SHANGHAI, PRC — After 12 years in business, Euroart Beijing Company owner Ricky Lu is looking at a $20 million business as he leads China into higher end American and European fabrics with no let-up in demand for his imported residential lines. 

While Lu is one of the leading wholesalers of high end fabrics in China today, he is getting plenty of company from the likes of JAB, Harmontex, Yada and Morphrow and others, Morphrow specializes in bringing supplier lines to China instead of editor lines. Harmontex, a major wholesaler of contract lines in China nas just entered the residential picture. Babei has opened its first BellaBello showroom in Hangzhou with others to follow.

“We’re just at the beginning stages of Chinese fabric culture,” Lu said. “The customer needs to learn more about decorating. For example, the Chinese customer thinks that curtains should be soft while in Europe, curtains can be heavy and stiff Ricky Lu

“Euroart deals only with residential fabrics and not contract because contract is a copy area. We don’t want to see our suppliers’ fabrics copied in China!” Lu explains that his focus on residential brings profit. He sells through books.

In addition to his imported lines, he intends to launch his own lifestyle collection including furniture and lamps to the Chinese market in 2012. He says that well-heeled Chinese consumers and designers want the real stuff made in the West and not the Chinese knock-offs. His customers often are well educated, urban bound women and their designers. He emphasizes his name brands like Catala which are sold to the furniture manufacturer in China.

Imported Euroart lines now include Kravet (USA), Romo (UK), Andrew Martin (UK), Kobe (Holland), Alhambra, Liso, Pepe Penalver and Catala of Spain; Algemene (Belgium), Imatex (Italy) and Penelope of Turkey. He also offers floral designs from Covington Fabric & Design (USA) which are gaining traction in the Chinese market, he says. Kobe has five lifestyle showrooms in China monitored by Lu as the importer. He also recently inked a deal with Vanelli, the leading Turkish brand.

Lu buys 100 pieces at a time and sells from stock kept in his Beijing warehouse. “We have enough suppliers of better goods. In fact, we are thinking of reducing this number in the future.”

While Lu markets his products in his multi line fabric/furniture showrooms, other companies like Babei’s newly launched Bella Bello® brand in the Derlook, Hangzhou showroom and JAB’s newly minted showroom in the Ausen Design Center in Xinbang Town 30 minutes from downtown Shanghai favor a broader, lifestyle approach to home furnishings. “American lifestyle sells well in China,” the 42 year old Lu maintains. “Kobe too, sells classic lifestyle and traditional fabrics with a contemporary touch in its ‘Easy Home’ shop in shops in  Beijing, Shanghai, Tsingdao, Shenyang and in Wuhan this past March. Kobe fabric is marketed in high end furniture showrooms. The retailer in those areas owns the 400 square meter Kobe shop. There is an expanding market for Euroart with other retailers,” Lu said. He is also creating a shop for Andrew Martin in Beijing. Kobe brands are often marketed with Andrew Martin fabrics in China, he said, “but on different floors of the same stores.” Beijing Showroom

Euroart sells to three distinct markets: upholstery wholesalers; decorators and the retailer. Price points range from 300-1,000 RMB or $45 to $150 per meter. “Chinese currency is getting stronger and consumers want the real high end brands of fabrics. With a population of 1.4 billion people, about 10 percent of the market is rich enough to afford the very best. That’s 140 million potential customers I am trying to reach through the designer only,” he said. He has a team of three designers who create the shops for Euroart. 

Lu also has an annual event for designers who are eligible to win a design contest for the best planned rooms. The ‘Oscar Design’ winners are taken out to dinner with an award ceremony in Beijing for the best designs each November. Andrew Martin has a similar event in the UK which Lu is imitating but Lu is also part of the Andrew Martin design contest. Sometimes the work of five or six Chinese designers is shown in the Andrew Martin book designed for the contest winners each year.Euroart's Shanghai Showroom

“We actually have design concepts in China and not just copies of some other foreign designers’ ideas.” With these awards, Lu celebrates the Chinese interior designer. As part of his work, he attends Maison Objet in Paris and Decorex.

Lu was originally involved with the Chinese Railway Academy before entering the fabric field. His mother was a foreign language specialist, speaking seven languages. She spoke Czech and had ties to the European Railway System. After railroads, Lu migrated towards open end spinning machines and the textile trade.   F&FI

Design Award Photo