The leadership team at the whole-home manufacturer is concerned about the possible challenges that tariffs might present for the furniture industry …
Lifestyle Enterprise is expanding its functional upholstery category at HPMKT.
HIGH POINT — The leadership team at Lifestyle Enterprise, a whole-home manufacturer headquartered in Zhejiang, China, and supplier to many Top 100 furniture retailers, is concerned about the possible challenges that tariffs might present for the furniture industry, but it also ready to respond with in-place solutions that include multiple factories, contingency plans and ongoing willingness to pivot as needed.
“The impact will be industry-wide, and it’s definitely a concern,” said Michael Hsieh, CEO. However, I believe the impact to us will be minimal as we’ve already prepared our entire supply chain for such a scenario and can adjust accordingly to shift production on a moment’s notice.”
Michael Hsieh
According to Hsieh, Lifestyle has spent the past few years preparing the company’s supply chain for flexibility and to move production seamlessly from China to Vietnam and Malaysia and “vice versa, on a moment’s notice.” He noted that there are teams on the ground in each of the production bases to ensure a smooth transition as well as product consistency.
Hsieh added that the multiple production bases support each other to mitigate any potential negative impacts to business, whether tariffs or other challenges of past years such as the pandemic, allowing Lifestyle to maintain its value proposition on “everything we bring to market” and support increases in demand.
“Buying will return but not at the levels we saw during COVID,” Hsieh said, looking ahead to 2025. “Either way, our supply chains are now better prepared to meet any upturn or downturns in business activity. We’ve learned a lot these past few years about how to deal with the aforementioned issues. While some factors are beyond our control, at least we now know how to mitigate these risks and keep disruptions to a minimum. In that sense, we are better prepared to deal with any issues while minimizing disruption to our customers.”
Pointing to economic indicators that forecast a stronger housing market spurred on by lower interest rates and increased home construction, Hsieh describes his outlook as “cautiously optimistic” and said he believes the ability to quickly adapt to market conditions will be one of the key predictors of success for any furniture manufacturer in 2025 and beyond.
“Our product development has addressed the needs and wants of the consumers over the past years and in real-time,” he explained. “We focus on developing products around the life stages of consumers as well as their current living environments.
“I’m optimistic that buying will return but until the new administration takes over and we know more about the trade policies being implemented, we will need to stay flexible and be prepared for anything,” he concluded. “To borrow a cliché, the only constant thing in life is change, and more is on the horizon, so the industry needs to be flexible to adjust and accommodate these changes.”
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