, and this causes a lot of dust in the air (the police come every few months, and production ceases for a few days, before starting back up again!). We have to clean the furniture every two hours!!
The Layout
The front walls of the showroom are open at present, and we are caught between the fact that not having walls means the furniture can be more easily seen from the road, verses the fact that no front walls means no air-con and more dirt! Thank Heavens for fans. The jury is still out on this one. Watch this spot.
The actual showroom space is not as big as we would like, but we are fortunate that our furniture samples (yes samples) are moving fast, so we are not building up a lot of stock. We are fortunate that our designs are liked, as it seems that no sooner have we designed a new sample, than the sample is sold. This is often because the buyer does not want to wait for us to make a new product, or needs to get the sample into a container leaving soon.
This means we do not have the same stock storing issues as other places in Bali. You see many places in Bali loaded to the roof with poor quality stock that they cannot sell. We get about 2 queries a month from furniture wholesalers wanting us to display their furniture. As we design and make ourselves, we never display someone else's stock or designs, but we do go and have a look at what they offer. Every time we see poorly made furniture, poor quality wood and poor designs. And always in a dark brown color, as this is an easy way to cover up poor quality wood.
Unfortunately, this can give furniture from Bali a bad name. Hence our focus on design and finishing. We see this as one of the key ways to differentiate ourselves.
Come & Visit
We always enjoy talking and meeting with furniture buyers, and we love having visitors to the showroom. So if you are planning to visit Bali soon, or are in the Kerobokan area, please feel free to drop in to our showroom for a chat at any time. We are located near the Kerobokan Jail, on Jalan Mertanadi No. 87 Click here for a location map. Call in for a free water or coke. We can also pick you up from your hotel to arrange a visit. Just call us on +62 361 847 5870 or send us an email on info@kayukufurniture.com and we will schedule this.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Future issues in this section will cover topics such as our furniture factory, our staff profiles, hot selling furniture products, the services we provide our buyers, and some of our customer profiles.
YOUR TURN
Give us your feedback. We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Please share them by emailing us at feedback@kayukufurniture.com.We hope to use your feedback to give you the type of information that you need and want.
Future issues will display the feedback suggestions we receive (if any!)
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