A bamboo furniture maker at GuyExpo is hoping that the trade fair will increase her market base and bring new customers.
Samanta Corlette of Treasure Box has been making bamboo furniture since 2002 after learning bamboo technology and craft production from “the Chinese”.
Corlette, who caters mostly to a local market, said “business is very good”. Treasure Box supplies furnishings for restaurants and persons who have an appreciation for bamboo furniture. Customers can also customise their orders, she said.
Apart from furniture, Corlette said, the company also creates treasure boxes, book cases, changing screens among other bamboo works. Before diversifying into bamboo, Corlette said, the company made tibisiri products such as hats and bags. Now, it incorporates bamboo and tibisiri in production.
However, Corlette said that one of the greatest challenges the company faces with its bamboo products “is having people accept it’s cured”. And electricity and shipping are costly. According to Corlette, bamboo is harvested along the highway and East Bank and has to be shipped to Triumph on the East Coast. She assured customers that the bamboo products Treasure Box creates “will not be taken over by the insect that invades the bamboo”.
Creating bamboo products is done mostly by hand she explained but “key pieces need electricity” and this is costly for her. Many of her creations need to be worked on by two to three persons and more are taken on if the order is large.
Corlette has been attending the trade fair for nearly six years and has seen benefits to her business. “GuyExpo helped my business by advertising to wider society and allowing it to be exposed. And this year we hope for an increased market base. One day we would like to be able to export bamboo craft,” she said.