Singapore furniture firm Commune branches out to Macau

Singapore furniture company Commune witnessed the opening of its first retail branch in Macau over the weekend, a move that taps into the city’s demand for mid to high-end home furniture. Another Commune sales outlet is to be established in Hengqin, Business Daily has learned.
“We’ve noticed that many people here who are looking for good quality furniture, especially wooden furniture, have usually turned to Hong Kong and Mainland China to make the purchase,” Commune Macau’s operation director Sunny Chang Chio Kit told Business Daily. “So we thought that Commune could fill the demand gap here, which mainly targets clients searching for mid to high-end home furniture products.”
The Macau franchise holder of the Singapore design furniture company is situated across Ponte 16 in the Inner Harbour district on the Macau Peninsula in a 1,000 square foot store about one-third smaller than the Commune branches in Mainland China.
“Commune’s stores on the Mainland are usually 2,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet, so the selections available here are not as extensive as in China”, Mr. Chang told us.
“But our advantage is that clients can request custom-made sofas at our store, which take 30 working days from placing the order to delivery,” the Commune Macau operation director said. “This service is not available in most of the city’s furniture stores as they only offer products off their catalogues.”
The home furniture in Commune Macau is imported from Singapore via warehouses in Dongguan and Shanghai in China, a big market for the Singapore furniture manufacturer and retailer where it now has 15 stores.
Hengqin branch
Commune is now mulling the opening of another branch in Macau’s neighbouring Hengqin Island by the third quarter of next year, Mr. Chang said.
“The retail store in Hengqin will have around 2,000 square feet, and it will be located in the shopping centre of ‘Sea of Dreams’. The shop will be ready at a time when the island sees more and more residential units available for occupation,” according to Mr. Chang.
Before Commune’s Hengqin shop is to open, Commune Macau’s boss Sunny Chang said he would like to see the online purchase platform ready to accommodate local client demand.
‘Sea of Dreams’ is a residential project in Hengqin of some 1,800 units, of which the majority of buyers are from Macau.
The three-storey shopping centre at ‘Sea of Dreams’, occupying 130,000 square feet, will have a soft opening by September next year, the shopping centre’s management firm Land Master Group told Business Daily.