Furniture sales to rise in winter
The 16th National Furniture Fair concluded yesterday with, what market players say, a sign of optimism for the business to grow in the domestic market.
Participants at the five-day event at the International Convention City Bashundhara in Dhaka say customer feedback in terms of sales was good thanks to the growing middle class, who are preferring quality over all else and brands to decorate their abodes, from the living room to the sleeping quarters.
“The exposition is likely to bring a positive impact on the prevailing lull in the sector’s business,” said Selim H Rahman, managing director of Hatil and president of the Bangladesh Furniture Shilpa Malik Samity.
He said the fair basically sought to introduce new products of brands to consumers, although some companies took part solely eyeing sales and in the process offered handsome discounts.
Rahman said sales had been slow over the past couple of months. He was hopeful of sales picking up ahead of coming winter.
Tareq Aziz, head of marketing and communication of Partex Star Group, said customers’ confidence in brands had been continuing to grow alongside purchasing capacity for the past couple of years.
He said their discounts had brought in a good number of customers to the fair. According to him, the growing middle class preferred quality alongside credit card-based equated monthly installment facilities of commercial banks, which was in turn helping the sector grow.
Nowadays, the satisfaction evoked through bringing over carpenters to make furniture at home was being replicated by brands and their readymade products, said Aziz. The optimism was not all encompassing. ATM Khasruzzaman, general manager (sales) of Nadia Furniture Ltd, thinks the fair would do little to bring pace to market sales.
He said visitor numbers were good on weekends but it was still a far cry from their expectations, something he attributes to low media exposure for the organisers not putting out newspaper ads.
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