The C&U International store in Beijing carries U.S. furniture brands including Baker and Lexington Home Brands.
HIGH POINT — China has now become North Carolina's fastest growing importer of the state's furniture, according to local television station Fox 8.
China is now the fifth largest importer of N.C.-made furniture, behind Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But the station said that shipments to China are growing fast, last year reaching $40 million.
The station interviewed Ed Morris, Baker Furniture's director of Asia Pacific sales, who said Chinese consumers are willing to pay the price for U.S.-made furnishings, typically 15% more than the product would sell for in the U.S. Baker is now sold in seven Chinese cities, but Morris said plans are to be in 22 cities by 2015.
Fox 8 reporter Nicole Ferguson traveled to Beijing, where she followed the purchase of a half million dollars of Baker and Lexington Home Brands furniture from the showroom of C&U International to the $6 million condo of a wealthy Chinese business woman. The report said that the Chinese are brand conscious, especially those who have traveled in the U.S. and Europe.
