CHENGDU, China, July 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Today, hosted by the Chengdu Municipal People's Government and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce, the 13th Chengdu International Furniture Exposition is opened in Chengdu's Century City New International Exhibition Center. During the global financial crisis, with its relative stability and high growth potential, the Chinese market becomes the buffer zone for many companies.
Mr. Zhu Changling, President of the China National Furniture Association, pointed out that based on 2011 sales volume of China's social retail goods, furniture ranks fifth, only following real estate, automobiles, clothing and food. Household appliances rank sixth. Zhu Changling said, "Since the furniture industry encounters export barriers, the domestic market becomes the most important driving force. Currently, with the competitive tension between the secondary and tertiary markets, the domestic market is more vigorous and prosperous. Besides the basic driving factors of income, residential building, population, income and promotion, the main reasons for driving consumption in the furniture industry include China's urbanization rate, which is gradually raising from 45%, currently, to 70% (international level); 10 million peasants are turning into urban residents each year; Secondly, 10 million couples get married each year, and the rise of white-collar workers who earn 100,000 to 200,000 Yuan per year. Finally, with a current 40% presence in the tertiary industry, we are far behind the international level of 70%. It shows that the furniture industry has great potential and the changing of consumption habits in this industry will promote the development of domestic market."
Mr. Jiang Dan, General Manager at Chengdu New Oriental Exhibition Co., Ltd (the standing organization of the organizing committee) said, "The Chengdu Furniture Exposition is an 'internal trade' exposition. Through 13 years' development, it has already formed a very mature mechanism of inviting national investors, and it is the most preferred launching pad for furniture brands to develop within the Chinese market. This year, over 150,000 visitors are anticipated during the 4-day exposition period, and the number of exhibitors has reached 900."
Homag China Golden Field, the leader in woodworking machinery, has consecutively participated in the Chengdu Furniture Exposition for several years. Mr. Guan Jianhua, Board member and General Manager, said, "The huge Chinese market accelerates the growth in the number of Chinese furniture companies. Compared to European and American furniture companies, the scales of our furniture companies are comparatively large, and the demand for manufacturing techniques and machines are very impressive. Sichuan is the largest manufacturing base of panel furniture in China. With many furniture companies participating in the Chengdu Furniture Exposition, it is a great platform to find partners."
Source: finance.yahoo.com
Constable painting The Lock up for auction - BBC News
What would you pay for The Lock? The BBC asked members of the public
John Constable's The Lock is expected to become one of the most expensive British paintings ever when it is sold at Christie's in London later.
The depiction of rural life in Suffolk is tipped to fetch up to £25 million.
Its owner, Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, said it was "very painful" to sell the 1824 masterpiece but had to because she had "no liquidity".
The work has been housed in Madrid's Bornemisza Museum, one of whose board members has resigned in protest.
Museum trustee Sir Norman Rosenthal criticised the Baroness, known as Tita, for putting one of its prize exhibits up for sale.
In his resignation letter, the former exhibitions director of London's Royal Academy said the decision "represents a moral shame on the part of all those concerned, most especially on the part of Tita".
Constable's six large canvases depicting the area around Flatford Mill in Suffolk changed the course of art.
Pictures such as The Lock might seem a bit traditional now, but in 1824 the artist's use of colour, expressive brushstrokes and contemporary subject was radical.
While The Lock hung in the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy, the Hay Wain - another painting from the series - was being shown at the Paris Salon.
Charles X gave it a gold medal, while artists Théodore Géricault and Eugene Delacroix responded by changing the way they approached painting.
Their Constable-inspired innovations led directly to Impressionism and the birth of modern art.
If it fetches its expected price, The Lock will become one of the five most expensive Old Masters ever sold at auction.
The top price of £49.5m was reached in 2002 by Sir Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents.
A former Miss Spain, the Baroness is the fifth wife and widow of Swiss industrialist Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.
The Lock was part of the huge private art collection he left behind when he died in 2002.
While most of it was sold to Spain, 250 artworks are still in the Baroness' private collection and have been lent to the country free of charge for the past 13 years.
Announcing the sale of the Constable painting in May, the Baroness said she needed to sell because of the current economic crisis.
"It's very painful for me, but there was no other way out," she told the Spanish newspaper El Pais. "I need the money, I really need it. I have no liquidity.
"Keeping the collection here is costly to me and I get nothing in return."
Francesca Von Habsburg, the Baroness's stepdaughter and another museum board member, has also expressed disapproval over the sale.
"The baroness has shown absolutely no respect for my father and is simply putting her own finanical needs above everything else," she told The Mail on Sunday.
The top end of the art market has escaped many of the problems faced by the wider global economy, with new records consistently being set for individual artists.
Last month Joan Miro's 1927 work Peinture (Etoile Bleue) sold for more than £23.5m, a record for the Spanish painter.
In May Edvard Munch's The Scream became the most expensive art work ever sold at auction, selling for $119.9m (£74m) in New York.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Ashley Furniture begins hiring for Davie County plant - The Business Journal
Todd Wanek, president and CEO of Ashley Furniture, speaks at the April announcement that his company will be opening a plant in Davie County.
Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. has begun hiring for its planned $80 million manufacturing and distribution center near Advance in Davie County.
The furniture maker, based in Arcadia, Wisc., has six positions posted on its website related to its new warehouse operations that were announced in April during the High Point Market. The positions advertised include a director of warehouse operations, returns & liquidation coordinator, shipping desk clerk and warehouse superintendent and supervisors.
The company is planning to employ up to 1,100 workers over the next five years at a 640-acre site on Baltimore Road that includes land that had been held by the Davie County Economic Development Commission and a former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company facility that until recently was owned by Asheboro businessman Jeff Schwarz.
The land from the economic development commission was given to Ashley Furniture after being donated to the organization last year by R.J. Reynolds. Ashley Furniture purchased the 311-acre parcel Schwarz owned on June 27 for $10 million, according to property records.
Todd Wanek, president of Ashley Furniture, said in April that plans call for 418,000 square feet of existing warehouse space to be put into use in October or November as a distribution center, followed by the construction of an additional 1.5 million square feet of space.
Owen Covington covers health care, commercial real estate, economic development, law/bankruptcy court, media/advertising, tobacco, state government and sports business.
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