I hope not furniture makers, but every time I try to buy Australian made unless I go direct to the maker it seems to have quality control checks written in what I believe is Chinese, which makes me suspect the reason for the lead time is shipping from overseas, not Aus.
On the subject of Aus made furniture - or anything for that matter;
Currently my wife is making hand-made women's designer handbags out of old material etc - retro style.
So far, she has made 10. 3 for her own practice and display, and another 7 for friends. They are very, very good.
The materials cost bugger-all; second hand jeans, material and old handbags for buckles etc from Op Shops, etc. Call it $20 for materials at most.
The
time though; approx 5-6 hours per handbag.
How much should she charge per hour?
Assuming the average hourly rate of folks on this site is say; $35 per hour (maybe that is way off the mark?), then that is at least $195 per handbag.
She normally sells them for $150 (all have been to friends and colleagues) and a couple more intensive bags were $180.
So, based on that; not really much of a money maker, but the cost of the bags is very expensive when you consider that you can go into handbag shops and pay $100 and sometimes even less for one.
Admittedly hers are one-off, handmade and not production line, but it illustrates what the Aus manufacturing market is up against when competing with O/S.
When you then add rent etc to the cost of producing the furniture, you can see how hard it will be for Aus going forward.
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