Demand for customized home furnishings rising

CEBU, Philippines — Home furnishing manufacturer and exporter Pedro ‘Pete’ H. Delantar sees a promising outlook for customized furniture products both in domestic and export markets.

Delantar, president of Nature’s Legacy Eximport Inc., said what’s sustaining the growth of furniture making in Cebu is the growing demand for customization, fuelled by the robust real estate and tourism sectors.

Delantar, whose company has been in the furniture manufacturing business for 35 years, said for his company alone he noted an average of 15 percent growth in customized or made-to-order furnishings primarily from institutional customers like hotels, resorts, condominiums, restaurants, and any property that aims to have a unique look or what he described as “instagrammable”.

“Everybody wants to be different,” said Delantar explaining why the company opened up a new 700 square meters showroom in Mandaue City to accommodate the made-to-order market.

From a traditional furniture exporter, Delantar said Nature’s Legacy has evolved into a hospitality fit-out provider.

Gone were the days when hotels, resorts, restaurants or even mansions buy bulk of their furnishing needs from off-the-shelf furniture stores here and abroad. The trend now, Delantar said is customized designs.

The Nature’s Legacy showroom located in Remedio Street, Mandaue City also showcases the company’s evolution in furniture making in three decades. It has successfully made its mark as one of the trailblazers in sustainable processes and product innovation in the world—in the field of furniture manufacturing.

Delantar, who is a trustee of Chamber of Furniture Industries in the Philippines (CFIP), added that the market preference has changed a lot in the recent years.

Customers now pay for premium, and to be different. This is where Cebu furniture industry in general draws its lifeline, amid the sluggish global market demand.

For Nature’s Legacy, its niche as a green manufacturer also boost its marketability especially in the export market as customers already demand for sustainable products and processes.

Nature’s Legacy’s first two major inventions, Naturescast® and Nucast®, won the Golden Invention Award in Geneva, Switzerland in 2015 and the other is archived in the Material Connexion Library in New York for being one of the “world’s most innovative and eco-sustainable materials.”

The showroom will only be opened upon request or advance booking.

Nature’s Legacy also has one showroom in Makati City and in Japan.