table of content€¦ · mazlan (0313343) fnbe sept 2012 - engl 0205 english 2 methodology a....

2

Jolene Hor (0313751), Te Li Theng (0314198), Liew Chung Hooi (0314126), Tan Kai Chong (0314233) Diana Syazlina Mazlan (0313343) FNBE SEPT 2012 - ENGL 0205 English 2

Table of Content

No. Content Page

1 Key Summary 3

Methodology 4

2 History About The Business 6

3 Description About The Business 8

4 Comparative Analysis Of The Business 14

5 Recommendation 18

6 Bibliography 19

7 Appendices 20

8 Reference 38

3


Key Summary For our English 2 Assignment 3, we had to form a group of 5 and chose a

business or trade to do a research on. We have chosen to research on wooden furniture business. We had to choose 3 shops at different locations and conduct an interview. We’ve visited 3 wooden furniture shops in 3 different areas which were at Subang Jaya, Puchong and lastly Petaling Jaya.

The wooden furniture business has started long time ago in our country

and was once a big trend. Now it can be considered as an antique. Although they

are somewhat similar in the type of products they sell, the business run

differently due to the years of experience in the market. Through this report,

we intend to analyze and compare the similarities as well as the different of the

respective wooden furniture business in the areas that we have chosen.

4


METHODOLOGY

A. Interview We plan to interview the furniture shops on the 17th of November 2013.

The purpose of going on that day is because Sunday is the day where all the furniture shops will be open. According to our research, furniture shops have more customers on weekends compare to weekdays and they will definitely open on weekends. This is because weekends it the time where customers will be visiting furniture shops. During the interview session, we will introduce ourselves as students from Taylor’s University who are taking Foundation in Natural and Built Environments course. Then, we will explain to them that this is our English Research project, which require us to interview 3 shops that we have selected. After that, we will begin our interview by questioning them some general questions first to make the interviewees comfortable then only we start asking them detailed questions that we mentioned above. We also have a person who will be noting down the answers while interviewing the owner of the shop. On top of that, we will be taking a video and voice recording the interview for our own record. After the interview session end, we will thank them for their precious time and request for their name card as proof. We then proceed to photo taking session of the shop, products and the owner.

B. References

We will use published and internet references for this report in order to support our points. We will also request their brochures, name card, newspapers and magazines where they advertised their products. Besides that, we will also refer to our videos, voice records and notes that we jotted down on the other day to put it into report essay. Not only that, there will be a disk at the back of the report to proof that the interview was done by us.

C. Meetings

Through these meetings, we will discuss the location of the shops that the interviews will take part. We will be discussing about the layout and structure of our research report then group leader will allocates the work to group members. This is to make sure that everyone of us in the group has equal work done in this research report project. Nevertheless, we will be able to exchange opinions and ideas on the research report during the meetings. We will also

5


create a Google doc so that anyone of us able to keep on eye on everyone’s progress and anyone of our group member has the right to help our group members do correction on the report essay. This is one of the ways to prevent miscommunication and to make sure everyone is on the right track.

In conclusion, we expect to understand the business thoroughly in order

for us to do the report easier throughout the above methods we will be using. By interviewing the owners of the businesses, we will be able to gain more knowledge and know their personal experiences through the history and reasons they started up the business. From references, we will be able to support our statements with the legit sources we have collected. Last but not least, we are able to divide the work to complete our research project and hand in on time.

6


History About The Business

Furniture is defined as a household equipment designed for a variety of purpose according to the Meriam Webster Dictionary. Nowadays it’s also known as a decorative art. Furniture is made from many materials, rattan to precious metals, but from the earliest recorded history till now today, the dominant material chosen for constructing furniture is still wood. Wood may became an idea of decorative art to be designed and put around as our furniture at home. It isn’t easy to make furniture out of wood as it is not just about chopping down trees and making a chair or table from it. Taking wood as a main idea of making it into a furniture takes a long process along with the passionate in each and every single detail of the furniture. Wood furniture was already present in the ancient cultures of China, Egypt and Greece. Some reasons for selecting wood as a preferred material for furniture are much the same now as they were thousands of years ago. Also the wood excels in performance, manufacturing, and appearance characteristics. From the consumer’s point of view, wood has been a pleasing appearance, warm to the touch and also strong & durable. Wood also has many different kinds of positive attributes. Its easily worked with a wide variety of tools to make artistic and functional shapes, with also easier to be join together with another piece of wood or other materials than most other structural materials such as metal and screws. Until today somehow that wood still continues to be the best choice of customers with great quality that can last a lifetime.

Wood furnitures is a tough and not easy job to be handle around yet Malaysia is one of the biggest exporter for wood furniture in the whole wide world according to Kaplinsky, Raphael; Memedovic, Olga; Morris, Mike and Readman, Jeff from Open Research University. These researches have proven that wood furniture’s aren’t easy to handle even though its generation passed down. When each and every wood furniture business is growing, they hence to increase the pricing in trees which affects the economic market to have hard time to catch the right amount of each tree. In wood market, during year 1995 - 2000, wood cutters did not have any power to sound out themselves towards those clients who wants to get the trees they wanted. After year 2000 the clients/owners of wood furniture hence to some trouble dealing with license & permission of cutting each tree down for their product. Coming down to Malaysia, an Asia country after independence was declared, slowly developed throughout the years and they hence to have many trees around where clients of the world

7


were attracted to it. Slowly locals learn the strategies of developing the woods to furniture like others of the world. Until now Malaysia’s still having competition against each with wooden furniture. While a quick research over a few shops shown some great feedbacks on how they survived through from 15 years till today.

8


Brief Description About The Business

Handi-Art

Handi-Art was founded by a couple Hendric Hor and Belinda Sim in 1997.

They started of selling small wooden sculptures or souvenir like items in a big hardware store called Handy-Mart. That was where they came up with their shop name; Handi-Art, since they sold artsy products. As the business matured, they started selling furniture such as tables, chairs, bed frames, benches and many more. They started off this business as Hendric had a great passion for details and wood products. Since he was studied mechanical engineering, he had great interest in machineries as well. That was what prompt him to start this business with the support of his wife, Belinda. Their motive of starting the business was to show people the beauty of wood and the various forms that can come out of it.

9


When Handy-Mart closed down, they moved their shop somewhere around USJ 1 which is now known as ‘Da-Men’. However, not long after, that building caught fire and they moved the shop to Summit. Hendric Hor and Belinda Sim also attempted to open branches around the Klang Valley. However, they could not find the right person to help manage the other branches, thus they decided to close the shop and concentrate to their shop at Summit. Currently, they have about 5 workers working in the shop at summit and about 30 workers working in the factory at Indonesia. Their first shop was around 700 square feet and through the years it has developed and the shop at summit now is around 20,000 square feet. All the products from Handi-Art are handmade in Indonesia where the factory is located. Hendric takes care of the factory at Indonesia while Belinda takes care of the shop at Summit. Each piece is unique since it is hand-made and some are custom made based on the customer’s preference. The furniture are all designed by Hendric himself according to his mood. At a time, he liked classical furniture, thus he designed alot of furniture that were very classical liked. Then, he liked Scandinavian design and so he made furniture according to that design.

Handi-Art targets matured customers who are aged 40 years old and above. This is because their furniture are of high quality and therefore have a higher range of price compared to other furniture stores. They believe that only people of that age know how to appreciate this type of furniture. They have a consistent amount of customers and are doing very well in business.

10


Grand Teak

The Grand Teak furniture shop is located at 50, Jalan Bandar 13, Pusat

Bandar Puchong, 41700 Puchong. Grand Teak furniture shop took 9 units which is equivalent to the whole row of the shop lot area in total of 16200 square feet. The owner is Mr S. Vengkat. Grand Teak shop was found since 1998. Mr S. Vengkat and his sister was the two main people that started the business, Mr S. Vengkat was already in the retail business with his other partner. He stated that, his first branch was at Pusat Bandar Puchong. He started the business due to the Balinese concept was trending and his sister and himself decided to bring the Balinese style furniture from Indonesia.

Mr S. Vengkat gets all of his products from Bali and Jawa, Indonesia and

Sri Lanka. The main material used for his products are Teak wood and Mahogany wood. He uses is the ‘D’ concept which is a Balinese style. In his business, he has 10 workers working for him and all of them have been working

11


with him from the first day. The main customers he receives are mostly Chinese and Malay. His business annual revenue figure is approximately 4 million. As stated by Mr S. Vengkat, he has a few competitors in Klang Valley area, which is Teak Charm and Teak Collection.

He started in the network marketing before he started the furniture retail

business with his partners. Then, he left to start up his own business. He chose this business because it was trending in Malaysia. His sister and himself went to Indonesia and brought in some loose furniture. But they did not earn anything in the first few months. He opened a shop in Ampang and also in India, as he said it was very hard to maintain therefore he decided to close down the other shops and just stick to one branch. His recent development is that he expanded his business from two units to nine units. The capital that is required to start his business was RM200,000 and it was only 2 units which is 1,800 square feet per unit. After that, he expanded his business to 9 units that is the total of 16200 square feet.

How he managed to compete with his competitors is that he advertised a lot of his products and at the same time he brings in different product and provide good customer services. He releases his products by 3 containers every month and during festive season might have up to 4 or 5 containers. He chooses the products himself all the way from Indonesia. He claims that his pricing decisions are not based by his competitor but by his product. Lastly, the obstacles he faced is the delay of the shipping. It is also his concern when his furniture were damaged when it arrives.

12


Astana Persian Carpet

The next place that we visited is Astana Persian Carpet, which is located

at The Curve shopping centre, Petaling Jaya. It is a traditional Pakistan furniture and carpet business, which was established since 1998. This business started fifteen years ago by Syed Baqid Shan, which is the forefather of Syed Sadiq who is now currently running the business in Malaysia. Syed Baqid’s grandfather decided to start this business since there were not many competitors in the market in Pakistan that time. After a few years, they expanded their business to Malaysia. The very first branch was at Jaya supermarket and they have grown bigger since then. Astana Persian Carpet now has 3 outlets all based in Selangor, which are around the area of Subang Jaya, Petaling Jaya and Sungai Buloh. This business is a family business passed down by the owner’s grandfather.

Their main selling product is wooden furniture. They also sell carpets and

vases that are mostly imported from Pakistan. Their carpets are imported from Iran and Turkey, which are famous countries for producing handmade carpets. Most of their products are all manufactured at their factory in Pakistan. Other than that, their wooden furniture are made out of only Rose wood, which is

13


known for being the hardest and the best wood you can get. This wood is well known for long lasting and is able to last for many years. Their product concepts are traditional Pakistan design that are unique and eye catching. Currently they have 12 employees who are working for him. Syed mentioned that he has many competitors in the market currently and is constantly facing strong competition. One of the reasons for this is because everyone is using different strategy to compete with one another. We also asked Syed how much of capital is required to start this business and he told us that his family spend approximately RM1.5 Million for 6000sq to start. He mentioned that it is getting harder to enter this market because less customers are willing to buy furniture due to the bad economy this past few years.

Syed’s products are all high quality and handmade which is one of his strategies to divert customers from his competitors. They also provide good customer services as well. This is his way of competing with other competitors. Syed’s products are often advertised through the mass media by newspaper, websites and etc. This is because that Syed accepts the fact that everyone is his potential customer. Astana Persian Carpet often release new products and all their furniture will be changed every 10 days. Every three months, they will ship in one container of new furniture. Syed’s business pricing decisions are strongly affected by his competitors but they only make RM100-200 profit from the products they sell and the cost price is expensive because it is handmade and high quality.

The obstacles faced for his business is that they have limited market in Malaysia because more people are starting this type of business and there will be more competition. Syed also explained that their business annual revenue is not at peak level but it is enough to sustain the business. This is due to the low development of economy in Malaysia.

14


Comparative Analysis Of The Business

We interviewed 3 wooden furniture shops owner at different locations, which are Handi-Art at Sumit, Subang Jaya , Grand Teak at Bandar Puteri, Puchong and Astana Persian Carpet at The Curve, Petaling Jaya, and they are all over 13 years history. The first furniture shop, Handi-Art owned by Belinda Sim and Hendric Hor , the second, Grand Teak owned by S.Vengkat and the last, Astana Persian Carpet owned by Syed Sadiq.

First of all, they are have a similarity which is selling furniture that is made of wood. However, they are all different races which is, Chinese, Indian and Pakistan respectively. Even though they are of different kind but they have the same love and interest of furniture that are made of wood.

Handi-Art, Grand Teak and Astana Persian Carpets have different reasons for starting their business in the industry. The key founder of Handi-Art, Hendric Hor and Belinda Sim started this business as Hendric had great passion in detailing craft on wood and his interest in designing furniture. The key founder of Grand Teak, S. Vengkat on the other hand started his business as he was already in this line of industry since he started his career in this wooden furniture industry right after he finished college. He started his own business as he broke off from a partnership before that. Astana Persian Carpet was founded by Syed Baqid Shah who is the grandfather of our interviewee. The business started off at Pakistan and was expanded to Malaysia in 1998.

Both Handi-Art and Grand Teak imports their furniture from Indonesia but different part of the country. Handi-Art imports their furniture from Jakarta while Grand Teak imports their furniture from Bali and Jawa. Astana Persian Carpets on the other hand imports their furniture from Pakistan. Furniture from Handi-Art and Astana Persian Carpet can be custom made according to the preference of the customers. They both have factories however it is overseas. Handi-Art’s factory is at Indonesia where around 30 people are working at and Astana Persian Carpet’s factory is at Pakistan where around 20 people are working at. Thus, they are able to custom made furniture for customers. Grand Teak however imports ready-made furniture from Bali. The furniture are picked by S. Venkat himself. Thus, their furniture cannot be custom made but they can change the colour of the furniture or do some touch up work for their customer.

15


Although all 3 business are selling wooden furniture however they all sell wooden furniture of different styles and use different wood to produce their furniture. Handi-Art and Grand Teak uses Mahogani, Teak wood and Cengal Wood to produce their furniture. Grand Teak also uses Suar Wood to make their furniture. Astana Persian Carpet on the other hand only uses Rose Wood to produce furniture. The style of the furniture at Handi-Art varies according to the boss’s mood as he is the designer of the furniture. Example of the various designs that he has made are Classical and Scandinavian. As for Grand Teak the furniture he brings in are more on ‘D Concept’ style which is Balinese style and recycled furniture aside from the normal wooden furniture. Astana Persian Carpet sells traditional Pakistani design wooden furniture. Aside from furniture these 3 shops also sell other things. All the shops sells small sculpture and art that can be hung on the wall. Astana Persian Carpet slightly more as they also sell carpets from Iran and vase.

From the interviews we did, Handi-Art faces the least competition and Astana Persian Carpets faces the most competition. Handi-Art do not have much competitors since they are one of the biggest wooden furniture shop in the Klang Valley. Astana Persian Carpet on the other face big competition as there are a lot of shop that are similar to them such as Persian Collections and Pak Persian Carpets. Handi-Art believes in honesty and that is one of their strategies on gaining loyal customers. Belinda stated in the interview ‘We mind our own business and be honest to our customers. That is how we get good businesses.’ They also only sell high quality furniture thus attractive only matured customers. Handi-Art earns a gross profit of 1 million a month. The obstacle they face is that it is hard for them to find workers because of the long working hours. They also face problems when their containers get delayed. On the other hand, Grand Teak spend a lot of money advertising. They often appear on the Star Newspaper and also online. That is one of their strategies to gain customers. The annual revenue of Grand Teak is around 4 million. Similar like Handi-Art, Grand Teak face the obstacles of delayed containers. Astana Persian Carpet’s tactic on the other hand is to only focus on Rose Wood furniture and have an affordable price since not many people are interested in their product anymore compared to the previous when they just started business. The interviewee stated ‘Business is very slow now. We only get around RM100-RM200 profit from each furniture. This is just sufficient for us to survive in Malaysia’. Sales is their main obstacles as the economy in Malaysia is not doing so well and the economy in Pakistan is very unstable.

16


All these business are doing retail sales and they are all monopolistic competitive. This is because the producers are differentiated from one another as goods but not perfect substitutes. All these shops are selling wooden furniture however they all have their own style and compete against each other to attract customer’s attention.

Based on our analysis, we feel that Handi-Art is the most commercially successful. Firstly, they have a bigger shop lot compared to the rest of 200 thousand square feet. Secondly, they have been in business the longest compared to the other two. They have more loyal customers that know how to appreciate their products. Compared to the other two, we also feel that they are the most well-known among the other two. On top of that, they have the high annual revenue compared to the other two.

17


Comparative Table

Handi-Art SDN.BHD.

Grand Teak SDN. BHD.

Astana Persian Carpet (M) SDN. BHD.

Number of Competitors

Not many at Subang area. Klang Valley has the most range of people doing the same thing.

Teak Charm and Teak Collections in Klang Valley

A lot of competitors

Main Products

Wooden Furniture Wooden and Recycled Furniture

Wooden Furniture, Carpets and Vases

Pricing Shouldn’t be the cheapest nor expensive

Not based on competitors because of product

Expensive

Advertising Newspapers and Magazines

Magazines and Newspapers

Newspapers and Websites

Employees Foreign Workers Local Indian and Some Legal Foreign Workers

Workers from Pakistan

Obstacles Employing human resource that fulfils their expectations such as good staff, able to work long hours and local are hard to find. End up they employed foreigners.

The delay of the shipping. Sometimes promised customers that will reach in 2 months but delayed to 3-4 months. It is also concern when damaged furniture arrives.

Limited market in Malaysia, more people starting this type of business and there is more competition.

Strategies Sell high quality products and make customers understand that the products worth the price they given to them. Also be passionate and be passion to do something or else it won’t have good results.

Advertise a lot of products and at the same time they bring in different products and provide good customer services to compete with their competitors.

Products quality is high and all handmade. Advertised products through newspapers, websites and etc.

18


Recommendation

After analyzing the information that we have collected through our

research, we have come up with a few recommendations to improve the

respective business. Amongst the way incudes getting products that follows the

trend. Although wooden furniture have a more conservatives and traditional

style, the owners should consider designing wooden furniture that is more

modern and to attract younger generation buyers as well. This is because this

industry cannot depend on only the matured buyers as someday not many

people will not know how to appreciate wooden furniture anymore. Thus, it is

important for the business to offer something special and unique to attract the

eye of the customers.

Besides that, it is clear that honesty is very important in this industry.

Since it is not that easy to sell a piece of furniture, it is very important for the

business to gain loyal customers. These loyal customers will not only buy from

that shop but will also spread a good word of mouth to their friend that will

help the business. Therefore, honesty of the seller is essential as it will help

them keep their customers and reduce competition.

Another way for this business to compete against each other is the

efficiency of the service. If customers are able to receive their goods fast, it will

definitely boost business. Delaying of delivering goods may cause conflict

between the seller and the customers.

19


Bibliography

Admin. (2010, May 5). Where to find Furniture shops in KL. Retrieved November 12, 2103, from Furniture Shops in KL: http://www.myfurnitureshop.com.my/ Astana Persian Carpet, 1998 Retrieved 18 Nov 2013, The Curve. Furniture [Def. 1]. In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved 20 November, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furniture Grand Teak, (1998, March). Retrieved 17 Nov 2013, from Google. https://www/google.com/grandteakpuchong Handi-Art, 1997. Retrieved 17 Nov 2013, The Summit. Kaplinsky, Raphael; Memedovic, Olga; Morris, Mike and Readman, Jeff (2003) Retrieved on 18 Nov 2013. Sim, B. Personal Interview. Interview session of Handi Craft. On the 17 Nov. 2013. Interviewed by Liew Chung Hoi. Syed S. Personal Interview of Astana Persian Carpet. On the 18 Nov 2013. Interviewed by Jolene Hor. Vengkat, S. Personal Interview of Grand Teak. On the 17 Nov. 2013. Interviewed by Liew Chung Hoi

http://www.myfurnitureshop.com.my/

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furniture

https://www/google.com/grandteakpuchong

https://www/google.com/grandteakpuchong

http://www.bibme.org/


20


Appendices

Interview 1

Name of Shop: HANDI-ART SDN. BHD.

Location: Shoplot 2-140B 2nd Floor, The Summit Subang USJ, Jalan Persiaran

Kewajipan USJ 1, 47600 UEP Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Eshan, Malaysia.

Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Tel: 03-80230588

Age of the Shop: 16 years (since 1997)

Name of Interviewee: Belinda Sim (Owner)

Questions & Answers:

1. When was the business founded? - Since 1997 which is 16 years ago.

2. Who are the key founders?

- Belinda Sim and Hendric Hor (Husband)

3. Where was the first branch/shop set up? - Rent a place in Handi-Mart, Subang Jaya but Handi-Mart is no longer

existing. It has changed to Mydin in year 200x

mailto:[email protected]


21


4. What prompted the founders to start this business? - Passion and interest. My husband like detailed work.

5. What are your main products?

- Wooden furniture.

6. Where do you get your products? - 99.9% from Indonesia

7. What is the material used of your products?

- Teak wood and Mahogany wood.

8. What is your product concept? - Minimalism, Classical and Scandinavia

9. How many employees you have?

- 5 workers

10. Who are your customers? - Matured customers (40 and above)

11. What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

- We prefer to keep it Private and Confidential.

12. How many branch/shop do you have? - Currently we only have 1.

13. Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most

recent developments? - Hendric, my husband found interest in detailing to wood and begin to

import some from Indonesia and resell it in Malaysia. Then, he started to design his own furniture and get his own factory. 15 Years ago when we just started, the shop was only 700sq at Handi-Mart but now it is around 20,000sq at Summit, Subang Jaya.

14. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors? - Not many competitors at Subang area. Most of them are not doing this

range of furniture but Klang Valley has the most range of people doing the same thing like us.

22


15. Is the business constantly facing strong competition from other

competitors? What strategies have they used to compete with you? - Not really. This is because we only carry one or two pieces of the

product due to the reason that the products are all handmade and there are no ready stocks unlike IKEA.

16. How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialized field of knowledge do you need to run this business? - Around RM10,000 when we just started up 700sq furniture shop.

17. Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

- It is easy because product won’t go to waste and can just produce a new piece of furniture according to the trend they like. It also quite hard because of the long working hours. Hence, seldom have workers who willing to work for long hours.

18. How do you compete with your competitors? What strategies do you employ to divert customers away from your competitors? - We sell high quality products and we will make customers understand

that the products worth the price we given to them. We must also be passionate and be passion to do something or else it won’t have a good results.

19. How often do you release new products (this assumes that the business sells differentiated products)? - Every month, now and then. Every custom made is also considered as

a new product because it is new design.

20. Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? - Yes. Pricing in the market shouldn’t be the cheapest nor expensive and

we need to explain the reason why we set the amount of price for the product.

21. What are the obstacles faced doing this business? - Employing human resource that fulfils their expectations such as good

staff, able to work long hours and local are hard to find. End up they employed foreigners.

23


Interview 2

Name of Shop: GRAND TEAK SDN. BHD.

Location: 50, Jalan Bandar 13, Pusat Bandar Puchong, 47100 Puchong.

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 012-3717371 / 03-58825447


Name of Interviewee: S. Vengkat (Owner)




- S. Vengkat and my sister

3. Where was the first branch/shop set up? - Pusat Bandar Puchong.

4. What prompted the founders to start this business?

- During the time, Balinese concept was in trending then my sister and I decided to bring in Balinese style furniture from Indonesia.


24



- Wooden and recycled furniture

6. Where do you get your products? - Everything imported from Bali and Jawa, Indonesia. There are few

products from Sri Lanka.

7. What is the material used of your products? - Teak wood and Mahogany wood.

8. What is your product concept?

- ‘D’ Concept – Balinese style

9. How many employees you have? - I have 10 workers. They work for me since day 1 I started this

business.

10. Who are your customers? - Mostly Chinese and Malay.


- 4 Million and above.

12. How many branch/shop do you have? - Currently 1 branch only

13. Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most

recent developments? - I was in network marketing before I start this business with my partners. Then I broke up with my partners to start up my own business. I choose this business because it was trending in Malaysia then my sister and I went to Indonesia and brought in some loose furniture from there and sell it in Malaysia but we didn’t get to earn anything in first few months. This is how they learn to earn. Few years later, I have a shop in Ampang and also India but it was very hard to maintain so I decided to close down the other shops and just stick to 1 branch, which is this Puchong branch. My recent development is I expanded my business from 2 units to 9 units.

25


14. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors? - Yes, of course. Teak Charm and Teak Collections that is in Klang Valley.


competitors? What strategies have they used to compete with you? - I find that not many competitors in this business.

16. How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any,

specialized field of knowledge do you need to run this business? - I started with RM200,000 and it was only 2 units which is 1800sq per unit. Then I expanded my business to 9 units that is the total of 16200sq.

17. Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why? - It was easy because I was already doing my own business. However, it

was hard as well because we did not know how to start.

18. How do you compete with your competitors? What strategies do you employ to divert customers away from your competitors? - We advertise a lot of our products and at the same time we bring in

different products and provide good customer services to compete with our competitors.

19. How often do you release new products (this assumes that the business sells differentiated products)? - 3 containers every month and during festive season might have up to

4 or 5 containers. I choose all the products by myself from Indonesia.

20. Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? - Not based on competitors because my product

21. What are the obstacles faced doing this business? - The delay of the shipping. Sometimes we promised our customers that

will reach in 2 months but delayed to 3-4 months. It is also our concern when damaged furniture arrives.

26


Interview 3

Name of Shop: ASTANA PERSIAN CARPET (M) SDN. BHD.

Location: Lot 207 2nd Floor, The Curve Shopping Center Mutiara Damansara ,

Jalan PJU7/2, 47800 Petaling Jaya Selangor Darul Ehsan

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 012-4091216 / 03-77223375


Name of Interviewee: Syed Sadiq (Owner)




- My grandfather, Syed Baqid Shan

3. Where was the first branch/shop set up? - In Malaysia, Jaya supermarket is the first branch.

4. What prompted the founders to start this business?

- This is family business.


27



- Wooden furniture, carpets and vases.

6. Where do you get your products? - All furniture, vases and some carpets are imported from Pakistan.

Carpets mainly imported from Iran and Turkey. Iran is the country that produces the best handmade carpet around the countries.

7. What is the material used of your products? - Rose wood only. (The hardest and best wood because it last long)

8. What is your product concept?

- Pakistan traditional design

9. How many employees you have? - I have 12 workers. 8 workers in Summit, Subang Jaya, 2 workers in

The Curve, Pj and 2 workers in Sungai Buloh.

10. Who are your customers? - Everyone is my customer


- Less but enough to survive.

12. How many branch/shop do you have? - 6 branches. 3 in Malaysia (The curve, Summit and The Store Sungai

Buloh) and the other 3 in Pakistan.

13. Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments? - Basically, it started with my grandfather. He is the one who started

this business in Pakistan. Last time, my grandfather decided to start this business because in Pakistan this business is rare and less competitors. Then, we expand our market to Malaysia. There is no development recently due to the bad economy in Malaysia.

14. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors? - Have a lot.

28



competitors? What strategies have they used to compete with you? - Yes it is. Everyone uses different strategy to compete with other

competitors.

16. How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialized field of knowledge do you need to run this business? - I spent 1.5 million for 6000sq to start but now more expensive

compare to last time.

17. Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why? - This market is getting harder because less customers are willing to

buy furniture due to the bad economy this few years.

18. How do you compete with your competitors? What strategies do you employ to divert customers away from your competitors? - Our products quality is high and all handmade. We advertised our

products through newspapers, websites and etc.

19. How often do you release new products (this assumes that the business sells differentiated products)? - Every 10 days we change new furniture and every 3 months we bring

in 1 container of new furniture.

20. Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? - Yes but we only made RM100-200 profit from the products we sell and

the cost price is expensive because it is handmade and high quality.

21. What are the obstacles faced doing this business? - We have limited market in Malaysia, more people starting this type of

business and there is more competition.

29


Pictures

HANDI-ART SDN. BHD.

30


31


32


GRAND TEAK SDN. BHD.

33


34


ASTANA PERSIAN CARPET SDN. BHD.

35


36


37


38


Reference Journal Ng, B., & K., T. (2011). The Dynamics Of Innovation In Malaysia's Wooden Furniture Industry: Innovation Actors And Linkages. Forest Policy and Economics, 2, 5. Journal Ratnasingam, J., & Wagner, K. (2010). The Impact Of ISO 14001 On The Operations Management Of Wooden Furniture Manufacturers In Malaysia.European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, 68(4), 479-481. Interview

Sim, B. Personal Interview. 17 Nov. 2013. Interview Vengkat, S. Personal Interview. 17 Nov. 2013 Interview Syed S. Personal Interview. 18 Nov 2013 Research Papers Kaplinsky, Raphael; Memedovic, Olga; Morris, Mike and Readman, Jeff(2003) . The global wood furniture value chain: what prospect for upgrading by developing countries? The case of South Africa. UNIDO, Vienna. Book Rivers, Shayne, and Nick Umney.Conservation of furniture. Oxford, England: Butterworth Heinemann, 2003. Print. Website Fitzpatrick & Weller Company Blogs - The origin and evolution of wood furniture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fitzweller.com/CompanyBlog/tabid/111/EntryId/63/The-origin-and-evolution-of-wood-furniture.aspx










39


Website Types of Wood. (n.d.). Types of Wood. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.hoovedesigns.com/woods.html Book Lambert, V. (2009, March 1). Wooden Woes: Wooden Occasional Furniture Populates Many a Suburban Garden or Patio, but How Much Do We Know about the Origins of the Raw Materials? The Teak Trade Is a Murky Business, and There Are Several Ethical Factors to Consider. Geographical, 2, 45.







table of content€¦ · mazlan (0313343) fnbe sept 2012 - engl 0205 english 2 methodology a....

Documents