Traditional cardboard company becomes paper furniture maker

This article was written by Allen Hsu and published by the Taiwan Journal on May 19, 2006. It features Taiwan's Acerly International Co., Ltd., which has been manufacturing and promoting innovative DIY household furniture made of heavy-duty, hardened cardboard in recent years.

The people in Taiwan consume 245,000 metric tons of household paper products every year. This amounts to about 11 kilograms of paper products per person per year, which is less than the 20 kilograms consumed by the Americans and the 15 kilograms consumed by the Japanese.

Such household paper products include toilet paper, napkins, facial tissue, feminine napkins, kitchen towels and disposable diapers. All of these are made from wood pulp, which may in turn divided into two categories. The northern bleached kraft pulp (NBKP) is made from coniferous trees in the cold climates of higher latitudes, while the leaf bleached kraft pulp (LBKP) is made from broadleaf trees in tropical and subtropical regions. In general, the price of NBKP is higher than that of LBKP. Most of the aforementioned household paper products are also made of NBKP.

At present, the world's largest pulp mills are located in Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Together, these countries command more than 60 percent of the global pulp market. In recent months, a sharp decrease of pulp inventory in North America has contributed to a hike in prices of products made of wood pulp. Meanwhile, in recent decades, furniture making in Taiwan has been on the decline as production has shifted to China where labor is cheap.

Taiwan's Acerly International Co., Ltd. has managed to solve these two problems with one solution. In the past, it was a relatively small cardboard manufacturer that was losing business to China. Now, its presence is felt in the furniture sector both in Taiwan and overseas. The company has been promoting its known down (KD) furniture made of heavy-duty, hardened cardboard via Yahoo's online marketing service. In 2001, its innovative DIY "paper" household furnishings won the Excellent Masterpiece award at Taiwan's National Invention Exhibition. In 2002, the company was awarded a silver medal at the Nuremberg International Invention Exhibition in Germany for its improved DIY assembly method.

Acerly currently has 50 employees at its headquarters in Shenggang Township in central Taiwan's Taichung County. The company's business took off in 1999 after it discovered a way to improve the screws used to fasten different sections of KD furniture such as those sold in IKEA. The company has come up with a simple plastic rivet design, which is applicable to different kinds of materials such as leather, wood, metals and even cardboard.

Because people generally assume that paper is not sturdy, Acerly has created a niche market by making furniture out of cardboard. The company currently focuses on manufacturing a variety of paper KD furniture, such as closets, drawers, cupboards, tables and TV cabinets. These products feature lightweight, disposable and colorful sections that customers can assemble by using the special rivet provided by the company. Such furniture is also much cheaper than that made from bulkier materials such as wood and metal.

At present, Acerly is exporting its products to the United States, Europe and Japan where DIY cultures are relatively mature. Meanwhile, in the development of the local market, the company is in the process of designing an Internet software that will enable online shoppers to choose from many types, sizes and colors of household furnishings with thousands of possible combinations. The software will also allow online shoppers to see how their choices will look and how much they will cost.

According to Acerly, very few companies in the world are specialized in manufacturing household furnishings made from paper. While most furniture manufacturers do not have the know-how in using paper as a material, cardboard manufacturers are generally too conservative to search for breakthroughs in applying their know-how. This is why Acerly has been surviving well. The company's move to popularize paper KD furniture in Taiwan and its strategy of making shopping for such furniture like playing an online game is an example of the innovative thinking and risk taking from which all manufacturers can learn a lesson.

In 2005, China was the world's largest furniture exporter, shipping US$13.7 billion worth of furniture. Facing such strong competition, the only way for Taiwanese furniture manufacturers to survive is to add value to their products and to differentiate them from their Chinese rivals. This is a view expressed by many participants at the Taipei 2006 International Furniture Show, which took place at the Taipei World Trade Center in March 2006.