Wah Luen Stationery Supplies Co., Ltd.

Notebooks and organisers are something so common yet essential for you to jot down the important information or mark the big dates throughout the year. No doubt, all of us have somehow owned quite a number of these stationery items during our school time or at the workplace. No matter what types of notebooks or organisers you want, they are just ready at Wah Luen Stationery Supplies Co., Ltd.

Wah Luen has been in the paper stationery manufacturing for almost three decades since1958. Based in Hong Kong, the company now manufactures myriads of paper stationery products. At its early days of business, the company made mainly photo and stamp albums. Over the years, it has expanded and diversified its product range. “Today we supply a wide array of paper products, including shopping bags, address books, phone books, envelopes, letter paper, pen holders and cases, packaging boxes, and most importantly, the organisers and notebooks,” introduces Miss Santy Tam, the director.

“Notebooks of different sizes and designs are our most popular items. We specialise in OEM production for customers who provide the designs. We work closely with them to realise their ideas as far as we can,” says Miss Tam. “We are also accustomed to large-scale orders, particularly those targeting the US market. For example, there is huge demand for scrap buckets, collectible card kits, pencil cases and stationery sets. We are capable of catering to this special market need,” Miss Tam adds.

Wah Luen highly values customers’ feedback and loyalty. “We have established a sound relationship with many of our customers, with some having collaborated with us for almost two decades. We work as partners,” Miss Tam says with a smile.

“Our stationery collections are very popular in Japan, the US and many European countries, such as the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, etc,” says Miss Chan, sharing with MegAsia the company’s astonishing market achievement after years of hard work.

“A majority of our stationery products are licensed items, particularly those featuring cartoon characters. I can say in Japan almost every primary school child owns an organiser that is produced by our company. We customize the design each time when a new cartoon trend comes up,” continues Miss Tam.

Miss Tam understands what makes a product become a market success in the highly competitive environment. With so many suppliers jamming the market by similar products, Wah Luen needs to differentiate itself from the competitors by providing faster and better services. “We ensure that all of our products are up-to-standard. We would go extra miles for the after-sale service. We are willing to take up our responsibility and react promptly when there is a problem with our supplies. That’s why we have maintained a strong reputation in the industry,” Miss Tam reiterates.

Another important element for product success is innovation. Wah Luen has been able to make the simple and ordinary-enough stationery items into something so appealing and attractive to both school kids and adults alike. For those notebooks and organisers, they come with special covers made of different materials, from corrugate paper, PVC, fabrics, plush to snake skin. Adding more fun and appeal to the products are the innovative liquid-filled 3D decorations put on the cover design. The 3D miniatures can be fruits, insects and animals. The “Back To Nature” series has been a sought-after item at Wah Luen. In fact, other additives, like aluminium dots, beads, shiny crystals, embroidery and embossed effect are used to yield many different designs. According to Miss Tam, Wah Luen is fully capable of OEM and ODM projects.

Regarding Wah Luen’s production capacity, Miss Tam tells MegAsia, “We operate two factories in Guangzhou. One is for printing, while the other is for production, together with a total workforce of about 700 people. Nowadays, we use more auto-machinery to increase efficiency and productivity,” says Miss Tam.

“To ensure our product quality to be up to the standards set by different countries, we carry out in-house lab tests before exporting. All our products pass the ATSM and EN-71 tests,” Miss Tam reveals.

Cost control is a challenge to all manufacturers nowadays to achieve price competitiveness. With its ample experience and diligence, Wah Luen is able to meet the challenge. Prices of some products have been lowered significantly in the market. We need to think of ways to reduce costs. For example, in the past we used paper imported from Japan. Now we use cheaper paper of similar quality from China. We find ways to cut cost, but will never compromise with lowered quality. We would ensure that the product quality will not be affected,” says Miss Tam.

How to attract new customers? Wah Luen mainly makes use of two channels. “We advertise on some international magazines and join trade fairs to do our promotion and marketing. They are very effective to bring us good business,” says Miss Tam.

As a new product line for Wah Luen, the company is having production projects using PU and leathers to produce a series of high-end organisers. Meanwhile, the company is working with a British customer who has recently set up production equipment in Wah Luen’s factory. Wah Luen endeavours to collaborate with this UK client to come up with some brand-new products in the very near future.

Holding a couple of photo albums which were once the best-sellers of Wah Luen in its early days, Miss Tam recalls the hard but happy moments of establishing business rapport with customers. “Though the

se photo albums look a bit outdated now among lots of our new and trendy products, I treasure to keep these albums in our showroom to always refresh me and my staff about the hard-earned achievement in the past, and to let customers know that Wah Luen is a reliable stationery supplier with a long history of production,” says Miss Tam.