Hyderabad: No end in sight for lockdown blues

Hyderabad: Due to Coronavirus lockdown, the wedding season has turned bleak for furniture businesses in city. As most of the weddings were cancelled, the furniture makers are affected a lot.

The furniture shops are struggling to survive as weddings are either cancelled or put off. Add to this, and many of them are also experiencing labour crunch across the city. Families purchase different sets of furniture pieces and present them as gifts to the newly wed.

A hectic business is set in motion far ahead of the season that spans March to May. Orders pour in well in advance, and most weddings would be held after Ramzan. "This year there was a lockdown for more than 2 months and several weddings were cancelled. The furniture market was affected worst due to this pandemic crisis and we have since not seen any business," deplored Syed Ahmed, owner of City Furniture at Nampally market.

Ahmed said that earlier people would purchase at least 6 piece wedding set including bed, mattress, dressing table, show case, wardrobe, dining table, sofa set etc. Now, the orders are limited only bed, mattress and almirah.

Most of the furniture makers in city are taking any new orders for making wedding sets and people have now to purchase only readymade sets. "The market is running without labour, as most of the labour have left for their native places in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states. No new furniture is being made at all.

Meanwhile, as wood stocks are in short supply, prices of teak wood, plywood and MDF wood have gone up. "Earlier, during the wedding season, around 25-30 bedroom sets will be sold during the season. But now it has dropped below and till now only 4 sets are sold. The total market business has slumped by about 80 per cent. Forget about wedding sets, the people are not even purchasing other furniture," said Mohammed Mohid, owner of Harmain Furniture at Old City.