Philippines Travel Info

It’s only right perhaps that furniture manufacturers in cebu philippines can trace their beginnings to an American, the US being considered its top export market. An American oil executive, who didn’t really like being in the oil business, made friends with Dona Maria Aboitiz who had a small backyard rattan furniture shop.

Being good with his hands, he was drawn to the shop and became fascinated with the strength and flexibility of rattan as they were being handcrafted into furniture by the proficient workers in the shop.

It was John McGuire who thought of a way to give justice to the material in its design and execution when he was presented with an opportunity to deal in the rattan business. Having married and settled back in the US, he and his wife decided to work as a team and founded the McGuire Furniture Co. in 1948.

This after they had traded a warehouse full of rattan furniture and learned these were being bought only for sun porches. He thought the material deserved better treatment and remembered Dona Maria and her shop. When they sent her a design she thought was not reasonable, John didn’t give up. Instead, he remembered what they used to do in those cowboy movies about wet cowhide, that when dry, starts to tighten around the neck. This breakthrough not only solved the problem of strength through cowhide but also revolutionized rattan furniture design and to this day, this combination of rattan and cowhide is a McGuire exclusive trademark with international patents.

McGuire’s real break came when they were able to persuade the famous interior designer of Gump’s in San Francisco, Eleanor Forbes, to design furniture using rattan. All of her 15 designs sold, 2 of which are considered classics and displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.. By the 1950’s, the McGuire collection had not only expanded from chairs to sofas, tables and bar stools but also, a new design created a sensation every year. As their fame and clientele kept growing, they opened 21 showrooms in key US cities and engaged a distributor for the European and Japanese markets.

With the growth and expansion of the McGuire Co. Dona Maria’s Mehitabel Furniture Company in Cebu, being the McGuire’s sole manufacturer and supplier, likewise grew. She had to have subcontractors who could also meet her own tough requirements as well as the high standards set out by McGuire. Thus, enter Mr. Guillermo Figueroa, proprietor of Rattan Arts and along with a certain Mr. Nazareno, of Rattan Pacifica from Cavite, eventually became regular suppliers. Rattan Arts also had its share of fame and fortune. They had furnished posh hotels that hosted international events such as the Meeting of World Leaders in Hotel Cancun in Mexico and the Miss Universe pageant in Hotel Pereus in Greece. Like Mehitabel, it is still going strong to date and same as Mehitabel too, they have sister companies which focus on wooden furniture products, based on market demands.

Another important player during the early development of the Cebu furniture industry is the late Florentino Atillo. He learned the ropes of the rattan furniture trade in Dona Maria’s shop and later ventured out on his own, eventually founding the Rattan & Wood Industries, Inc. This became one of the biggest factories during its time. When he died in 1969, his wife and two sons took over the business but they later sold out. However, one son put up his own FLA III, which is also within the furniture industry.

A footnote to this was the entry of buri furniture during the 1960’s, the very first designs of which were done by Elinor McGuire, John’s wife. The top department stores bought and sold the items but unfortunately, the owners of these products left them out during winter. Thus they did not last and the disappointed owners returned them to the stores, prompting the McGuires to give up on the new material. Towards the end of 1969, Dona Maria, with another American, designed a knock down buri chair. With the right marketing strategy and innovative designs, it made its re-entry into the US market. It became very popular prompting many to go into its production. This made the product too inexpensive and the market too competitive, that it had nowhere else to go but bow out of the export market.

Many have since then joined the industry, although the threat of extinction hung over their heads many years back (early 70’s) when the sourcing of raw materials became very difficult. Cebu was the seat of production yet it didn’t have any rattan plantations at all nor any forest cover. The five rattan suppliers, Mindanao Ratan, Standard Rattan, Alenter, Pacific Traders and Norkis Trading preferred to export the raw poles rather than supply the locals.

The active lobbying by the industry members who have organized themselves into a cohesive group, the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines, furniture manufacturers cebu groups, resulted in a rattan poles export ban in 1976 and the five suppliers converted to become manufacturers themselves and even became some of the biggest in the industry. Doubling exports and the resulting rash of new factories put up and numerous subcontractors again threatened the industry. Indonesia came in as a supplier but imported poles were more expensive so again, there were factories which were forced to close. Fortunately, an Englishman, Paul Maitland-Smith decided to establish a factory in Cebu. The players in the industry consider this fateful decision as one of the reasons for the beginning of the “renaissance of the industry”. The other reason is, of course, the creativity of the Cebuano entrepreneurs.

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Cebu Philippines has been dubbed the “Milan of Asia”, and if you know your geography, you know what it implies. Despite the lack of a major source of material and the difficulty in obtaining them, Cebuanos still come up with globally competitive products many the world over are in admiration of. Why? What is the secret? In talks with many of those in the industry and with those outside of it, they all agree that the number one factor for the continuing stature that the products enjoy is the genius and creativity of the Cebuanos and of the designers in cebu philippines.

The lack of rattan, a major component, has challenged them to come up with other materials that may substitute for rattan or may be combined with it and thus lessen their need for it. With materials like stone, aluminum, wrought iron, wood, coco and sea shells, bamboo, banana bark, abaca, steel, leather, tikog, sea grass, lampakanai and other indigenous materials, Cebuanos come up with the most creative and exciting designs ever, yet still retaining the beauty of form and function in the resulting products.

The second factor is the skill and artistry of the workers. Cebu has a history of its people’s ingenuity in making do with what they have, given the land they cannot really depend on for food and livelihood. Cebuanos are used to making things work with whatever is on hand for them to work with. And because they are surrounded by beautiful, natural scenery, they can’t help but turn out things of beauty. They are naturally artistic. Capitalizing on masterful Filipino skills, the Philippine-made furniture today is a fusion of eastern craftsmanship, natural materials, age-old traditions, clever designs and modern technology.

Current Trends

Every year, since 1988, Cebu International Furniture and Furnishings Exhibition or “Cebu Xcite”, is held to showcase what a Cebu furniture exporter has to offer to the world. The show, dubbed Cebu X, is held the first week of March at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, Cebu, Philippines in Cebu Philippines. Organized by the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation, Inc.(CFIF).

It is now the “must-see” show among the many furniture design shows in Asia. The show has long been recognized as the number one exhibition of its kind in the Philippines, and through 17 years of design innovation and the occasional revolution, it is an influential barometer of the region’s design direction. Make your reservations now to attend the show at the CFIF website.

Based on the industry’s latest offerings, and on talks with a Cebu furniture manufacturer, Alan Murillo, we can surmise the following design trends in furniture:

* First, the trend to use mixed media as material for furniture. There are reasons for this, one of which is the scarcity of materials that have been used for furniture. Now, manufacturers and designers are using non-traditional materials and traditional craftsmanship mixed with modern technology. The materials may be ethnic but the sensibility is modern. Another reason for this mixing of materials is the new awareness among the Cebu furniture export manufacturers not to waste nature’s bounty, but to enhance, protect and preserve it, as much as possible. Not only for this generation but for future generations as well.

* The use of material that makes the furniture light and airy. This is what the Europeans call the Asian lifestyle trend, or what some dubbed as the tropical feel, or the urban ethnic. The material may be indigenous- coco shell, sugarcane stalks, abaca, rope, sea grass, -but with the consummate Filipino craftsmanship and artistry married to the state-of-the art machinery, the results are urbane designs, unmistakably contemporary, thoroughly modern.

* The result of all this is what Mr. Murillo calls a “responsible design.” The design with a social conscience. Materials such as coco and bamboo, long used locally in relatively basic applications are now transformed into highly evolved finished pieces that comply with the strictest international standards on the use of non-toxic chemicals and the preservation of the environment. When designing furniture now, they see to it no laws-social, environmental, or otherwise-are being violated.

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