For decades, businesses have increasingly outsourced their production to countries with cheaper labor and softer regulations, and as shipping costs have skyrocketed post-pandemic, the quality of physical goods has decreased with it. For the world to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, this needs to drastically change. Buying local radically reduces the carbon footprint but there are more good reasons than that. Here are the top 5 reasons why you buy locally-produced furniture.
1. Higher quality without higher prices
Eliminating expensive shipping fees means that local producers can use higher quality materials without being more expensive to the end consumer. When comparing prices between products, make sure that you also compare the quality of the materials, as furniture imported from cheap-labour countries in Asia are getting worse and worse. Today, the only way to get a high-quality piece of furniture at an affordable price is to buy locally produced simply because the manufacturer doesn't have all the added costs (shipping, taxes and other duties) of producing overseas. In a country like South Africa there is an excess of natural resources that local producers can source directly and hence, remove expensive costs.
At BOMO, the philosophy is simple; we create high-quality artisan furniture out of locally sourced materials and sell them directly to consumers at affordable prices. This way everybody wins; the end-consumer, the local economy and the planet!
2. Manufacturing transparency
With less actors in the supply-chain of locally produced goods it becomes an easier task to quality-assure that the manufacturing processes are up to standard.
Locally produced furniture is usually assembled with more traditional, natural manufacturing methods that involve fewer chemicals and wasted materials. The detailed work of a bespoke furniture piece doesn't end at the design, it goes into every part of the process. We believe a production process is an art form in and of itself because however beautiful a piece of furniture can be - it doesn't matter if it causes unnecessary harm to our planet. It is possible to make life beautiful and sustainable at the same time, and that is why BOMO interiors was created.
3. Supporting the local community
Buying from companies with local production ensures that a much larger portion of the money you paid stays within the local ecosystem. In a struggling company like South Africa, it is essential that we try to buy as many locally produced goods as possible so that to help create job opportunities for South Africans. Buying goods that were produced overseas also means shipping money to workers overseas. This is unnecessary when there are so much talented and ambitious people within the South African borders.
For years, influential South African personalities and government officials have encouraged the public to buy locally in order for the economy to turn around. In an article from the South African Government News Agency, research conducted by Brand SA is stated has shown that 46% of South Africans would buy locally made products, even if it is more expensive. Hence the importance of giving the public access to local alternatives.
This is what BOMO is all about - giving the consumers a chance to not only buy better-quality furniture - but also to help create local job opportunities instead of shipping important resources abroad. With an overall unemployment rate of 34,5%, every job opportunity in South Africa definitely counts.
4. Unique products
Let's be honest - you can almost instantly tell when a product has been mass-produced at scale. There is just something amiss, almost as if the product lacks character & soul. The human hand has not been involved.
On the other hand, when you find a locally produced, hand-made piece of furniture you can also tell right away. It just has that vigorous aliveness about it - a glow. It has a story to tell; from the idea/design phase, through the local production process all the way to the final result.
Producing locally allows us to give all our furniture that touch of unique design or extra quality of material that mass-produced outsourced goods simply can not offer. This is how our furniture collection is unique in its quality and design compared to almost all other big furniture brands in Cape Town.
5. Limit the environmental harm
One does not have to be a mathematician to understand that local production ensures a shorter supply chain which simply means less fuel consumption and fewer carbon emissions.
The very first question we asked ourselves when sourcing quality furniture for our new house upon moving to Cape Town was "How can it be that almost all products we find both lack quality and have been produced on another continent?" It made no sense that a struggling country with such an abundant amount of natural resources and talented labor didn't provide its consumers with more local options.
Since prices have increased so much due to supply chain issues around the world, there no longer are any good reasons to buy imported goods (unless they can't be found domestically). Buying local get you superior quality while at the same time helping the community and reducing the environmental effects on our planet.
We don't cut corners when it comes to design or how we produce our furniture. Take a look at our hand-made contemporary collection of coffee- & side tables and sign up for our newsletter to read about our latest collaborations with local artisans and interior design stories from Cape Town.
Be part of the reforestation
To stay focused on positive impact and create a virtuous circle, BOMO is part of the environmental organization Ecologi. For every product sold, 1% of the benefit is given to fighting deforestation while at the same time taking climate action by supporting reforestation.
“We have to make sure that we get South Africans to understand that the economic impact of their purchasing decision makes a difference to a whole lot of people that are employed,”