Lounging in the Great Outdoors

Imagine how refreshing it would be if you could change your living room sofa bed into a garden bench, or set up comfortable sofas, lounge chairs, and gazebos in your garden.

Such distinctively innovative furniture designs have played a key role in helping a small Thai interior contractor emerge as a highly distinctive outdoor furniture brand at home and abroad, leaving copycats far behind.

Kenkoon Co, now 17 years old, ships its sophisticated multi-functional and chic furniture products all around the world.

Its stylish designs have brought success, even though some critics argue that its young local talents with degrees from top European design schools have yet to create a brand identity that tops other expensive world brand names.

Mechanun Suansilpong and his brother Manrat, who is in charge of marketing, have steered the family business past obstacles by transforming it from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to a stylish outdoor furniture brand.

In 2001, up to 90% of the company’s production relied on OEM orders, with Kenkoon-brand products accounting for just 10%. But now, the situation is reversed. The company’s total capacity stands at seven containers a month.

Mr Mechanun entered the family business upon graduation from the French MJM Art School with an interior design degree in 1995. At that time, he still carried on the traditional family business _ interior contracting service.

One year prior to the economic crisis in 1997, a Scandinavian-based company that was a regular clients inspired Kenkoon to break its business tradition by making classic garden furniture and wood accessories for yacht interiors. Then the company received larger orders as clients began trusting its craftsmanship.

Having realised Mr Mechanun’s design talent, the clients encouraged him to produce his own collection. The outcome was Taji _ a futuristic outdoor furniture set with a combination of stainless steel as its core structure with teak wood tops. It was launched at a local furniture fair in 1998.

”My first collection had drawn huge attention from visitors. But it hardly got any orders. So I thought my idea wasn’t bad. It only needed some polish to be practical for users,” he said.

The Taji collection of benches, chairs and tables have simple, long and lean stainless steel legs and tactile natural wood tops and seats.

After completing the first collection, Mr Mechanun spent two years redesigning the furniture. That resulted in the Beo collection, a slight transformation from a cold, rigid and extreme industrial look of the first collection to a contemporary outdoor set.

At first, people were reluctant to accept the advanced design of the second collection. But now sales are booming.

Since 2001, the company has recorded revenue growth of at least 30% every year, with more than 50% of products shipped overseas. So far Kenkoon has invested about 30 million baht in production development, proving the company is on the right track. Prices average between 10,000 and 30,000 baht apiece.

Kenkoon has since become a pioneer of outdoor design. Its designs can be seen everywhere, especially at stylish dining restaurants, hip hotels and boutique resorts. It sets new trends in outdoor decoration, leaving white plastic outdoor furniture far behind.

”Even though our design was soon copied by other furniture makers, we remained on top of the list. Our clients know which ones are the copycats,” Mr Mechanun said.

He also attributed the success to the rising interest in lifestyle goods among Thais who want everything around them to reflect their individual sophistication and ruggedness.

The trend is not only popular in Thailand, but also around the globe. It has resulted in Kenkoon managing to expand its products from Scandinavia to Europe, America, Australia, and Asia. The company also aims to position its products in the Middle East and other regions around the world.

However, efforts to keep the brand name top-notch are considered a much harder task since the world of design is ever-changing.

”I’m the only designer here. So I have to work very hard to keep not only our distinctive roots, but also a fresh feeling and useful functions for our products,” Mr Mechanun says.

To do this, he intends to make some larger pieces with alternating functions for indoor and outdoor use, or multi-functional designs.

For example, the company produces garden benches that could be adjusted to become sofa beds perfect for a living room. It also makes a movable all-in-one gazebo, dining set and double lounge called Gaz.

”Due to our innovative designs, we can position our products among high-income people. That is why we have not been adversely affected by the strong currency,” he said.

Despite the fact that any distinctive designs today could become outdated tomorrow, Mr Mechanun is confident in the strong character of the products.

”We believe in our uniqueness. The timeless designs give us a lot of channels to move on despite reproduction by copycats,” he said.

He believes loyal clients can figure out which products are fake, and will not hesitate to pay higher prices for authentic pieces, he said.

The garden lounge set under the brand Capsule is one of the company’s best designs produced so far.

”Despite the high cost of production, it’s worth making since it’s really good for reminding people of our brand signature,” he said.

The company is planning to move forward to build up a sister brand to serve a new market. And for the first time, Mr Mechanun won’t be the designer. A whole new team will be recruited.

”It will be another chapter for Kenkoon,” he said.

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