In a competitive world of consumer preferences, companies and individual producers are ever striving and innovating to meet shifting demands and also satisfy growing hunger for new standards.
Growing sophistication in taste and desires for global standards among Nigerian consumers has made it imperative that producers, manufacturers and designers, especially of home materials and equipment, align with not only these tastes and desires, but also consumers’ lifestyle.
In Nigeria today, materials and equipment used in most homes generally reflect the lifestyle of families and nowhere is family lifestyle made more manifest than in furniture designs which come in various degrees of colours and quality.
Furniture companies are increasingly innovating in line with the new trends and one of such companies is Raumplus, an international interior and furniture design company with operations in Nigeria. The company believes that innovation, creativity and quality are basic ingredients that the industry needs to compete in the emerging global furnishing industry and that there is basic imperative for furnishing to align with global standards for the growth of the industry.
Adeyanju Adelakun, Raumplus Managing Director, says his company is aligning with the lifestyle of Nigerian consumers with the unique styling of its furniture design for homes. Their newly commissioned showroom in Nigeria showcases different designs of international standards to provide solutions in sliding door, room dividers, mobile furniture hinge door, walk-in closet, fitted closets and sloped ceiling.
According to him, individual solutions for living rooms and workplaces require flexibility in utilization and diversity when it comes to design and well-engineered technique, adding, “these requirements have been met by our sliding doors, room dividers and cabinet systems for more than 25 years. Within this period, we have in many cases contributed to the clever organization and lovely designing of living rooms and offices, thanks to our customized products.”
A close look at some of the Raumplus customized products design shows one product that will appeal to Nigerian women and that is the Walk-in closets. Most people, especially women, would love to have a walk-in closet in their bedroom. With a huge variety of design options like floor-to-ceiling sliding doors and flexible interior systems, Raumplus can make sure that this personal interior design dream becomes reality for Nigerians by creating a closet with generous storage space that makes bedrooms look more desirable.
“For a fitted closet option, Raumplus with its innovative and international design can transform the ordinary into something extraordinary, giving customers opportunity to choose from five different interior systems, all of which guarantee practical tidiness that will ultimately give you a stylish feel”, Adelakun assures.
The Raumplus sliding door and wall partitioning system can be used to create personal space in offices and homes. It is a flexible and variable room structuring system consisting of wall partitioning components, sliding doors, folding doors and hinge doors that can be used in ceiling-high as partitioning or sliding panel. The system can be supplemented or reconstructed anytime without any great effort.
The mobile furniture system is another classic product offered by Raumplus, combining sliding door technology with a closet interior system to create an innovative interior design object. The major advantage of this concept is its high flexibility, meaning that the series can be assembled without any structural construction work being required.
The furniture industry, like anyone else operating in relatively hash environment in Nigeria, is not without its challenges and, according to Feyisola Abiru of Home & You Interiors, in spite of these challenges, especially in the areas of power and lack of skilled craftsmen, the industry has growth potential, noting that Nigerians now go for local products.
“The market in Nigeria is huge and the purchasing power is high. I hope that if we are doing 10 percent of the market now, hopefully in no distant future, we will be doing 30 percent, and this will impact on the economy ”, she said.
According to her, banning the importation of furniture by the federal government has helped the industry, saying that the industry has been able to grow and there has been a lot of improvement.
She hopes that if government and the Bank of Industry’s initiatives for the industry are sustained, in the next few years, it would be a waste of time and resources buying imported furniture, advising however that “government should enforce the ban, encourage/develop vocational schools and form partnership with foreign machine producers to help the industry grow.
Chuka Uroko
