Tanzanians will now have a rare opportunity to have custom made furniture thanks to the opening of a five storey building and the re-branding of The Living Room to TLR Eclectic.
Speaking exclusively to the ‘Daily News on Saturday’, the TLR Eclectic Managing Director, Mr Nishit Kanabar said that with the new building people no longer have to be experts when choosing what furniture to put where but to let one’s imagination take control.
“The rebranding allows people to be confident in choosing what they want and the products in the store that range from sofa sets, mattresses, beds, office furniture, safes, doors to lamps help the buyer be creative,” he said.
Mr Kanabar said that in the two months that they have been preparing for the opening, they have also invested significantly in their human resource where all 70 plus employees have received certified training. He said that the management believes in working together where customer service starts from within the organisation.
“In line with this, the organisation has invested in technology namely Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) business solution software which allows any authorised employee to see what is in our warehouses at all times and also track the delivery of a product to the customer,” he explained.
TRL’s interior designer and Visual Merchandise consultant from LiV headquarters in Manila, Mr Vincent Subeldia said that they were remodeling each showroom to reflect the new store stressing that he intends to make the place where people can go, develop and study their sense of style.
Fashion local designer icon Sheria Ngowi has been picked as the TLR Brand Ambassador where the two will work together in promoting a fashion forward design aesthetic while exploring trends and their translation and cross pollination in Tanzanian culture.
“What we will be doing is to encourage Tanzanians to be proud of what is their own. It may be difficult to believe but many of the items in the store are used with local raw materials and made by local craftsmen. We want to do away with the notion that everything good comes from aboard,” he said.
Earlier last month, this paper quoted the Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Ms Saada Salim Mkuya that the government was determined to ensure procurement of local made furniture started effectively in this fiscal year.
This comes after the government decision to agree to procure all furniture domestically, with the views of boosting small scale entrepreneurs and scale up economic growth.
“Procuring local made furniture is one of the government efforts to cut down expenditures, its implementation therefore is of paramount importance,” she was quoted to have said.
The Finance and Economic Affairs Minister, Dr William Mgimwa was also recently quoted to have said that procurement of locally made furniture will be a fundamental milestone in building capacity of local manufacturers and would contribute significantly to boosting individual and national incomes.
However, poor working tools, capital deficiency, lack of creativity and limited market opportunities are some of the key impediments that hinder the progress of local furniture makers. As a result, the huge market for furniture is flooded with imported substandard carpentry products.
By MASEMBE TAMBWE, Tanzania Daily News
