Upholstery: Lucrative Business in Douala

Workshops and showrooms of locally made upholstery are strewn all over the city, especially along major streets.

In almost every neighbourhood in Douala, young men are at work, manufacturing upholsteries. Most of the workshops are along the streets, where they are displayed and sold. Most of the upholsters testified that it is a lucrative business which brings in much profits. Nowadays, high quality upholstery sets are very expensive. Customers pay dearly to obtain these cherished sets of chairs.
The other side of the story is the attitude of carpenters. Many people say they are cheats. Sometimes they use cheap material obliging their clients to pay much money for them. What one sees outside may not necessarily be the same quality within. For instance, some use less wood and add cartoons to replace wood. The effect is that after a while the chair sinks in the middle because the cartoon becomes worn out. Some of the carpenters are simply not skilful. In Ndogpassi, CT talked to Alpha Kwendi who has a workshop close to the road. He said some years ago he was an apprentice in one of the workshops in Douala where he learnt how to produce the chairs. He said the price he offers to his customers depends on the amount of money he puts in to produce the chairs. He said he uses wood, foam, which are the most expensive material and a good cloth to cover the foam on the chair. « The price I offer depends on the cost of wood and other material, he explained. He complained that wood is very expensive in Douala unlike in Yaounde where carpenters get supplies from the East Province. The carpenter has no catalogue but he uses photographs of some of his works and also those of his former master where he was trained as samples for customers to choose models. The prices of his chairs range from 150,000CFA to 500,000 CFA. The price of a single sofa is about 80,000CFA.
In Mboppi, CT talked to Tembena Mfoipon Marie Claire, who works in Compagnie Equatoriale des travaux et d’équipement. Apart from a showroom, the company owns a workshop. They employ carpenters at the workshop. According to them, it is on-the-job training that matters and not where the carpenter was trained. If one can prove his worth in the workshop then he is employed. At the show room, they have catalogues of the various models from Europe and pictures of the upholsteries they had produced and sold. A customer can choose a model manufactured in Europe and it will be produced identically and sold at a comparatively cheaper rate, she said. They produce in large quantities because they deal mostly with companies, though they also serve individual customers.
In the showroom, the handiwork looks quite attractive but also very expensive. The company staff argued that the chairs produced in Europe are good and very expensive but there isn’t much difference in quality with those produced and sold in Cameroon. The only difference, she added is that there are certain materials they need that are not found in Cameroon. She said most of their customers do not love imported chairs. They prefer chairs which expose much wood. They say “we are in Africa and we have good wood, we want to see wood».

EFFA TAMBENKONGHO