Houjie in Dongguan Launches Famous Furniture Expo Park

After years of preparation, Houjie officially launches the Famous Furniture Expo Park as the town's latest bid to play a major role in the global furniture market.

To be built close to the Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center, where the International Famous Furniture Fair (3F) is held twice every year, the project, upon completion, will spread across 1 million square meters with another 1,000 acres reserved for further development. Phase 1 of the project, including an office tower, showrooms and stores, is scheduled to open in March 2012.

The Famous Furniture Expo Park is one example of the “Dongguan Mode” concept promoted by the Dongguan Famous Furniture Association, a very active and powerful association in China as well as the organizer of 3F, who aims to extend the strength of regular trade shows, normally lasting 4 or 5 days, into year-round furniture showrooms.

Tapping American and Italian Merits

“From a global perspective, High Point in America and Milan in Italy are two very important players in the world furniture industry. High Point taps its strength in having large number of year-round showrooms while Milan is famous for iSaloni, its furniture trade show,” says Mr. Yin Chengzhi, president of the Dongguan Famous Furniture Association. “Houjie is about to become the third big player by combining the core competitive strengths of High Point and Milan.”

Yin's confidence is buoyed by the fact that his Association runs the International Famous Furniture Fair (3F) twice yearly, with the recent show in Sept. being the 24th edition. Over the years, 3F has built its global position by attracting over 1,000 exhibitors to Houjie, whose products, shown across 260, 000 square meters in 10 exhibition halls, draw tens of thousands of buyers from over 100 countries.

Geographical location also guarantees the future success of the Famous Furniture Expo Park. Dongguan is the center of Chinese furniture production, home to over 3,000 furniture makers, many of whom being leading brands in China like Dickson, Fortune, Crafit, Restonic, Frandiss and Lacquercraft. In 2009, Dongguan's gross furniture production value reached US$21.5 billion, with US$5.2 billion of furniture exported. Houjie, known as the “Oriental Capital of Furniture,” boasts of not only a larger number of furniture makers, but also a 5-kilometer Furniture Road lined with showrooms, shopping malls and stores selling everything from furniture to home accessories, fabrics, raw materials and woodworking machinery. Furniture distributors, retailers, designers, suppliers frequently visit Houjie all year-round.

Steady Presence Wanted

“To many Chinese furniture makers, Houjie is the engine driving their businesses ahead. However as business expands, they are no longer satisfied with only using the engine for less than a month, during two 3F trade fairs every year, but want longer, steady presence in Houjie,” says Ms. Fang Hui, the Secretary General of the Dongguan Famous Furniture Association. “Now we will meet this increasing demand by launching the International Famous Furniture Expo Park.”

“With the new Expo Park, we provide a year-round platform for producers to engage potential furniture retailers, who can come to Houjie anytime to pick up the right products to sell by visiting the flagship showrooms the manufactures have set up,” adds Ms. Fang.

Besides furniture showrooms, the Park will also house furniture design agencies, logistics companies as well as warehouses. “We want to provide one-stop service to our tenants,” says Ms. Fang.

The “Dongguan Mode,” combining the strengths of trade shows and year-round showrooms, has been tested by over 100 home accessories producers in the Famous Furniture Home Accents Center, located at the end of Furniture Road, whose 40,000 square meters are open to trade and public year-round, as well as becoming part of the 3F when it is staged. The results are satisfactory.

International Brands to Also Benefit

While local Chinese manufacturers can benefit from the Park, the operator is expecting international furniture producers to benefit too. “We expect more international brands will come in; so we are reserving a full floor for overseas producers,” says Ms. Fang.

The rapidly growing Chinese economy is solidifying the importance of its furniture market, especially true when the other erstwhile major markets in Europe and the United States have been hard hit by the sweeping world economy slowdown since 2009. Increasingly more international furniture brands are looking for ways to tap the booming Chinese market.

Creative Home is an American company that found a way into China by setting up a showroom in the Dongguan Home Accent Center in September 2009. After operating for a year, Mr. Eugene Wang feels optimistic about the future, adding, “We have managed to find quite a number of retailers across China. Our products are sold to many cities in China now. We are happy.”