China's growth is mainly due to the greed of the West (& the East) in wanting cheap goods. There were many other factors (relevant to UK, but also elsewhere) which owed the decline of the manufacturing industry in those countries due to lack of investment, whether in machinery, R+D or a skilled workforce. This year China has to contend with the 'mismanagement' of COVID-19, Xinjiang & Hong Kong, which have only surfaced this year. Businesses can look elsewhere for production, including nearby countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar . . . . . . What they will not now (and probably won't care) is that the majority of these factories that have opened within the past 5 years, are either China owned, China managed or have a vast reliance of China money and certainly a reliance on China components. There is always going to be an argument of morals v price v a product being commercial. Will people change completely and only buy from sustainable sources and ethically correct factories? A few might. These same people will 'happily' turn a blind eye to other world issues. As I mentioned on another post, it will be an interesting 2-3 years ahead.
Simple solution. Don't buy fakes. The factories will close. China now is not what China was 10 years ago.
Agree with that yes, lot of Chinese opening up elsewhere. So are you going to ride it out or find some options and diversify?
Another good solution is to relocate all mnfr out of China. Like Adidas. So the Adidas I see coming from China are clearly risky. Lazada has a shipping from Indicator on its point of purchase. Nice feature
It's ultimately up to the customers I supply. Currently none have asked me to source elsewhere and that includes major brands that are involved in 'ethically sourced and sustainable' products. Go figure. I am looking at alternate countries in case they start to want to move things out of China. Will they be happy with China backed factories? Not sure.
All? Wish you luck! Lazada - Another China owned business!! You won't escape them, no matter how hard you try!
So what you handling all the ISO9000 stuff. Ethical sourcing. Site visits from marks and sparks type stuff? I think a Chinese led biz in another country is smart if they have the expertise then what's the problem. Actually I'd say that's a bonus and a good trade off. Old hand new location. Could be right up your street that Ron.
Many large businesses prefer to work with Hong Kong companies, as (they think) this distances themselves from China 'and all it's ills". How wrong they can be. What price for morals? That's (sadly) the ultimate question.
China can make cheap products, but at same time, China can make expensive products. It depends on customers' needs. All my clients ask me to source good quality products, so, we stay away from the cheap factories and do solid quality inspections. It's possible to buy very good products from China, depending on how much you want to pay on products themselves and quality control.
I have a manufacturing company in India, so it might sound I am supporting India but the reality is: China grew economically very big because they delivered cheaper products with compared to any other country in the world. In this process many companies shut thier factory across the world because they could not compete China. Most of the UK manufacturers either shut or shifted elsewhere for the same reason. You can find many article about several incidents, where Chinese manufacturers did not follow copy rights or did not took care of human rights. During Covid 19, some of the US and japanese companies are trying to move out of china for their own reasons. Atleast now, people are looking for alternative to China even with an additional cost. There will always be few good company in China and some products only available in China mainly because of the raw material being available in China . Every customer is different, for some it's economic, for some it's moral and ethics. For some its more on charity. With respect to furniture, India does produce a lot of furniture both modern and traditional hand made design. You can always explore the options you have and decide based on what you can sell. Good luck Deepak
There is the obvious benefit of Indian suppliers/manufacturers being well-versed in English as opposed to their Chinese counterparts but there are other considerations too. In my honest opinion, your chances of falling victim to any of the suppliers in either of those countries are equal, although India does become a safer alternative since verifying your supplier becomes much easier. China tends to do much better when it comes to modern furniture styles that are sleek & edgy since these furniture pieces can easily be manufactured with machines & they're able to sell high-quality stuff & low cost but when it comes to furniture that requires hand carving or a specific theme, like Industrial furniture/rustic furniture, India is the place to go but you have to be extremely careful about the suppliers that you enlist. My colleague who started her furniture store received two faulty shipments from different suppliers in India before she came across the right one
At first, I was thinking it could be worthwhile to build relationships with India. Then I came across some good comments dissuading that notion. As CHUKTC stated above, China is way in the lead when it comes to furniture and India isn't even on the list. @MapleSourcing also pointed this fact out about India. OP posed a great question!
China is still the preferable source of furniture. Don't let politics to crowd your business decision. In term of product quality and value to money, China is still a reliable source. Of course, in order to guard against the product quality, you should have a reliable quality inspection company as your business partner.
As the corona effect is diminishing, thing have started to settle. I agree China is still preferred option in terms of economy and variety, one has to decide what they want on long term. The global trade will be interesting for the next 5 year, there will be new opportunity for many new country/suppliers.
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