Precision Woodworking secures major breakthrough in regional furniture market

Local furniture compares favourably with Far East products

Friday, April 6th 2007
Stabroek News
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56517687

Export breakthrough: Some of the finest of Precision furniture

Local furniture manufacturer Precision Woodworking Ltd has realised a major breakthrough for Guyana's manufacturing sector by securing markets for its products in five Caricom territories just months after launching a major marketing drive in the region.

Speaking with Stabroek Business earlier this week Managing Director Ronald Bulkan disclosed that the company had secured markets for its furniture in Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Grenada and had already begun exporting to those countries. "The success of our marketing initiative in the region has far exceeded our expectations and we are currently exploring market possibilities in the Bahamas, Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago", Bulkan told said.

And according to Bulkan the size of the regional market was well in excess of what Precision can produce. He said the company's marketing breakthrough pointed the way for other local entrepreneurs to pursue similar manufacturing ventures. "It would probably take four Precisions to satisfy the market," Bulkan said.

Bulkan told Stabroek Business that the feedback which Precision had received from its representatives in the region, all of whom were established furniture retailers, indicated that the locally produced furniture compared favourably with imports from suppliers in the Far East in terms of both price and quality. "When we consider that the Far East is the premier supplier of high quality furniture in the world this is a major accolade for Guyana," Bulkan told Stabroek Business.

According to Bulkan the company's success on the regional furniture market had demonstrated that it was possible for local manufacturers to compete successfully without the aid of subsidies.

Precision Woodworking has already established a reputation for the successful overseas marketing of its high-quality furniture. The company has made major inroads into the British market despite strong competition, particularly from Asian manufacturers.

Precision Woodworking has been in the forefront of an increasingly vigorous local lobby to restrict the export of raw timber from Guyana. Proponents of reduced timber exports have argued that the country needs to add value to its timber exports in order to enhance earnings from the forestry sector. According to Bulkan while government had already taken steps in the direction of sharply reducing timber exports, those steps still remained to be actualised.