Large furniture makers raise prices by up to 5% this year

Hanssem headquarters [Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

Major furniture makers in South Korea are poised to raise product prices again this year, citing rising commodity prices and logistics costs.

Hanssem Co., the country’s largest furniture maker, already raised the price of doors and panels for some kitchen and storage models by an average of 2.7 percent starting Monday, according to sources. Hyundai Livart Co. followed suit by raising the prices of sofas, beds and chairs for home furnishing brands in offline stores by about 5 percent.

Local furniture makers raised prices several times last year, citing mounting material and personnel costs. Their price adjustments seem inevitable as earnings deteriorated due to the real estate market downturn.

Hanssem and Hyundai Livart ratcheted up their prices five times and three times, respectively, last year.

IKEA Korea Ltd. and Illum Inc. raised their prices three times last year, and Sealy Korea and Tempur Korea also each raised prices twice.

Ace Bed Corp., Shinsegae Casa Co., Emmons Co. and Enex Co. also joined price adjustments last year. Sealy plans to raise prices by up to 10 percent at the beginning of the year and Coway Co. also plans to raise mattress prices, sources said.

Simmons-K Co., meanwhile, said it would cut marketing costs to keep its product price unchanged this year.