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Businesspeople credit SVLK for improved sales
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Wibi Hanata, the operations manager of furniture firm UD Romansa Jati, talks to a prospective customer at the Indonesia International Furniture Exhibition 2017 in Jakarta on March 13. (JP/Stefani Ribka)
D
espite a claim by a business lobby group that the timber legality assurance system (SVLK) hampers competitiveness in the furniture industry, some furniture producers say it has improved their sales significantly.
Small furniture producer UD Romansa Jati can now export directly to the European Union without using a second party after it obtained SVLK certification in 2013, said the firm's operational manager, Wibi Hanata, during the Indonesian International Furniture Exhibition (IFEX) 2017 on Monday.
He said the company had enjoyed an up to 40 percent profit margin since 2013 from the 10 percent previously.
(Read also: Furniture expo IFEX aims to attract 10,000 visitors)
“With the SVLK, buyers from the EU have more confidence in us and we can sell directly to them without using trading companies, and so we enjoy a higher profit margin. Moreover, we can sell products under our own brand and excel faster,” Wibi said.
The SVLK has also enabled the firm to participate in more exhibitions, leading to around Rp 1.2 billion (US$89,887) in annual gross revenue in recent years from only Rp 500 million before.
Big exporters like PT Farindojaya Persada have also benefited from having SVLK certification, saying buyers in the EU and the UK always ask about certification and so without it, the firm could not send samples, let alone export.
“I think it’s important for us to ensure buyers that they’re buying products from a wholly legal chain: from upstream to downstream,” the firm's director, Robin Lai, said Monday. (bbn)
