Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis on emotional well-being. This global phenomenon has contributed to the fast growing popularity of a wide range of wellness products that claim to improve one’s emotional and physical well-being: aromatherapy, relaxing pillows, meditation, yoga, the list goes on. When attempting to find inner peace, it is common that many of us will have music playing in the background to tune us into the mood. The conclusion? When combining music with self-pampering products, more magical sparks fly.

These sparks sure have been flying all around Karrex Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based company specialising in the perfect combination of quality music and aromatherapy-related products. All can be boxed together and given away as wonderful gifts. During an interview by MegAsia, Karrex’s sales and marketing manager Mr Frederic Rocher shared on how the company’s refreshing concept has brought the well-deserved success as well as recognition from gracious customers around the world.

Karrex, a wholly owned subsidiary of the KB Group companies based in Manchester of U.K., began its business 9 years ago in Hong Kong. “Our company actually started off producing albums that belonged to the mainstream music industry at the time,” said Mr Rocher as he recalled Karrex’s early days.

The business concept sounds a bit more complicated than it seems as Karrex actually needs to negotiate with composers and artists to get the copyrights and licenses to release albums under its record label, for which Karrex has worked hard to set up after years of its establishment. “Over the years we have managed to produce albums that represent many world-renowned singers and music makers, such as Anya, Louis Armstrong and the like. These legendary figures from the music industry have definitely helped put Karrex on the map as a trusted album production company,” Mr Rocher said with a proud smile.

A little over two years ago, Karrex shifted to go beyond its business scope by making candles, incenses and other wellness products that would go well with its already-popular album collections, and strategically launched them together in the form of a gift box. Think albums and candles to make an unusual couple? Think again. “We had come to notice, in recent years, that our customers have become very health conscious in a sense that they want to spend more of their time on their emotional health , especially with their lives getting more stressful and hectic than ever,” Mr Rocher went on to elaborate the company’s revolutionary business strategy. “Seeing this trend dominating consumer markets across the world, we decided that it would be a commercially viable idea to bring wellness products together with albums carrying soothing tunes to maximise one’s meditation experience.”

These albums, as Mr Rocher told MegAsia, can be used on many different occasions. Each of them carries different tunes and melodies covering every need, such as: aromatherapy for children, Christmas, bathing, general meditation and so forth. “We are busy all year around as we intend to produce albums that cover many aspects of one’s life. They are not seasonal products that only sell for special holidays – we position them as daily essentials that will enrich anyone and everyone’s hectic life.”

And by everyone Mr Rocher truly means “everyone”. “Over the years these wellness gifts have made genuine worldwide sensations that everyone loves to give away to their loved ones. Our products are especially popular with European customers, although we also have many coming from other major consumer markets across the world, such as North America, Japan, Australia and the Middle-East.”

With China being one of the uprising markets with great potential along with India, is Karrex eyeing on them now? “I do not see our company expand our business too fast to the Chinese market any time soon because of intellectual copyright issues. In fact, the only things we currently produce in China are our candles and paper boxes that will eventually be filled with our albums and wellness products. All of our albums are actually made in Hong Kong and Malaysia as they make a “safer place” to produce licensed products,” said Mr Rocher.

Apart from a factory in China, Karrex also has an office in Hong Kong staffed by 20 employees, who mainly handle the administrative functions and product designs. “We have in-house designers to create all our album covers. Of course, if customers come to us with a specific design of their own, we would be more than happy to work with them,” Mr Rocher said, stressing Karrex’s flexibility when it comes to accommodating customers’ needs. Mr Rocher also mentioned that even though many of their products are already packaged and fully-made by the time they go on the shelves, customers are always welcome to approach Karrex with their own creative packaging ideas.

Are these customers hard to find? Apparently for Karrex it is not. “First off, the whole album-making is and always has been a rather specialised business in that the licensing alone is more expensive than the actual production of the albums. It is not the sort of business anyone can just easily go into,” Mr Rocher commented on Karrex’s business nature. “Secondly, because the music industry itself is very regulated everywhere in the world, getting a license can be tricky and again, not something that everyone can do without special expertise and experience.”

While licensing makes for the most pricey investment, other components of Karrex’s gift boxes (aromatherapy products and packaging) cost much little to produce, making the overall production cost extremely competitive, to the point where they are capable of attracting mainstream customers looking for value-for-money gift ideas. “Our products are perfect for retail as well as promotional purposes. Because of their low prices, it gives us a very positive edge to allow us to reach as many customers as we like.”

The future is promising for Karrex. The company also faces its own challenges just like every other business out there. “Advanced technology has in the past few years changed the way we listen to music. As an album producer, we do see the decline of demand for CDs due to the increasing popularity of MP3 players and some other new audio inventions,” Mr Rocher commented. “However, that is not a big problem for us as it is only a change of format – after all, people will always need music in their lives. I am sure that with our unique experience and production knowledge in the field, we will be able to cope with the changes ahead just fine.”

With one-of-a-kind business concept and as an experienced manufacturer, Karrex will continue to enhance our life quality by rolling out highly affordable products to enrich our sensation of sound and scent.

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