Italy vs. China: Sitting Pretty

• Share

(2 of 2)

Italian manufacturers shouldn't think that their Chinese competitors have things easy. Zhu and his counterparts are constantly worried about maintaining their edge. Most of the 210,000 Anji chair laborers are locals. They work nine- to 10-hour days six days a week and make about $185 a month--vs. $1,000 in Italy. But as Anji sprouts new plants, workers have become scarcer, making it difficult for manufacturers to keep salaries low. Local officials have established a personnel office to lure more migrants from less developed areas, but their real concern is to improve the quality of Anji's wares, to make chairs better rather than just cheaper. County officials have established an R&D facility of Anji's own and have plans to build a chair museum. By 2012, Anji hopes to boast of making "more than two brands that reach an international standard," according to a mission statement on the county's website, chairstoday.com

Even in the booming Pearl River delta--China's furniture stronghold--research, innovation and technical know-how have failed to keep pace with production. But that too may change. According to Eric Kan, whose Hong Kong-- based Oasis Global Sourcing designs and procures luxury housewares on the mainland, "Chinese factories have improved dramatically in the past three to five years in terms of their attention to detail." Kan outfitted the Sands Casino in Macau, and is at work furnishing a Manhattan clubhouse for the Ciprianis, the Venetian family that owns namesake hotels and restaurants around the world. Factories in China are capable of producing furniture for those kinds of venues, he says, but they need supervision. "Today I still have to specify what kind of glue, how many screws, what percentage of the wood's pores should be exposed by the lacquer," he says. But in the future, he predicts, China will not only nail the details on imported designs but also start to dream up its own. "Until a few years ago, China produced only 1,000 product designers a year," he says. "Now it's producing tens of thousands. This is going to change the atmosphere of the whole industry."

Nor are Anji's manufacturers sitting on their advantage. They know they have to change. From the vantage point of Italy, Chinese firms may seem to have enormous cost advantages. But none in Anji think sustained economic growth can be built on price alone. Wang Yongqi, a gym teacher who started making chairs in 2000, surveys a batch of leather-sheathed dining chairs bound for Spain and sighs. "Our materials are getting more expensive," he says, "and we need more workers, but unless we can improve our designs, we can't raise prices. Otherwise our clients will go to Vietnam or other parts of China." Chairs may be for sitting on, but in a world of globalized supply chains, the winners will be those manufacturers--wherever they live--who hit the deck running. Every day.