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Biz Leaps Forward For Hari Raya
By Azlan Othman
Bandar Seri
Begawan - Business has leapt forward and shops are smiling with
crowds thronging to do very much more than window shopping this
season.
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Starting from retail shops,
departmental stores, tailoring and furniture shops have begun to
show record profits heralding a very prosperous season for traders
at Hari Raya.
Tailor shops burn midnight oil to
keep their business open till the crack of dawn. The owner of one
tailor shop said his business has surged over 400%.
Retail shops too offered
attractive, discounts, prizes and irresistible offers to lure
customers.
A local distributor of canned and
daily products in Lambak Kanan light industrial area described it
as a mark of competitive business environment opening up in the
Sultanate.
Liow Kee Sang, Managing Director
of Fashion Furniture & Construction and Court Furnishing which has
a factory outlet in Muara, admitted that business was most
competitive as well as profitable during this festive period
His firm which makes 80%
furniture locally in Brunei shows a record three to four times
increase in sales this year than last year due to easy access to
bank loan facilities. |
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However, he said that profit margin
was not high for furniture imported from China because of the tax
and freight charges.
The factory produced some 50
sofas a day and up to 300 mattresses during this festive Hari Raya.
In all, 10 containers are transported-out of the factory outlet in
Kg. Salar in Muara during this time compared to two to three
containers during normal days, the company's Factory Manager
added.
He also added that producing
furniture locally was more profitable than importing. The imported
furniture which costs over $1,000 but costs lesser as it is
produced locally using foreign raw materials.
"We use the local wood which is
of better quality than those imported. By using local products, we
can allocate the resources products faster compared to foreign
products when filling up an order," Eric Liow, its Executive
Director said. |
Eric said customers are now more
inclined towards contemporary design, more colourful instead of the
traditional wood and fabrics type two to three years ago.
He also said that the competition is
quite diverse now to cater to higher to lower end of the market.
Normally, sales go up during bonus and during weddings when bedroom
sets have more sales.
He added' in the short term, we could
see a slightly upward trend. As for the future of furniture industry
which also make furniture for government housings, Eric said, it all
depends on the country's economy noting that business was good during
Amedeo period. "If more activities in the economy like increase in
wages, the future looks positive". --
Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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