Mandaue wood supplier feels pinch of global economic turmoil
By CARINE M. ASUTILLA, ABS-CBN News Central Visayas | 01/29/2009 12:07 AM
A wood supplier in Mandaue City has admitted being affected by the global economic turmoil.
It said its sales have decreased 70 percent since August and as a result it has reduced its manpower requirement and even work days.
Green Peaks in Mandaue City is the wood supplier of about a dozen furniture-export companies in Cebu. Among them are Giardini Del Sole in Alang-Alang, Mandaue City; Mehitabel Furniture in Lahug, Cebu City and Tradewinds Rattan and Handicraft Inc. in Tabok, Mandaue City.
Stela Adolfo, Green Peaks office clerk, said that these companies usually order from them twice a week. Since August however, orders have decreased to once a week, sometimes once a month. Giardini Del Sole, in particular, last asked for a delivery of wood November last year and the company only bought wood from them again last Tuesday.
Adolfo said that since furniture-export companies get lesser orders from abroad, they buy lesser wood from them.
Adolfo said that their warehouse in Canduman in Mandaue City contains over a hundred thousand board feet of wood. These woods were stocked in the warehouse since July last year and they have never bought more supply of wood from Mindanao since then. Adolfo said that they are currently utilizing only one dryer instead of the usual nine.
Adolfo said that in order to cope with the difficult times they have already lowered prices from P29 per board feet to P22. She said that despite the price reduction, clients still have difficulty in buying wood. She also said that some of their clients have not paid debts amounting to over a million pesos.
Adolfo said, because of the situation, Green Peaks had offered its direct employees an early retirement plan. Four of their 20 direct employees which include checkers, drivers, and forklift operators accepted their offer. Ten of 30 contractual employees were not renewed after their respective contracts expired. These contractual employees include delivery personnel and classifiers.
Aside from reducing the number of its workers, Green Peaks also lessened the number of working days from six days to five days. Adolfo said that there is a big possibility that by next month their working days will be down to four. She said that their workers are only paid the minimum daily wage.
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