Thomas Russell — Furniture Today,
JIASHAN, China — Chinese case goods manufacturer Lacquer Craft has added a second warehouse at its factory here, more than doubling its handling capacity at the location.
The first warehouse holds about 1,800 containers of finished goods. The new, fully automated facility, which began operations two weeks ago, can hold between 2,000 and 2,200 containers, said President Mohamad Amini.
The new building has more than 300,000 square feet of floor space and ceilings of nearly 100 feet. Amini did not provide other details, but the facility is believed to be similar to the existing warehouse in its ability to ship full and mixed containers and track inventory through an automated storage and retrieval system.
Amini added that the facility initially will be shared by its two marketing companies, Legacy Classic Furniture and Universal Furniture.
But because Lacquer Craft is adding a new youth production line for Legacy Classic in an area near the new warehouse, that facility is likely to wind up dedicated to Legacy Classic.
“It’s a phenomenal facility,” said Legacy Classic President and CEO Kevin O’Connor, noting that the facility will hold about $40 million worth of inventory, or as much as two months’ worth. “This brings us to a whole new level. To have an entire product line available on mixed containers with no limitations on it is pretty amazing. … This will give us capability that no one can duplicate in the Far East today.”
Universal President and CEO Randy Chrisley said the added warehouse capacity will provide a competitive advantage, with improved shipping times and greater availability of product on mixed containers.
“Our goal has been to ship containers from the warehouse in less than 30 days from the time of order,” he said. “Now it’s 14 days or less. We now have the space to give unequaled service out of China.”
Lacquer Craft also is adding three production lines to the Jiashan facility, one that will be completed at the end of this year and two that will come on line sometime in 2014, Amini said.
The six existing production lines can produce about 1,600 containers worth of furniture per month for Legacy and Universal. The new lines will add another 800 containers of capacity.
Three existing production lines at the company’s Dongguan facility produce as many as 600 containers per month for various OEM accounts. The company is looking to add another two lines at that facility, which could expand capacity by as much as 400 containers per month.
Amini said the company also is looking to add a warehouse in Dongguan. Any production and warehouse expansions there will be completed by the end of 2014, he said.
He declined to reveal an updated cost figure for the Jiashan warehouse or other projects. Last year, the company issued a report projecting that the Jiashan production and warehouse expansion would cost about
