From Tony Lopez
(In today’s column I am running the second part of the text of Liwayway Marketing CEO Larry Chan’s presentation before President Aquino and his official delegation during the presidential visit at the sprawling Liwayway factory complex in Shanghai, China, Sept. 2, 2011.)
BEING able to build a positive reputation in China has also allowed us to purchase 70 percent of a retail company in Shanghai with about 30 store locations in the city. It is called Lao Tong Sheng, a retailer of traditional Chinese products such as mushrooms, nuts, etc. Our Chinese partner is a district level state-owned company that chose us when they were privatizing some of their enterprises. We believe this is because of the successful partnerships we have had in the past and these state-owned enterprises still prefer to look for partners they can be comfortable with.
A star enterprise
We have also been consecutively awarded as one of the 100 Star Overseas Chinese Enterprises by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Central Government. This Office is a ministerial level department of the government with the main purpose of servicing and promoting linkages among the overseas Chinese around the world.
Aside from providing assistance in investments opportunities, they also help resolve any issues faced by the business. They also provide assistance in non-business matters such as cultural exposures, networking, education, or helping overseas Chinese get to know more about their roots in China.
According to one information we received, more than 70 percent of China’s foreign direct investments come from overseas Chinese investors.
Tapping emerging markets
My father’s focus when he entered China, Vietnam and Myanmar in the late ‘90s was to tap the emerging markets while they are still in their early stages. Being early poses its challenges as the infrastructures are still undeveloped, but in the example of Vietnam, we started in Ho Chi Minh by building a factory inside the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park.
This proved to be crucial as the management of the industrial park was able to provide valuable support while we were still trying to learn the local landscape. Now our Vietnam operations have expanded to four factories, with one in Hanoi, a second factory in the same industrial park in Ho Chi Minh, and a fourth one located in Danang located in central Vietnam.
Thailand and Indonesian markets are much more challenging markets because they are much more developed, but these are important markets to us as well.
Today, we feel that India and Cambodia are the young emerging markets similar to Vietnam in the 90s.
Philippine operations
Our Philippine operations remain very active with recent expansions in Cagayan and Cebu in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Just this year we also started operations in our Tarlac factory. The Philippines remains a very good consumer market for us with the highest consumption rate of our products among the countries we are presently in.
Our factory in Cavite also provides critical support to all our factories by manufacturing and supplying many of our machineries that are built to our specifications. We appreciate the talent and passion of our engineers towards learning new things and quality workmanship.
Supplies for our group’s exports to markets where we do not have factories all come from the
Philippines. In our case, the Philippines has several significant advantages, such as the numerous consolidators in our country making export of low value products like ours much more efficient.
Another advantage is the English packaging we use in the Philippines, which eliminates the need for us to make modifications when serving the export markets.
These are some of the limited experiences we have had as we continue to explore opportunities within Asia.
BEING able to build a positive reputation in China has also allowed us to purchase 70 percent of a retail company in Shanghai with about 30 store locations in the city. It is called Lao Tong Sheng, a retailer of traditional Chinese products such as mushrooms, nuts, etc. Our Chinese partner is a district level state-owned company that chose us when they were privatizing some of their enterprises. We believe this is because of the successful partnerships we have had in the past and these state-owned enterprises still prefer to look for partners they can be comfortable with.
A star enterprise
We have also been consecutively awarded as one of the 100 Star Overseas Chinese Enterprises by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Central Government. This Office is a ministerial level department of the government with the main purpose of servicing and promoting linkages among the overseas Chinese around the world.
Aside from providing assistance in investments opportunities, they also help resolve any issues faced by the business. They also provide assistance in non-business matters such as cultural exposures, networking, education, or helping overseas Chinese get to know more about their roots in China.
According to one information we received, more than 70 percent of China’s foreign direct investments come from overseas Chinese investors.
Tapping emerging markets
My father’s focus when he entered China, Vietnam and Myanmar in the late ‘90s was to tap the emerging markets while they are still in their early stages. Being early poses its challenges as the infrastructures are still undeveloped, but in the example of Vietnam, we started in Ho Chi Minh by building a factory inside the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park.
This proved to be crucial as the management of the industrial park was able to provide valuable support while we were still trying to learn the local landscape. Now our Vietnam operations have expanded to four factories, with one in Hanoi, a second factory in the same industrial park in Ho Chi Minh, and a fourth one located in Danang located in central Vietnam.
Thailand and Indonesian markets are much more challenging markets because they are much more developed, but these are important markets to us as well.
Today, we feel that India and Cambodia are the young emerging markets similar to Vietnam in the 90s.
Philippine operations
Our Philippine operations remain very active with recent expansions in Cagayan and Cebu in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Just this year we also started operations in our Tarlac factory. The Philippines remains a very good consumer market for us with the highest consumption rate of our products among the countries we are presently in.
Our factory in Cavite also provides critical support to all our factories by manufacturing and supplying many of our machineries that are built to our specifications. We appreciate the talent and passion of our engineers towards learning new things and quality workmanship.
Supplies for our group’s exports to markets where we do not have factories all come from the
Philippines. In our case, the Philippines has several significant advantages, such as the numerous consolidators in our country making export of low value products like ours much more efficient.
Another advantage is the English packaging we use in the Philippines, which eliminates the need for us to make modifications when serving the export markets.
These are some of the limited experiences we have had as we continue to explore opportunities within Asia.
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