House locks imported from Italy have become very popular among high-end users in Cambodia, even though other products are available at a similar price, according to insiders.

Socheat Yutharo, marketing manager of K Supply Co, Ltd, said that his company imported locks from Italy, USA, and South Korea. He offers a variety of locks, but the Italian ones were most supported, particulary among high-income earners. He added that Italian products were most popular because those products are of many styles, with high quality and good price.

“Previously, some rich people went to buy locks in foreign countries, but now they did not need to spend time travelling to foreign countries because now my company imports high quality locks and keys with a guarantee,” he said. “The demand for locks is increasing, and I think it will increase more because of the growth in the construction sector.”

Socheat Yutharo said that his company’s sales of locks is good because of a lack of competition, and his company is expanding the market throughout the country, adding that some hotels and house projects in Preah Sihanouk province and Siem Reap purchased the products imported by his company.

However, Kim Huor, the general manager of Veng Hong Sell Locks, which imports German locks, said that the sale of locks now is not good because there is a lot of competition, particularly from locks imported from China. She added that most customers did not understand and compare the quality of cheap products with expensive and high-quality products, causing her company’s sales to decrease by 30 per cent since the global economic crisis.

“Comparing the first six months of this year with the same period last year, my company’s sale of locks did not increase but was stable,” she said, “Even if the residential development continues to increase, the sale of locks is faced with the same obstacles because of increasing competition.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Siv Meng at [email protected]