Click Here to Get the Buyer’s Guide: Furniture About to purchase furniture, or other home products, from suppliers in China? Keep reading, and learn what you must know about finding the right furniture suppliers, relevant trade shows and customization options. We also explain what furniture importers must know about fire retardancy regulations, quality control and shipping. When sourcing Furniture manufacturers online, there’s a variety of factors to use when assessing potential candidate suppliers. Below follows a few examples: Registered Capital: A low registered capital may indicate that the supplier is a small trading company. As there are no real benefits of buying from a trader, you want to avoid that. A Furniture manufacturer should have at least RMB 1,000,000 in registered capital, which is specified in their business license. Business Scope: Possibly even more telling than the Registered Capital, the Business scope explains what the company was set out to do.
Look for “furniture” and “manufacturing”, or “production”, to assess if the supplier is a true manufacturer. Traders, on the other hand, tend to have business scopes, including a wide range of very different products, and include terms such as “Wholesale”. Quality Management System: A Quality Management System, for example, ISO 9001, is implemented to track and prevent quality issues. Why does this matter? Because it only applies to manufacturers, not traders. When buying furniture from Chinese suppliers, why is it important to first filter suppliers? Because the majority of Furniture manufacturers are not geared towards developed markets, offering the quality options and stability you need to compete. If you don’t feel like browsing supplier listing online, you may want to consider visiting a Home products trade show in Mainland China or Hong Kong. Below follows a summary of relevant, annual, trade fairs in the Furniture and home products industry: What differs a retailer, or even wholesaler, from an OEM manufacturer?
When you buy a product from a retailer, take Ikea for example, you know that their products are made according to the very same specification sheet. There is no variation in terms of materials, design, dimensions and functions. Yet, many importers of home products, including furniture, make the assumption that this is how OEM manufacturers in China, also operates. OEM manufacturers operate according to a ‘make to order’ principle. While they may have “catalog products”, these are mere references, at best. What this means for you, is that you must provide the supplier with a spec sheet – even if the product is based on a factory design. There is no uniform Furniture spec sheet template that can be used. However, below follows a few examples of what you must include in your specification sheet: In many markets, there are mandatory Fire Retardancy Regulations, applicable to various types of furniture. In the United States, there’s no federal framework to which American importers must comply.
However, California Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117) has become ‘de facto’ mandatory, as it is asked for by both retailers and customers. However, In the European Union, there are mandatory Fire safety standards, to which buyers are forced to comply. Below follows an overview: Keep in mind that you must communicate to the supplier, to which standards your product must be complied with. A few years ago, I remember how we performed a quality inspection on upholstered furniture in Hangzhou. As we started testing the fire retardancy of the cover fabric, it turned out that the goods were in no way going to pass a third party audit. However, the present sales manager, quickly brushed off any responsibility. Instantly, he underlined that they are indeed capable of ensuring compliance with all European and American substance and fire retardancy standard, but that this customer did not communicate that their product had to be compliant with a certain standard. Hence, the procurement officers, working in the factory, did not make this specific request to their subcontractor for cover fabrics… and indeed, they didn’t ask either, so the result was a batch of a non-compliant goods.
As such, you must first assess which regulations apply to home products in your market, and then communicate this requirement to your manufacturer. To ensure that your supplier is not shipping substandard or damaged goods, which is perfectly possible, you must hire a quality inspector to check up on the goods. There are several companies offering quality control services, already in China. However, you need to communicate what they should look for. Below follows explanations of two of critical checkpoints, when importing furniture from China: Visual Inspection: Check for potential damages, or usage of incorrect materials and components. Fire retardancy testing: While most compliance tests can only be carried out in a laboratory, fire retardancy of fabrics can be checked just as well with a lighter and a stopwatch. Furniture is heavy, and can easily break under the weight of stacked units. Many manufacturers understand this, while others routinely fail to apply common sense when packing furniture.
As such, I suggest that you request packing, as following: As furniture is not only heavy, but also taking up quite a bit of space, most buyers in this segment base their imported volumes on a container basis, rather than a unit bases. Hence, request your supplier to quote a volume based on an FCL 20’’ or 40’’ HQ container, and let them specify the number of units that can be loaded in each.News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. Commuters up and down the country had an emotional journey to work today as silent ‘ghost soldiers’ appeared at railway stations to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the Battle of the Somme. The one-off, large-scale theatre project involved imitation soldiers handing out cards bearing the names and details of the 19,240 Brits who were killed in the First World War battle. ‘Ghost soldiers’ pay powerful tribute to those who lost their lives in the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago today
The young actors staged powerful scenes to remind the public of the Brits who fell at the SommeThe actors dressed in WW1 uniforms as they appeared en masse at railway stations up and down the country Members of the public were moved to tears as masses of young men in First World War uniforms marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the battle. The silent ‘soldiers’ sang renditions of We’re Here Because We’re Here, the anthem sung by service men in the trenches during the conflict. The tune, which is sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, repeats its title several times, reflecting the monotony felt by the young soldiers at the time. Masses of young men broke into renditions of Were Here Because Were Here, moving commuters to tears Silent ‘soldiers’ gathering at Euston station to pay tribute to the fallen men of the Battle of the Somme 'IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!' 'WE JUST WANT ANSWERS' THE HUNT GOES ON 'ROT IN HELL heartbreaker'
CHILD HURT IN HORROR SMASH The live tribute saw actors in period uniform at railway stations up and down the country 19,240 British soldiers lost their lives on July 1 2016 Commuters were reduced to tears by the powerful performance The powerful scenes were to commemorate the tragic first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1 1916, when the death toll of British soldiers reached 19,240. Pictures of the moving tribute were soon sweeping social media, along with the hashtag #wearehere. Many who observed the scenes said those behind it deserved a ‘medal’ for their efforts. Nicola Oakley wrote: “Don’t know who came up with #wearehere but you are amazing. “What a moving tribute. “Puts everything into perspective.” The silent ‘soldiers’ handed out cards to the public bearing names of one of the fallen men of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 The scenes provided a powerful reminder of sacrifices made by young Britons 100 years ago
Members of the public were silently handed cards with names and details of one of the soldiers who lost their lives in WW1 Joe Blythe, who posted a video of the singing from Waterloo station wrote: “Quite a thing to catch on a morning commute #wearehere.” And Maria Major added: “#wearehere A sobering and beautiful reminder of real sacrifice and integrity on my feed today.” ‘Ghost soldiers’ roamed around Manchester Piccadilly train station as a sombre reminder of the 100 year old battle Commuters were met with silence from the young actors It was later revealed the memorial scenes were organised by the National Theatre, who had created the tribute under the name Project Octagon to keep it a surprise. They chose sites for the moving performance in dozens of cities across the country including London, Bristol, Swansea, Newcastle, Salisbury and Aberdeen. ‘We Are Here’ Battle of the Somme performance touched the hearts of many commuters