Our Story
Welcome to Wahana Kayu, a home of Jepara craftsman. We are local furniture manufacturer and exporter based in Jepara, Indonesia. Throwback to 1970, our company was formerly named as Lapan Lima Furniture initiated by my father. My father started to run this family business to fulfill the need of furniture demand. At that time, furniture was mostly produced for domestic consumption only. We faced a difficulty or limitation in exporting due to lack of technology in Indonesia. We used to assist customized furniture locally based on customers’ request and preference. A good fortune came for us as we could enhance our business as the main supplier for local market demand in Indonesia. We built the partnership with Architect, Interior designer to fullfil hotels, restaurants, and coffee shop requirment in several cities in Indonesia. Our company consistently grew but we were challenged by lack of technology involvement. Both manufacturing process and marketing strategy counted on the manual method only. Following my father’s passing in 2008, I initiated to take over his business by re-branding our company. Evaluating our previous problem, I realize that technology is not an obstacle but a challenge in furniture industry.
I see the promising opportunity in this digital era to re-brand our company. Digital technology does work in business development, particularly in marketing method. I use online platforms like website as the primary marketing media and social media platforms for the convenient communication with our customers. Nowadays, our furniture business focuses on teak wood and sungkai wood production with various finishing methods. Both teak and sungkai wood are the most popular materials in Indonesian furniture, specifically indoor furniture, and commonly used by Jepara craftsman and carpenter. Our wooden material resources are directly licensed by PERHUTANI (Indonesia Forest Ministry) because we are committed to working legally in Indonesian furniture industry. All materials are processed in kiln dry method to maintain the lower humidity to minimize any risks occur. Besides, we do concern about natural sustainability by selecting the accountable sources. Surely, I believe that high quality materials supported by professional carpenter and designer can produce a good furniture. As an entrepreneur, I collaborate with pro carpenter, and professional designer to produce a world-class furniture, and most importantly supported by technology.
Dealing with globalization era, passion and creativity are required. Our goal is to become a leading indoor furniture supplier in Jepara. As a teamwork, I, together with local Jepara carpenters and professional designer, passionately keep updating and do research on what’s trending among the people. We build a team coordination to be a solid one starting from the marketing to production management. As a part of marketing management, we provide responsive customer excellence for the sake of customer’s convenient purchase. We realize that our customers don’t only come from Jepara but also many other cities, so they are probably unable to come to our workshop in Jepara. We could assist them by phone or online chatting platforms. In this digital era, internet marketing is the key of business expansion. We introduce our brand online through website. Our website is a complete reference and guidance to our furniture products. Hopefully it could assist the customers in purchasing conveniently. In production management, we ensure the quality control in every single aspect like high quality materials and professional design to meet customer’s requirement or preference. Jepara craftsman work is simply neat and smooth in finishing, while our designer is really creative and understand the latest trend or customer requirement. We expect a high quality, customable, well-designed furniture with competitive price. We hope every single one enjoy our furniture, so we don’t make a limitation by producing the high-end furniture only. We also provide the good furniture with reasonable price. The customers could select it through our website catalogue first before make a purchase.
Digital technology definitely works for global business expansion. Digital or internet marketing is like a shortcut to export and reach global market. Our furniture products currently play an important role in global market. For the first global project we have do shipping in 5 countries. ASEAN are currently familiar with our products. Furthermore, we begin to reach European market as the main target. Although we don’t directly export our furniture to Europe, we make a consolidation with some European corporates based in Jepara. We expect that this consolidation could lead the further path to European market as some European countries begin to notice our furniture products. We are committed to creating the world-class quality furniture and keeping updated to the latest trend to meet the global standard. Hopefully, our furniture could consistently be the main export commodity and local Jepara craftsman is more acknowledged in Indonesia and international also.
Born locally, known globally.
Sincerely,
(Muhammad Burhan)
CEO