DHI: The Wood Craft Centre Ltd (WCCL) is making headway on gaining a commercial footing.

The company is on the verge of completing a detailed project report to set up a new production plant and move to another location. During the annual DHI conference, the its CEO, Singye Dorji said that the government has approved a six-acre land in the capital and that the company is anticipating lots of changes and growth.

This will solve the space constraints the company faces. “Actually the demand is not huge but our capacity is low,” he said. The company is also gearing up to set up two show rooms in Mongar and Gelephu.

The company will be outsourcing most of its painting and carving works to private wood based units.

WCCL, he said, was not established for commercial purposes but for training. So, he said the mentality of employees are different from those of commercial entities.

“But commercial footing doesn’t necessarily mean we have to make money,” he said adding the company intended to emerge as a model for other wood-based industries.

The biggest challenge, he said is availability of wood despite the abundance of it in the country. This is because the WCCL is unable to get the required size and quality of wood. He said furniture cannot be made from any type of wood and that moisture content in the wood and other aspects have to be considered.

The company has been importing raw materials like rubber wood from Vietnam and India but this entails huge transportation costs and hampers consistency on the supply side.

The company is also planning to manufacture windows and door frames, which  the Kaurana Foundation Project in Pangbisa has proposed.

Today, the government and corporate bodies form 65 percent of WCCL’s market share while private orders make up only 15 percent. The remaining 20 percent is for ad-hoc orders.

The CEO said in the coming years the company’s market share representation would be reversed with more private orders.

Last year the company made a profit of Nu 4.35 million (M), a drop from Nu 6 M.

WCCL was initiated in 1990 by the government and DANIDA’s support with the aim to set up training cum production and advisory contemporary furniture making unit.

Tshering Dorji