For Taiwan's manufacturers of outdoor furniture, cheap labor and production costs may have been the initial incentives for moving production to mainland China, but increasingly their transplant operations there are proving that low pricing alone cannot always win over demanding overseas customers.

The call for higher quality by such buyers is translating into redoubled attention among Taiwan furniture makers to improve production processes, management structures, and quality-control systems in a bid to reduce product defects and achieve the world-class quality that the market demands.

High Quality at a Low Price

Among this new breed of manufacturers is Jiann Shing Hardware Co., a 20-year-old company that specializes in the production of a wide range of indoor and outdoor furniture made of iron and aluminum alloys. The company moved its production to Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in mainland China approximately 13 years ago to reduce production costs.

The company entered the mainland in partnership with a domestic trader that has expertise in sourcing foreign-made high-quality materials, including iron, steel, and aluminum. With the assistance of the trader, Jiann Shing boasts it can source high-quality materials at favorable prices so as to keep costs down.

After relocating production to the mainland, the company scaled back its Taiwan operations to financial and administrative affairs.

The company's outdoor-furniture items include greenhouses and tents, while its indoor line ranges from chairs and computer desks to television shelves and storage racks.

The company's Shenzhen plant occupies an area of 30,000 square meters and employs 600 workers under six Taiwanese managers.

"We have expanded rapidly since relocating our production facility to mainland China," says Liang Tsun-hsiao, president of the company. "In the next two or three years, we will shift our emphasis from expansion to the streamlining of production procedures."

Liang says low production costs are no longer the main pull of the mainland for Taiwanese furniture makers. "Foreign buyers are increasingly demanding that mainland producers offer high-quality products," says Liang. "This has forced us to concentrate on reducing our production-defect ratio by streamlining management and production procedures."

The firm sells furniture to many world-renowned hypermarkets and supermarkets through foreign importers and domestic traders. In recent years it has recruited export specialists to handle its overseas sales.

Jiann Shing's A-frame greenhouses are made of iron, aluminum alloy, glass, and polycarbonate fabric. They have been one of the company's hottest-selling lines over the past year, helped in large part by the environment-friendly polyethylene fabric. Liang says that his company will develop other earth-friendly products in the future.

Currently Jiann Shing exports most of its products to Europe, the U.S., and Japan. Europe absorbs over 70% of its total exports, but the company hopes to boost sales to the massive U.S. market, and has recently opened a marketing office there.

Over the past several years, the company has enjoyed double-digit growth in sales each year. Revenue soared by 25% last year and the company is heading for an even better performance this year. "Europe has had unprecedented high temperatures this year, increasing demand for outdoor furniture in the first half," Liang says. "We have received many big-ticket orders for tents and other outdoor furniture since the start of the summer."

To boost its exports and establish a name in the international marketplace, Jiann Shing frequently displays its products at major furniture shows around the world, including important fairs in Chicago and Cologne.

Full Product Line

Kyvas International Co., Ltd. Trades a wide range of outdoor furniture made of wicker, rattan, aluminum, and iron. The company has been cooperating with manufacturers from Taiwan and mainland China for more than two decades and can offer a broad selection of furniture items in almost any price category.

With abundant experience in trading outdoor furniture, over the past two years the company has been making all-out efforts to expand its product scope to meet an even broader range of customer needs. About one-and-a-half years ago, Kyvas set up a department to handle a new line that includes high-end outdoor-use computer desks as well as sofas and bedroom-furniture sets made of wood and leather.

The company mainly exports its outdoor furniture to Europe and Australia. It has kept its product offerings abreast of international market trends through long and close partnerships with selected European importers.

Kyvas boasts it is capable of providing the full range--high-end as well as medium- and low-priced outdoor furniture. Low-priced items are sourced mainly from mainland producers, while Taiwanese firms supply most of the high-end products.

Kyvas says it has the technology to make molds for the production of outdoor furniture, helping it to find cooperative manufacturers. Sometime, it cooperates with customers to develop innovative molds and gives exclusive distribution rights to the partner companies in their home markets.

"Taiwanese furniture manufacturers are capable of developing outdoor furniture superior to that made by mainland China counterparts because Taiwan firms have much more experience and expertise in coating processes. In addition, Taiwanese furniture manufacturers adopt high-quality jigs and fixtures, used in the production of sophisticated and precision molds for outdoor furniture," says Robert Tseng, president of the company.

Major product lines Kyvas currently offers include wicker-chair sets, parasols, and beach loungers. The wicker-chair sets, made of either natural or artificial materials per buyer choice, have been among the firm's most popular items over the past year. The artificial sets undergo ultraviolet treatment.

Kyvas also sells a series of electroplated iron and steel chairs. They sport European styles to attract customers from Europe, the major export outlet of its products.

In addition to its mold-making ability, Kyvas is adept at designing outdoor furniture to meet consumer preferences. "We have long-term business relationship with some major importers in Europe who have deep insights into trends in that consumer market and know how to design suitable products to meet demand," Tseng notes.

Recently, Kyvas rolled out a series of desks made of glass, wicker, and iron. "Wicker adds warmth to the iron desks," says Tseng. "The idea of designing a desk made of several different materials came from a European customer who has a tight grip on the latest trends of the outdoor-furniture market in Europe."

The company has exported its products under the "Kyvas" brand for several years, which are mainly sold through home-center chains, discount stores, regional retailers, and professional importers.

Rust Busters

United Art Furniture Co., Ltd., established in 1976, makes cast-aluminum outdoor and indoor furniture in a variety of patterns and designs at its integrated plant.

Owned by a veteran manufacturer of outdoor furniture from Taiwan, the company currently produces products with powder-coating finishes in South Africa. "Our team of talented designers develops stylish products with unique patterns," says John Hsiao, export manager of the company. "With special metal surface treatment equipment and sophisticated skills, we can make our products rust and corrosion free. We offer two years of guarantee on our products exported worldwide."

United Art's products are individually finished by skilled craftsmen. All fittings are made of stainless steel to prevent rust and finished in ultraviolet-treated polyurethane powder coating. Table and chair legs are equipped with adjusters for use on uneven surfaces.

Hsiao says his company pays much attention to making products that are easy to assemble and disassemble.

The company's major product items include outdoor tables and chairs for open-air coffee shops, teahouses, yards and gardens, mailboxes, patio railings, balcony railings and bamboo-shaped fences.

United Art boasts many of its products are patented in Taiwan, the U.S., mainland China and South Africa. Although the company specializes in original design products, it also welcomes customer designs.

"We can make extremely lightweight aluminum alloy for the production of a variety of outdoor furniture," says Hsiao. "We can also make products in an array of colors and designs to meet various customer needs."

Lounger Specialist

Yong An Industrial Corp., established more than a decade ago, is a manufacturer of joint mechanisms and parts for beach loungers. In the past, the company mainly made such items for large domestic manufacturers of outdoor furniture on an original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis.

Over the past several months, the company has begun receiving orders itself and has expanded production to finished outdoor furniture, including compact folding chairs, and reclining chaise loungers.

Yong An boasts it is one of Taiwan's few manufacturers of joint mechanisms for loungers. "The quality of the joint mechanisms is the most important factor for the production of high-quality loungers," says Chang Yung-an, president of the company. "That's why we have been able supply such products to major lounger manufacturers in Taiwan for over a decade."

The company's loungers are made of tubular iron pipes and specialty synthetic plastic leather. The company boasts its lounges have a loading capacity of 500 pounds.

Chang says that all the products made by his company undergo strict testing and inspection by certification bodies before they are shipped.

The company has a partner to expand its manufacturing and export ability for outdoor furniture. "We can ship our products and those made by our production partner, who is capable of rolling out a wide range of outdoor furniture," says Chang.

He states the firm has recently received many inquiries from Latin America. "Although we just began taking orders from abroad, we have noticed that many buyers from Latin America have a strong interest in our products," says Chang. "Over the next few months, we will be making a systematic effort to penetrate that market."