LifeStyle

Furniture that tells the story of Filipinos

  
Another Home Mavericks furniture                                                 Po in his Luna chair

Oftentimes, the best way to change the look of your house is by replacing your décor and  furniture. It is less expensive and more fun to do.

Cebu has been known to be the mecca of world-class furniture that is being successfully exported to many countries. It is where renowned furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue started his business and continues to produce his pieces.

But there is another furniture maker who is starting to make a buzz in the local and international markets. He differs from other players because his goal is to make every house a home.

Eric Po, former real estate sales executive from Cebu, has thoroughly familiarized himself with the need of every homeowner to improve the look of their home. He observed that many people were willing to spend huge amounts of money just to buy imported furniture, neglecting the wide array of available choices in the Philippines.

He wanted to change this practice.  So, he used his own money from the sales commissions he had saved from his real estate stint to establish the furniture store Home Mavericks in 2006, together with fellow young Cebuano entrepreneurs Eric Mendoza, Vincent Sandoval and Johann Escañan.

Po, who has no background in the furniture business, recalled how hard it was in the beginning.  He started the business with the help of his staff and rigorous research on the furniture industry.

"You don't need to have a big capital to start a (furniture) business," Po said. "All you need to know is to learn how to invest properly."

"I saw a great opportunity here in Manila, even though the competition with other furniture stores is really tight," he said.   "Manila is a good way to showcase Cebu-made (world-class) products."

Their collection is most notable for the intricate traditional Cebu design pieces, which uses bamboo as its primary material and creates solihiya (Spanish for weave) as its primary design. The presentation offers a look that accommodates Mediterranean and Miami accents, which uses warm and comfortable materials that are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

"In Home Mavericks, we make our furniture keeping our market in mind. We design things based on what people really need," he stressed.

To add to their numerous world-class pieces, Po released the Luna chair that is made of a mixture of traditional solihiya design and topped with a custom-shaped cushion. It is shaped like a crescent moon for a more comfortable, more relaxed slouch sitting.

Po explained: "I want my first design to be a story of the journey that I did in this business. It's the Filipinos that made me successful, so I dedicate the solihiya weave to them. (In) the next few designs that I will be making, expect something that describes the lifestyle of each Filipino. It will describe what they feel, what they do and what they work for."

He gets his inspiration from every Filipino's life and experiences, focusing not only  on what might sell in the market, but on what every home needs--- that is, a furniture piece that describes one's personality.

Manila outperforms 15 Asian cities in 'shopping' index

Tourists traveling in the Philippines not only visit the country for its natural wonders or historic sites but also to do some shopping, a new study shows.

The Philippine capital city of Manila outperformed almost 15 Asian cities in the Economist Intelligence Unit's new "Globe Shopper Index Asia-Pacific" report.

Manila was ranked 11th out of 25 overall, with a score of 51.5 index points on five categories deemed important to shopping travelers.

These are the variety of shops, affordability of products, convenience, hotels and transport, as well as culture and climate.

It followed the top 10 Asian-Pacific shopping cities namely Hongkong, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul and Delhi.

"Geographically, spiritually and culturally set apart from mainland Southeast Asia, Manila can feel different than the rest of Asia," the report said.

"Shoppers will admire colonial architecture, stunning stone churches and lively town plazas as they stroll between shops," it added.

Manila's best performance is in affordability, where it ranked 8th. It also landed among the top Asia-Pacific cities in terms of convenience, sharing the 10th spot with Mumbai.

"Relaxed visa regulations make it easy to enter the country, while the city offers both affordable dining and public transport," the report said.

Manila posted a slightly weaker performance in the culture and climate sub-index, where it ranked 11th, and hotels and transport, 16th.

Its worst performance, however, is in the shops sub-index, where it ranked 18th. "Manila does not offer a wide range of international brands," the report said.

The study uses data from a variety of sources collected between January and February 2012.

Cities were scored based on the qualitative and quantitative assessments using standardized values on a scale of zero to 100.

"[S]hopping plays an integral part in Asian tourism," the report said, as it highlighted an "inherent dichotomy" in the emerging term "shopping tourism."

"Shopping, on the one hand, for all the activities associated with it, is fundamentally about the acquisition of goods or services... Tourism, on the other hand, is about obtaining experiences," it added.

"Shopping tourism, then, to put it at its most basic, is about what you get and how it feels to get it," the report noted.