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DOST-FPRDI TRAINING BREATHES LIFE TO BOHOL FURNITURE SHOP

Friday, January 31, 2020 12:00 AM    Views : 412by:Rizalina K. Araral & Anita A. Decena

Jerome Dotarot is one enthusiastic businessman who has been mass producing school desks and tables in his hometown in Candijay, Bohol for seven years now.

He owns LU Lumber, a small company that makes 180 wooden school chairs a day, sold at Php 895 each. He has a bright outlook, he says, because over the last two years, he has seen his furniture shop’s income double from Php 100,000 to 200,000 a month.

“I was not expecting this at all,” he says, “as during our first five years, I had gotten used to the slow pace of our operations. But attending a DOST-FPRDI training on wood finishing in 2017 changed everything for me.”

According to Dotarot, before his workers attended the training, they did not know much about wood finishing. They were not particular about the type of varnish they used, and relied on only two kinds of sanding paper.

As a result, 15% of their finished desks needed to be retouched which cost LU Lumber Php 70 per chair. This eroded Dotarot’s confidence and kept him from participating in big public biddings and accepting orders for customized furniture. He simply focused on producing 75-125 chairs a day which he sold for Php 700 each.

“The DOST-FPRDI training was an eye-opener for us,” he testifies. “We learned about the right finishing materials and procedures to use.” This resulted in better desks, which sold for P895 each. Production also hiked from 100 to 180 chairs a day, and income jumped from Php 100,000 to 200,000 a month.

With their enhanced skills, his workers were promoted from general to skilled laborers, increasing their take home pay from Php 220 to 350 a day.

In time, Dotarot gained more confidence and began to more actively participate in public biddings with the Department of Education (DepEd). In 2018, LU Lumber won a Php 1.2 million contract for DepEd school desks. They also expanded their product line to include customized home furniture such as beds, tables and cabinets.

His company also bought a new belt sander as well as a 1,254 square lot; gave jobs to more finishers, and trained 20 workers on wood finishing. One of these was Dotarot’s brother who now owns a separate furniture and lumber shop which earns a gross income of Php 60,000 - 90,000 a month.

Aside from DOST-FPRDI, Dotarot says he is also grateful to the Regional Office of the Department of Trade and Industry for all the generous support they have given his company. (Rizalina K. Araral & Anita A. Decena, 28 January 2020)

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Workers’ upgraded skills in finishing eventually doubled LU Lumber’s income from Php 100,000 to 200,000 a month

Source: http://www.fprdi.dost.gov.ph/389-dost-fprdi-training-breathes-life-to-bohol-furniture-shop

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