Karen Furniture: Changing the business model within two years to focus on overall home sales
August 22 14:09:57, 2023
On April 6-7, Wenzhou Kailun Furniture held the fifth investment promotion meeting in the headquarters of Wenzhou Wanquan Furniture Base. This investment invitation mainly invited 200 distributors from 5 provinces and cities along the coast of Jiangnan to attend the event. The order placed was as high as one million yuan. For the future development, Karen Furniture General Manager Chen Furong said that it will change its business model within two years and will focus on overall home sales. To this end, the reporter interviewed Chen Zong on the spot. Chen Furong, General Manager of Karen Furniture [Reporter]: Hello, Mr. Chen, I am very glad that you can accept the interview. First of all, I would like to ask you to review the development of Karen furniture. [Chen Furnace]: In 1992, we started as a spring and have been radiating all over the southern part of Zhejiang. Almost 80% of the springs of mattress manufacturers come from our factory. In 2001, we started to get involved in the mattress field. At that time, all the furniture of the panel furniture enterprises in Wenzhou were OEMs here. I did not do other brand channels, and all of them were supporting this one, and they have been doing it in 2007. In 2007, we began to pack the brand. At that time, the slogan was “first standing in Wenzhou and then radiating across the countryâ€. In 2008, we started to develop the soft bed industry. At present, there are 49 specialty stores in Zhejiang Province, and there are 2 specialty stores in Hunan and Jiangxi. The others are still blank. This year we have newly introduced a sofa. From this investment conference, the response is quite good. [Reporter]: As far as I know, Karen has gradually changed from domestic sales to domestic sales since 2008. Where did our export sales go? [Chen Furong]: France, Paris, South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Australia and New Zealand, the best export should be Australia and Australia, accounting for 40% of the total sales of the company, several other countries add up It is also 10% of the way, now the export of the mattress area is half, the export of sofas and soft beds has not been done, and then the sofa may be involved in export. [Reporter]: Why did you switch from export to domestic sales? [Chen Furnace]: In 2008, the OEM began to slowly lose, because the export profit value is too low, people are tired. In fact, we are more passive in domestic sales and export sales, and it is not subjective consciousness to expand into which field. No matter what the field, we only had two concepts at that time, and we were stable in export sales. On the basis of stable export, we expanded domestic sales. Since the export is done, these customers will cooperate for a long time, and the order volume will be very stable. We use foreign sales as a basis, first stabilize the foundation of the enterprise, and then do the domestic sales, we will generate income. [Reporter]: After these years of development, what do you think are the same and different places in the domestic market compared with foreign markets? [Chen Furong]: There is a fundamental difference between the domestic market and the international market, namely stability. I think foreigners may not be thinking the same way as people in our country. Chinese people are more flexible and change, while foreigners pay more attention to standards. Saying 1 is 1. As long as enterprises work hard to make products well, others will not have problems. But the country is full of “variablesâ€. Every dealer is smarter than me. I always lack a lot of things in front of dealers. In other words, I can never meet the requirements of dealers. [Reporter]: You just said that the export profits are relatively small. What is the reason? [Chen Furong]: The profits in Europe and the United States will be relatively high. Of course, their standards and requirements are very strict. The most painful Japanese and Korean companies are very demanding, and the profits are very thin. Therefore, it is more difficult to do business in Japan and South Korea. In terms of doing well, it is the Middle East and Malaysia and Southeast Asia. [Reporter]: China's furniture industry may have such a phenomenon all the time, including the three major furniture exhibitions in Guangdong in March. Many manufacturers will copy the cottage, imitate and copy other people's designs. Since Karen is doing foreign and domestic markets, he is designing. Will this piece pay special attention to it? [Chen Furong]: Domestic furniture has been imitation for 15 years, and even we have a popular saying: Guangdong to see Europe and the United States, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to see Guangdong, the mainland to see Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Including our company, the original thing Too few, we will also read a large number of magazines as a reference. [Reporter]: Will we add some new designs in the process of imitation? [Chen Furnace]: Yes, some products may have an approximation of 80%. But we will definitely change some things, such as color matching. [Reporter]: How about the investment in designing this piece now? [Chen Furnace]: Our company has two new product launches a year, beginning in early April and nine At the beginning of the month, we were all in the dealer meeting before May 1st and 11th, so we invested the most in February, March and July and August, and the total investment in the design and development phase was about 400,000. In my ideal, I want to make our company a whole home, that is, the products outside are integrated, not by ourselves. Some time ago, I and other furniture parks. I have already reached an agreement. I will make all the buildings in the factory into exhibition halls, children's suites on the first floor, panel suites on the second floor, solid wood suites on the third floor, European-style suites on the fifth floor, and other manufacturers provide products. I will sell them. The channels we are doing now are relatively mature, and any company that does a single product and wants to occupy a certain share in the market does have pressure, so I finally want to achieve an effect. I don’t have a processing factory, I don’t have my own production line, only My own marketing center, showroom, and other manufacturers have become my workshops. [Reporter]: This is also the strategic plan for Karen's future development. Have we set ourselves up within a few years? [陈炉æ§]: I hope that within two years, because I don't need to develop my own products, I don't need my own R&D team, I don't need my own workshop. I only use half a month to decorate the exhibition hall. I can put samples in three days and I can promote one in one month. Series, even our series of products can be operated at the same time, it is relatively easy. [Reporter]: Our current experience The distributors are mainly in Zhejiang. Will they expand to the whole country in the future? [Chen Furong]: In fact, we have been developing towards this goal, but Wenzhou has a congenital deficiency, logistics is not very developed, and I think this situation is still within five years. I can't improve it, so I think it is difficult to do the national market here. I think it is necessary to do the Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Shanghai provinces in Zhejiang Province. [Reporter]: First here. [Chen Furnace]: Yes. [Reporter]: Ok, thank you, Mr. Chen! Statement: This article is an exclusive original manuscript or an exclusive disclosure of information, copyright, if you need to repost or reproduce it in other ways, Please contact