By ML Wang
Founder, Furniture China & Shanghai Expocasa Furniture Company Ltd

New year's message

2015 was a tough year for furniture industry all over the world, China was tough too after over 20 years high growth of two digital, but only 3 percent increase of export for the 11 month of 2015.

It seems to me that the past high growth history will be past, and never come back again, same as China's GDP growth will be down from bellow 7 percent down to 6 to 5 or even lower.

I am not pessimistic, but I see the Chinese economy and furniture down are somewhat healthy that both our economy and furniture need to do re structuring. It is a must because China is no longer a labor intensive country, the lower cost labor are shifting to Indonesia, Vietnam and ... . It is a must that China's E Commerce buying online quickly spreading to furniture buyers. It is a must because China need furniture productions eco friendly, better quality and higher value.

Quality and value always go along with Design, the original design from China, and designers from all over the world. I did not know how difficult it is to build a furniture brand of original design of high quality. My Expocasa furniture company in Shanghai tried last year with good image. (See pictures bellow). However, the investment , the difficult to find good materials and good producers are so difficult that I now know why China will take long time to be known as the furniture country of good design and fine quality.

2016 will be another tough year for China's furniture industry. We expect lots of changes. We expect many companies disappeared. We expect tough market pushing our industry change more and quicker. I expect bankruptcy, stock clearance, merger will be some of the key words in our hearts mystery in China. I expect our industry moving healthier to better design, value based instead of quantities, much slower growth.

Future is always bright.

 ▼Shanghai Expocasa's first launch