The DaVinci Incident

Once a pride of Singapore, Dr Doris Phua, Singapore's women Entrepreneur of the year in 2001 and 2002 is now the center of the news. And you guess it, its not good news, but a rather bad one.

News after news, the high end furniture store DaVinci furniture is under the spotlight now for products that are not really from the "country of origin" as stated... Which is not from Italy or USA, but rather .. Made in China.

Furthermore, there are reports that are coming out on forums, and discussion boards on the wood which they claim, used in their products made from high density board, rather than real wood.

News like "Furniture retailer to face press"
"Furniture retailer Da Vinci under fire "
Chinese Upset Over Counterfeit Furniture
Picture gets worse for Da Vinci

"DaVinci is the place to go for Versace sofas, sumptuous Fendi Casa calf-skin couches or stylish chaise lounges stamped Made in Italy. A DaVinci bedroom set can sell for $100,000. "

That same day, however, customs officials in Shanghai said they had evidence that DaVinci was temporarily storing Chinese-made goods in a Shanghai warehouse, including cattle-hide sofas produced in nearby Zhejiang Province. The officials said that after a day spent in Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, the products — with the paperwork duly filed — were imported back into the country.






From the news reports, interviews and the myriad of blogs bashing DaVinci furniture, Davinci furniture's reputation will probably take a long time, if ever, to recover.

However, in digging deeper, I realized that the Chinese search and even in English forums, there was much talks about the quality and authenticity of the furniture.

Along with perception, news and other social interaction, this fueled the situation into a crisis, one could have prevented if DaVinci Furniture actually monitored and engaged with their supporters in conversations.

There are a lot more op-eds bashing "DaVinci Furniture"

Will DaVinci Furniture's reputation recover from this incident?
Will there be more scandals from the foreign import companies in China?

Only time will tell.

-- Robin Low