Drake: Don't overlook industry's American manufacturing success stories
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, September 10, 2007
It always amazes me how out of sync Furniture Today can be with what is really going on in the furniture world. You see nothing but gloom and doom for years concerning American manufacturing when there are success stories all around you.
A perfect example of this would be little old Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Mfg. in Columbus, Miss., who is growing every year, and employs over 300 people and never runs a short week. The reason for their success is an attitude of patience, perseverance, and just hard work. Looking for other ways to skin the old cat (my apologies to the SPCA) instead of waiting around for someone to solve all their problems for them. Another glaring example of this is Ashley Furniture, who combines domestic manufacturing with imports, and I would say with some small success.
Nowadays, you do not have very much to write about concerning failures in the furniture manufacturing business because they have either disappeared or have turned it around and become successes. So what do we write about now? How about China! Let's go after China! China is the reason for all our domestic furniture woes.
Heath E. Combs jumps on the bandwagon and gives his unbiased opinion of China (in a column on page 63 of the Aug. 20 issue). They are an easy target, and he is so noble to show the courage to attack them when the vast majority of the advertising in the issue where his article appears is Chinese import based. Mr. Combs needs to think for a minute before he starts making insinuating comparisons between Nazi Germany and China. Although I would expect to find such a perspective in the Los Angeles or New York Times, I am compelled to question such an indictment from a writer and publication whose industry is so intimately connected to China. This raises a few questions for me.
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Considering the current business climate in our industry, where would we be if a $299 (retail) cocktail table was $499, a $599 queen bed was $899, or a $799 leather sofa was $1,099?
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How many times has Mr. Combs visited China, and how much time has he spent discussing or expressing his opinion with the multitudes of furniture industry managers and executives who spent countless hours working in Asia?
Although many of Mr. Combs' facts may be correct, are they necessary comments for an industry so heavily invested in China? I would suggest that we leave the politics for those qualified, and focus on what is positive and healthy for our industry. China is obviously struggling to keep its social and environmental reforms on pace with the rocket-speed growth of its economy, but I would venture to say that we as an industry are better suited as a supportive friend rather than a critical onlooker. They could be our greatest and most powerful ally in a time when we can use all the allies we can get. Heath, in my opinion, your opinion is arrogant and dangerous.
Bob Drake, Pinewood International
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