Zheng Shun Furniture Co., Ltd. Is a specialized maker of wooden and medium-density fiberboard (MDF) furniture, including coat trees, shelf racks and nesting tables. In recent years, the company has aggressively improved its quality and strengthened its design capability, opening the way for its expansion into the Japanese market for high-end furniture.

Yang Rong-sheng, chairman of Zheng Shun, says that his company moved production to mainland China in 1999. The company's mainland plant, located in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, employs about 130 workers and can turn out about 200,000 coat trees and 200,000 racks per year.

According to Yang, the integrated plant can handle all parts of the production process, from wood cutting and coating to assembly and quality control. The company even makes its own bentwood, a key material, at the plant. By doing all of the work in-house, Yang claims, his company can assure the highest quality and offer its models at lower prices because of its own cost-efficiency..

Zheng Shun has developed over eight coat-tree and over 30 rack models in the past few years, and will continue to add about 10 new items per year. The company develops its new products based on original ideas or according to customer samples.

Zheng Shun's products are made mainly of solid wood, MDF and bentwood. According to Yang, Zheng Shun is developing new items made of a combination of bentwood and solid wood in order to take advantage of the flexibility and decorative effect of the former as well as the visual and tactile appeal of the latter.

Through such innovative design concepts, Yang says, Zheng Shun can produce price-competitive furniture without sacrificing overall quality. The use of bentwood is also more environment-friendly since it uses only a thin layer of real wood on the surface.

Though a young company, Zheng Shun has rapidly won a reputation for its high quality and reasonable prices from customers in major export markets including the United States, Japan and the Middle East. Yang anticipates that exports to Japan will grow as more and more Japanese buyers have entered talks with his firm.