Decorative veneer is a natural product with exotic looks and feel. It saves lots of timber and natural resources because it is sourced from matured sustainable timber and forest. The growth in sales of the decorative veneer is driven by innovation in manufacturing, display at showrooms, new launches, creativity by influencers, dare to keep stocks by retailers and dealers, higher disposable income, and HNI’s remittance to India. All these stakeholders are making maximum effort despite present slowdown period to maintain their share, even by lowering profit margins to drastic low. There are significant huge drop registered in prices of Teak, Walnut etc range to maintain the sales tally. Now, reports find that the root cause in stagnant growth of veneers that is largely considered with time taken in polishing and hassles during finishing and coating.
As a part of magazines like Ply Reporter, Surfaces Reporter and Furniture Design & Technology, we keep meeting retailers, showrooms owners, specifiers, interior designers, contractors, furniture makers, etc and keep eagle eyes to absorb the change in behavior of customers and influencers. We believe that Decorative Veneer Demand could grow only if customers core issues like sanding, labor cost, time spent are reduced if dealers start promoting Pre-sanded, Pre base coat-sanded- lacquered decorative veneer to customers. With advent of new finishing line tools and machines, veneer producing factories are in much stronger position today to offer Pre-sanded, pre-finished or “final coat ready” decorative veneer sheets. This step may sound ‘not possible’ for people today but if adopted it can be a great solution and reduce the biggest application ache, saving time and money. Pre-polished or semi polished or with pre- sealer coat will save lot of money for applying veneer. This way veneers will become affordable for users, and will help driving demand.
Although 3-4 veneer manufacturing brands have endorsed ‘Pre-Polished’ decorative veneer but major chunk of manufacturers are not daring. Many of the manufacturers feel that retailers are not comfortable due to Carpenter’s Behavior’ and hesitation, they agree with this turning point if companies adopt it. The industry and channel partners may capture more decorative veneers market share among entire surface décor products if they push pre-sanded, pre-coated veneers.
The cover page of February issue is available in New Look, with innovative creation of ‘Greenlam’ brand, once you see, you would say, ‘WOW’. In the inside pages, there are plenty of news reports related to trade, industry, new launches,announcement, which are most informative, if you are a serious player in Industry and trade. The One2One interaction with Mr. Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director, Action Tesa is worth read for entire panel industries. The interaction with Mr. Manish Arora, Director, REHAU (Furniture Sale), Mr. Bolton, International Sales Director, SUFOMA is also useful for readers of respective segment. We hope a very result-oriented turnout at Indiawood, Bangalore during February, last week. We welcome all to visit Ply Reporter’s Booth at Hall - 5, Stall - B 204 to know more about the prospect of Wood Panel and Plywood sector.