A City.W store in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi furniture dealer Fahad opened his first City.W franchise store in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in mid-July. This 3,000 sqm store specialises in Wenzhou-made brands of furniture all the way from Zhejiang Province, China.

City.W opened for business after paying US$100,000 in an initial franchise fee, US$3 million in start-up merchandise purchases and US$300,000 in a long-term deposit payment.

In the absence of any advertising support, the new store grossed between Rmb600,000 and Rmb700,000 daily in the first two weeks of operation. Fahad was able to hand over this spectacular scorecard to his Wenzhou supplier as a resounding success and justification for the Chinese franchise operation.

Wang Dongsheng, chairman of New Field Furniture.

Wang Dongsheng, chairman of New Field Furniture (which created the City.W brand), said it was a "pleasant surprise" to bump into this new franchisee. He had never met Fahad before, but the first order placed by Fahad was worth Rmb13 million, followed by another one worth Rmb6.8 million one week later. According to Wang, Fahad is already planning to open a second City.W store.

Fahad runs the Almutlaq chain based in Saudi Arabia. The family business has nearly 30 years of experience in the furniture market and Fahad sees imminent changes in the Middle East furniture market in the years ahead.

The Saudi entrepreneur sees the market share of neo-classical and minimalist European-style furniture expanding at the expense of simple, classic hardwood furniture.

City.W offers six brands of furniture, namely Ego, Po, Easy Living, Gaudi, Pop Impression and Life G for veneer, upholstery and fibreboard products of different grades, series and styles. Fahad discovered City.W after visiting six exhibitions in three years.

Brand exports are nothing new for Wenzhou shoe names like Kangnai and Aokang which already have their own specialty shops abroad, but it is a pioneering move for Wenzhou furniture makers.

Pan Pingping, deputy director of Wenzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, said this underlines the increasing acceptance of Wenzhou brands abroad; Wenzhou enterprises should leverage on the mature marketing networks of foreign companies to export their own brands.

"This is a good start," said Pan, adding that he hoped Wenzhou brands would be able to attract more foreign franchisees on the basis of "proprietary innovation" - which could let in Hong Kong franchise operators.

from Shirley Pan, Hangzhou Office