A fine piece of porcelain ware is a delight to appreciate. Around the world and in most of cultures, porcelain items are an integral part of human civilizations. In this business, an established manufacturer always possesses the exquisite skills and a strong family tradition often dating back for more than a century, as in the case of Wing Tai Porcelain Manufactory Limited, which owes much of its success to a strong family heritage.

According to Joe Szeto, owner of Wing Tai, the Szeto clan has been involved in the porcelain business since his grandfather's time. "My grandfather owned a porcelain workshop way back in the early years of the 20th century in south China," he said, "Back then, my grandfather's workshop already engaged in mass-production of porcelain ware. Later, my father brought the know-how to Macau to establish a new workshop there. After some years, the business moved on to Hong Kong, and I joined the business at that point. Until now, I have been working in the porcelain business for more than 28 years."

"In the early days of our business, our creations were inclined towards the classical side. We made common daily-use items such as flower pots and eating utensils in old Chinese designs. However, since traditional designs were too easy to be copied in mass volume, we decided to switch to products with modern and stylish makings."

In the 1980s, eyeing the lucrative investment opportunities and labour resources in Guangdong Province of China, Wing Tai relocated its production facilities to Dongguan and Chiuchow. The Dongguan plant works on mass manufacturing, while the Chiuchow plant follows up the final touch-up and coloring of finished products. Such a division of labor is strategically designed to locate the final touch-up functions closer to Hong Kong, so that the company can keep a close watch to prevent counterfeit.

At the moment, Joe Szeto states that both plants employ more than 200 workers, while he and his wife handle all the design conceptualization works. Wing Tai's products are marketed worldwide, chiefly to Europe and the U.S. He added, "We work with our clients mostly in the OEM format. Our clients always come with their own design drafts and request our production, or they may spot interested samples in our collections and ask for proper adjustment for their own markets."

"Also, our order agreement with a client usually takes a two-year term. If both parties find the cooperation fruitful, our agreement will be extended for another two years, so on and so forth."

In the meantime, Wing Tai concentrates on making the following items: porcelain lamp sets, porcelain photo frames, cosmetic boxes and pots, etc. Joe Szeto said, "We now make only decorative porcelain ware, which is totally different from making the general meal-use porcelain ware using different materials. I would like to define myself as a maker of mid-range porcelain products."

To meet the different requirements of European and American markets, Wing Tai also needs to devise different product styles for each market. According to Joe Szeto, the Europeans prefer shinny and warm designs, while the Americans look for more plain and straight-forward finishings. "Of course this division is not absolute. Plain design also prevails in the European market, too," he added.

To turn out high-quality porcelain wares to satisfy so many different tastes and preferences, a well-organised production process is necessary. Joe Szeto described the process, "Once an initial design draft is ready, we shall proceed to make a solid-state mould out of mud. When it is finished, we shall turn out production moulds accordingly. The number of production moulds to be made depend on the order volume. Our workers will pour liquefied ceramic material into the production moulds. Each mould will absorb much of the water, leaving a dry hard shell attached"

"Once the inner shells are done, they will be pulled out for dehydration. When these 'early models' are completely dried, they will head for the firing room."

To fulfill demands, Wing Tai always turns out new designs and new ideas for clients' reference. This policy proves well-found, as Wing Tai has been able to build up long-lasting relationship with importers from afar through ongoing orders. Joe Szeto claimed, "We always work closely with importers. For those 'old friends', our relationships can go back as far back as 10 to 20 years. For others, they may issue orders one time or the other, usually in the form of one-off deals, when they find something good in our collections."

In recent years, Wing Tai, like many other Hong Kong-based counterparts in the porcelain business, has to face the mounting competitive pressure from mainland China. Joe Szeto remarked, "Porcelain ware is by its nature easy to be reproduced. In some cases, the problem of counterfeiting is so serious that a whole market can be brought down. My items had been found copied and even exhibited at major trade shows. For this reason, we decided not to go to engage in ODM at any time soon."

"Although the bootleggers can't reproduce the quality of our materials, the confidence of some of our clients has been shaken and they may not buy from us again. This deadlock leaves us no choice, but to roll out new designs as fast as we can."

Apart from new designs, Joe Szeto has identified another advantageous strength in Hong Kong-based producers ﾐ The strong service quality. He explained, "Hong Kong staff can usually provide swift feedbacks to foreign buyers' request immediately due to the relatively higher conversational English standard. Interestingly, our mainland competitors still cannot match us on that because of their general lack of foreign language-speaking staff at least at this stage. In fact, they need to hire some freelancers to handle incoming e-mails, which may take more than one day to respond to a simple question."

Building on the existing strong client base, Joe Szeto tells MegAsia that the company is searching for partnership opportunities with mainland importers to tap the mainland domestic retail market. He remarks that one of Wing Tai's mainland ventures takes the form of working with an importer with several hundred chains distributed across major urban centres in China. "The chain will rotate our products among the stores to achieve maximal exposure in different areas," said Joe Szeto.

So what will be Wing Tai's next big adventure? One of such attempts is the so-called "cracking 3D effect", to be used on items intended for the European market. "To make such design, we need to put on a basic coating. Then, we shall apply an extra layer of paint. Once finished, we shall put them into firing room to make them cracked for beautiful curves." Mr. Szeto got excited to tell the next mission..................

Back