The Furniture Manufacturing Industry of Barbados - Caribbean ...

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SINGLE DRESSER Peer assessment of prevailing price levels: the “British Classics” product line of Ethan Allen’s USD 1499 Mirror USD 449 Double dresser Plantation Poster Bed USD 1499 USD 1499 Tall Chest USD 1199 Night Table USD 569 Mirror USD 299 Chest USD 799 Graph 7: Prices for “British Classics” on offer at Ethan Allen’s; these prices can serve as a reference for going-rate pricing of “Barbadian Vernacular” (source: http://www.ethanallen.com; Jan 2007) 4.7 Distribution 4.7.1 Showroom and distribution centre in Barbados Key for the distribution of “Barbadian Vernacular” furniture will be a showroom with retail facilities and wholesale distribution centre in Bridgetown. This “Barbadian Vernacular” centre has to be centrally located, preferably between the port and the city centre so that tourists can reach it conveniently. The centre will be the place where the tourists and other customers can experience the furniture, where they see them and touch them. The actual production however will be done in the workshops of joiners around the island and yet to be selected. While it will be possible to buy furniture in the centre (not least for the local customers), the primary function of the centre will be to serve as a point of accepting orders for furniture that will then be shipped to the home countries of the visitors. A size of 1,000m² should be sufficient to display the furniture in its best light (rather than jam it into every nook) together with accessories such as lamps, framed pictures, tableware, racks, rugs, bed coverings… of the finest available qualities. The most convenient solution that can be implemented with a minimum of time and effort would be to install the showroom at the Pelican Craft Centre. With a variety of crafts and cottage industries represented, the Centre that provides an adequate setting to get the campaign up and running.
4.7.2 Overseas marketing centres/showrooms To enter overseas markets, physical presence in the respective market will be of a huge advantage. Sales agents or partner foreign companies can establish showrooms and sales branches at strategically favourable sites in selected export countries, or the Barbadian enterprises in co-operation with the Centre of Excellence initiate such marketing “hotspots” on their own. In the U.S. market, the state of Florida (i.e. Miami) offers favourable conditions for opening up and running such a marketing place. The representation could comprise a permanent show room, a retail distribution facility and a distribution centre. In Europe, the furniture centres (in terms of sales and design trend-setting) of Rome, London or Cologne would be most appropriate for these efforts (London being the most convenient location as BIDC has a representation there). However, the regional market also is important to be covered. Next to a showroom with retail facilities in Barbados itself, Trinidad and Tobago with its huge turnover in regional furniture trade could be the most adequate location for establishing a regional marketing branch. 4.7.3 E-commerce and internet-based marketing The growing importance of e-commerce in the furniture sector Deregulation across a number of industry sectors in the EU and the US has increased the flexibility of their economies and has enabled them to react rapidly to changes in demand. With no doubt, e-commerce is responsible for some of this (if only as a means for making data available and for making possible the online use of information to facilitate the order and delivery process). Full, integrated e-commerce in the furniture industry is still some way off, but it is as much a threat for a country like Barbados as it is an opportunity to be thoroughly looked into. For eventually, the use of developing country programmers and proprietary software will enable large and small companies in the business to take a cheaper route to success in this trade. Managerial efforts to appreciate the value of e-commerce and to use it will be crucial to this uptake. • In the two years to 2001, many middle-market American furniture firms shied away from selling to consumers online. Reaching these consumers required advertising and promotion – how did one do this within a reasonable budget and how did one make up for the absence of the touch-and-feel effect which often had a determining impact on sales? Recently however, changes in consumer perception have raised expectations. Today 5% of all furniture firms expect 20% of their sales to be business-to-consumer (B2C); 21% anticipate business-to-business (B2B) sales to rise to the same level. To attain their goals, any firm wishing to go online must: • improve its supply chain management • improve its communications and cut administrative costs
Page 1 and 2: Final Report The Furniture Manufact
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ...........
Page 5 and 6: 1 INTRODUCTION The furniture indust
Page 7 and 8: 2.3 Overview: Five key elements of
Page 9 and 10: 2.4.3 Long-term In addition, and wi
Page 11 and 12: 3. logistics for an export trade is
Page 13 and 14: lower level. Michigan with its stra
Page 15 and 16: Mio. USD 25.000 20.000 15.000 10.00
Page 17 and 18: ) Buying agents do not buy or sell
Page 19 and 20: BARBADIAN STANDARDS Name and descri
Page 21 and 22: Character of products Sample prices
Page 23 and 24: A dry kiln is a major expense--an a
Page 25 and 26: Winston Thorne and his son Leroy Th
Page 27: than price). Price buyers look for
Page 31 and 32: customer to browse through a variet
Page 33 and 34: productions in the country, which e
Page 35 and 36: 5 FROM PLAN TO ACTION 5.1 Short, me
Page 37 and 38: y mid-2007. It is to be avoided tha
Page 39 and 40: ANNEX: REFERENCES/SOURCES Annex 1:
Page 41 and 42: Annex 2: Branding and other marketi
Page 43 and 44: Tools for branding “Barbadian Ver
Page 45 and 46: Annex 3: A note on protecting intel
Page 47 and 48: ent owner must establish that the a
Page 49 and 50: Historically, trade dress protectio
Page 51 and 52: Although it may sometimes be possib

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