Honduras: A small but important source
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2008
High Point — By global standards, Honduras is a tiny country for furniture exports and production. In 2007, it sold $5.4 million in furniture to the United States, down 9% from about $6 million in 2005.
But it remains an important source for companies such as Laneventure, Hooker Furniture, Nichols & Stone and Century Furniture.
Laneventure has dealt with a single factory in San Pedro Sula for about 10 years, sourcing aluminum frame seating, dining tables and occasional made with a synthetic vinyl weave.
Leroy Harris, import logistics coordinator for Laneventure, said the company sought out Honduras because it has much shorter lead times than Asia. Product takes 8 to 10 days to get from Honduras to the company's Conover, N.C., warehouse, compared to 28 days from Asia.
Nichols & Stone sources more than half its bedroom line from a factory in San Pedro Sula.
President and CEO Tuck Nichols said that prices aren't as low as from China but are less than the United States, where it still manufactures. A typical bedroom coming out of Honduras — including bed, dresser, mirror and two nightstands — retails from $4,000 on up.
Still, Nichols likes the fact that he can get solid-wood pieces made with native hardwoods including carabera, a wood once used for ship masts. The factory also works with maple and cherry solids, woods that have been traditionally used in the Nichols & Stone line.
Nichols also said lead times are about half the amount of time than for goods coming from China and that he can get to the factory a lot more quickly than he can traveling to Asia.
"I can leave in the morning and be there in the afternoon the same day," he said. "It's accessible and there are less language barriers."
Hooker has sourced from a single 150,000-square-foot, 400-worker factory in Honduras off and on for more than 10 years. It started doing steady business with the plant in 2003, and currently sources home office and entertainment, dining tables and buffets, and some occasional tables, said Hank Long, senior vice president of merchandising.
The plant primarily works with Honduran pine that finishes like alder in a hand-rubbed process known as "wool-wax" finishing.
"They can do a lot of carving, and that is one of their specialties, but we have not relied on that heavily," Long said. "What we have done is this clean-lined look with this hand-rubbed finish. Their finish is similar to what we used to do here in the States. There aren't a lot of people in China that want to take the time to do that."
Over the years, said Long, Hooker has "developed a strong, well-trained work force (at the plant) that can provide our level of quality for the most part and put a look on it that quite honestly, we don't feel like we can get from China."
Still, Honduras has some challenges. For instance, companies like Hooker have to import hardware and light fixtures from other locations, and that can cause logistical headaches.
"You have to coordinate your production, and if you don't do that, you face some delays," Long said.
Nichols said the country also faces increases in costs for things like finishes and other raw materials. This could end up squeezing smaller producers that have more difficulty absorbing such costs than their larger Chinese counterparts.
But for now, companies like Lane, Hooker and Nichols & Stone plan to stick with Honduras, particularly given its skilled work force and ability to work with various woods and finishing processes.
And in spite of the raw materials increases — which also face other source countries — Honduras presents a sense of security.
"We hope there will be some pricing stability out of there, and we are not seeing that from China right now," Long said.
Century Furniture also sources a line of home office and home entertainment products from Honduras and some outdoor product out of Columbia, including its Spanish colonial-influenced Estancia collection. This group includes lounge chairs, ottomans and end tables with teak frames and brass nailhead trim.
