The showhouses of development projects are slickly designed, but they rarely resemble actual homes, says Hauslife Furniture’s Ching Kok Cheong. A little warmth and coziness would be nice, he tells JOY LEE.
WALK into any show unit of a development project, says Ching Kok Cheong, managing director of Hauslife Furniture, and you’re likely to see a modern and slickly designed “living space”.
They may look nice, but they rarely resemble actual homes, Ching points out.
“These are not the kind of designs that people will follow. The concept is not ‘homey’ enough,” he explains, noting that the designs are usually cold and lack the warmth that people want in their homes.
According to Ching, Hauslife is keen to grow its business in the projects division by working with developers and introducing warmer designs in the show unit segment. He says Hauslife already has a wide range of home furnishing products that would complement the works of interior designers in creating better designs for showhouses.
“We want to change the concept for showhouses,” says Ching.
Hauslife carries a few furniture and home accessories brands, the most prolific being US-based Ashley Furniture HomeStore. Hauslife was appointed its authorised licensee in October 2014.
Ashley is the largest manufacturer of furniture in the world, offering one of the industry’s broadest product assortments to retail partners in 123 countries.
Hauslife also hopes to expand its projects division through tie-ups with developers to offer semi-furnishing packages to home-buyers.
Ching says such a collaboration would be a win-win deal for the furniture retailer as well as developers since they would be able to offer home buyers furnishing from an established brand. In return, Hauslife would be able to tap into the developers’ market.
“We want to let home-purchasers know that we already have the products in our store,” he adds.
Hauslife opened the first Ashley Furniture HomeStore in Malaysia in June last year at Citta Mall, Petaling Jaya. This was followed by the second store in Bangi in July. Ching expects up to three more home stores by the end of this year and a total of eight stores nationwide in three years’ time.
The expansion is necessary since its flagship home store, measuring 743.2sq m, in Citta Mall can only accommodate about 30% of the brand’s 10,000 SKU (stock-keeping units).
Hauslife’s projects division is currently headed by project director Christie Ching, who has many years of experience from her time in Fella Design. She first joined them as a pioneer employee in 1987.
Ching is confident the project team will grow under Christie’s stewardship, given her track record in big projects including hotels, resorts and residential campaigns. Hauslife projects division portfolio includes boutique hotels, private residences and showhouse offices.
The projects division, as well as Hauslife’s online business, currently make up a combined 50% of the group’s revenue.
Ching says the projects division would also help interior designers provide consultancy services, and retail purchasers that meet its minimum purchase amount could also get consultancy services from the furniture retailer.
“We are not aiming to grow super big in such a short period. We still have a lot of work to do. But we want to set a new trend in creating a homely feel for homes and showhouses,” concludes Ching.
By Joy Lee
4th July 2016, SMEBIZ, The Star
Source http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/smebiz/people/2016/07/04/warming-up-the-showhouses/