Tam Long Fine Arts Co., Ltd, established since 2000, is one of the pioneers in trading and exporting furniture items including living room sofa, dining table set, bag, tray made from water hyacinth, rattan, sedge, plastic rattan, etc.
The firm also receives a great deal of furniture orders, and produces multiple batches that are required and already designed by their customers.
Product quality and variety designs are the priorities of Tam Long’s orientation. In the meantime, they aim to approach such diverse markets such as: EU, USA, Australia, and Asian countries like Japan, Korea, etc.
The European Furniture Market
The European Union is a strong growing region possessing furniture consumption of nearly 25% of the total global consumption.
According to estimation, the EU furniture market size reached USD 193.13 billion in 2019. Its annual growth rate (CAGR) is predicted to be around 5.1% by 2026. The Netherlands only, furniture’s revenue will have approached USD 10.87 billion in 2022.
Therefore, EU is considered as one of the most potential regions that importing furniture, handicrafts and interior decoration products.
However, at this moment, Vietnamese furniture just take very small share in the EU market. For that reason, the opportunity for goods in Vietnam exported to Europe still expands.
Additionally, the Covid-19 pandemic and global supply chain crisis has made European furniture brands be under pressure while facing the increasing transportation costs. They also face challenges when transferring their production activities to other countries for improving supply sources.
Notably, consumers’ trend is concerning about friendly environmental materials such as natural wood, bamboo/ rattan/ wicker, which brings a big chance to countries like Vietnam. Since the country has huge natural-material sources available in the country, and people have long time experiences in producing furniture made from natural material.
As the potential market having nearly 750 million citizens, the European market has for ages been a competitive playground of an abundance of top well-known furniture brands in the world.
Some of the leading and outstanding players should be noticed are Roche Bobois, BoConcept, B&B Italia, Poltrona Faun, etc.
The competition in this industry gets tougher not only because of the competition between giant brands but also the market share expansion of small and medium enterprises thanks to the attention driving on niche markets.
Difficulties on the go…
Among the new and competitive market, Tam Long Company has not enough resources to compete with other competitors in the EU market. Thus, when entering this foreign market, the business faced obstacles in approaching the market.
One of the main causes is lacking of insight of target market, the furniture industry, competitors, and potential customers. Besides, the firm also did not have the business representative in the EU market to organize meetings and directly work with foreign partners.
Due to the lack of connection in the business network and the obstacle in supply chain management of the firm, many shortcomings wasting resources for business appeared.
These challenges have created difficulties for Tam Long to get through when entering the EU market.
How VIEC Supported Tam Long in Approaching the Foreign Market
After receiving requirements from Tam Long, VIEC team started to test the market and search for the suitable product.
First, we spent time learning about Tam Long’s detailed information and its unique selling point of the product which is made from natural materials such as the hyacinth plant. These furniture items are not only unique but completely retaining the characteristics of Vietnamese products.
Therefore, Tam Long Fine Arts’s products will satisfiy the customer’s needs for environmentally friendly products.
Next, VIEC conducted sales planning and approached potential customers by starting to enthusiastically contact furniture importers in the Netherlands.
Thanks to these efforts, we understood each partner’s demand and helped Tam Long to consult about the designs and customized products so that it would satisfy clients from the Netherlands and the European.
Jan J
Sales Manager – Jan JP Nederland
Have been working with VIEC, we became the first company in the Netherlands who has water hyacinth furniture. Being the first in the market, we have got advantages but besides are also difficulties. The cooperation with VIEC helps us to overcome these difficulties to build our stable marketshare in the Netherlands. We are extending business with VIEC.
Coming to an end…
With the market understanding and more-than-10-year-experience in the import-export field. VIEC, as an advisor, successfully supported Tam Long in exporting water hyacinth furniture only after 3 months.
Jan JP Company, an importer, and VIEC’s partner, is one of the outstanding firms providing construction materials and having been running business for more than 50 years in the Netherlands.
Thanks to an effective cooperation, VIEC has accompanied Tam Long Fine Arts Company to transfer first containers of hyacinth tables and chairs to Rotterdam port – the Netherlands.
These are such vital steps for reliable Vietnamese brands to take brave penetration into the Netherlands and the EU market in the near future.
BEYOND THE STORY OF Tam Long Crafts, IT’S YOUR TURN NOW
At VIEC, we help our partners make decisions with confidence from a thorough understanding of the destined market, along with all the procedures involved. With more than 10 years of experience in international trade, we have handled more than 20 successful projects in many industries and built up a reliable network in Vietnam and the Netherlands.
Want to be the next chapter in our journey?
