Posts Tagged ‘Interior Shutters’

Zern Wong
Monday, July 05, 2010
Sheer determination played a key role in one of Hong Kong’s great success stories. With only HK$2,000 in his pocket, Hui Ming-shun went on to build DSC Group – the city’s largest one-stop chain store for electrical appliances, furniture, and digital and audio video products.
Hui admits it was not just luck that transformed his small business into a thriving empire.

The journey began in the early 1980s when Hui opened a small shop selling and repairing electrical equipment.

At night when the shutters came down he studied interior design and electronics.

In 1997, together with his wife, Hui rented a shop at the “ladies market” in Mong Kok, and began selling electrical products and furniture directly to customers who ordered online and then picked them up from the shop.

But the administrative costs of running an e-business were high, so Hui – in his new role of chief executive – changed tactics.

He opened the first DSC store in Mong Kok, employing less than 20 people.

“Direct sales allow us to get the products from manufacturers without going through middlemen, so we are able to offer our customers a reasonable price,” Hui said.

But it was not an easy start.

Rents for ground-floor shops were expensive in 1997. Therefore, he chose to open on an upper floor.

“However, as there were cases of people being cheated by firms operating in upstairs shops, people had little trust in us,” he mused.

But he managed to build a reputation through his commitment to
quality and after-sales service. “Our customers then introduced other clients and this was when our business started to expand.”

Today DSC operates 20 branches across Hong Kong, employing 1,000.

The stores sell up to 200,000 items but Hui plans to introduce more products to boost turnover.

“We have added milk powder to our products list, and in future we may import spectacles from Japan and Germany and sell them in our shops,”

Hui also has his eye on demographics. The target group 13 years ago was the middle class, but DSC customers these days include the well- heeled.

“Many of our customers are professionals such as lawyers and accountants,” he noted. “Hong Kong and China Gas (0003) and several banks have been long-term customers. Our transactions with them accounted for about 10 percent of our total operation.”

Hui emphasized that computers and the concept of standardization are crucial to DSC’s management and operation.

“Our workers follow standard procedures in every process, such as delivery and installation, regardless of the type of products involved. This makes management easier.”

Hui’s philosophy on human resource management is simple: reward those who perform well. This, he says, motivates workers.

“For instance, if a delivery driver receives complements instead of complaints from customers, we will assign delivery routes that are more convenient for him or her,” he said.

“These core values and corporate culture are DSC’s most important assets.”

As of January this year, DSC’s sales turnover was an astonishing 15,000 times up from the early days in 1997. Hui attributes the phenomenal growth to the qualitative edge he has over his rivals.

“Although the prices of our products are reasonably low, they come with a quality assurance and satisfactory after- sales service. We also ensure that no fakes are sold in our stores.”

Hui said unlike other major chain stores, DSC has a chief executive with a rich knowledge of interior design, experience in trading and the knowhow to repair electronic products.

He pointed out that his past experience of working in a small shop gives him a good understanding of the features and functions of different kinds of electrical appliances, regardless of their brands.

Hui is also able to design and customize furniture.

“Many of our competitors did not initially start their businesses in the furniture or electrical industry, so they have little understanding of product materials and quality,” he said.

Two years ago, in an interview with Capital Magazine, Hui said his vision was for DSC to become the Wal-Mart of Hong Kong and China.

Wal-Mart is a US firm that runs a chain of large discount department stores.

He estimated that DSC now has a more than 60 percent share of Hong Kong’s furniture retailing market.

“Today DSC can be regarded as a ‘half Wal-Mart’ in Hong Kong,” he said with a smile.

But to realize his dreams, Hui has to expand.

“Now that the market in Mong Kok and Prince Edward is saturated, I am considering Tung Chung as the location for our next branch.”

Hui plans to open three to five more outlets in Hong Kong. “We have established a good reputation with developers. For instance customers who visit our store in a shopping mall will also eat in restaurants or buy from other shops there.”

Developers therefore are eager for DSC to open branches at their malls, thus easing Hui’s rental pressure.

Hui is also considering opening outlets in the mainland where he already operates two massive warehouses.

“We hope to start one to four stores in the mainland this year,” he said.

Hui did not rule out the possibility of mergers or takeovers providing that such moves will benefit the company’s long-term development.

Five years ago DSC had plans to list its shares in Singapore, but had to pull out at the last minute because Hui thought the firm’s computer system and management team were not yet ready.

“Although we now have all it takes to be listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, I do not see the need to raise capital at this moment,” Hui said.

“Currently we want to focus on what we do best, that is selling furniture and electronic appliances.”

Resource; http://www.thestandard.com.hk/

By Emily Jenkinson

Interior designers had better watch their backs if the raft of fashion designers stepping on to their turf is anything to go by. Not content with supermodels, catwalks and a roll call of rich and famous clients, these fashion designers are increasingly spreading their creative wings to include interior design projects for hotels – see Hotel Maison Moschino in Milan, the Missoni Hotel in Edinburgh or the Hotel Armani in Dubai – or even launching their own interiors collections.

Search for the perfect furniture with The Independent house and home database, powered by mydeco.

Take Jean-Paul Gaultier, former bad-boy of the fashion world, who has recently collaborated with contemporary furniture house Roche Bobois in a celebration of its 50th anniversary. As part of the collaboration, Gaultier has created a limited edition wardrobe, a combined bed and screen, a mirror, a chair, suitcases and two new upholstery versions of Roche Bobois’ Mah Jong modular sofa.

Each design is based on some of Gaultier’s most distinctive fashion collections, with the blue and white sailor stripes and blue and white check mariner pattern proving to be just as sexy on a piece of furniture as they are on a pouting male model (well, nearly). “One finds my three big loves in this collection,” he croons, “corsets, sailor stripes and tattoos. It has a feeling of a ‘boudoir’ and is very sensual.”

The design process for fashion and interiors meanwhile, isn’t as different as you might think according to Gaultier, who explains: “I only know how to design clothes, so in a way I ‘dressed’ the furniture. When I design my couture and prêt-à-porter collections, of course I supervise everything. I can sometimes have ten fittings for a couture dress until I am satisfied with it. The dresses are then made in my atelier so I can follow it beginning to end. For the furniture, which is not my domain, I had a wonderful partner in Roche Bobois who could supervise the production and turn my drawings into a reality.”

Gaultier is not the only fashion designer turning his vision for interiors into a reality. Bruno Basso and Chris Brooke of Basso & Brooke, who have recently dressed both Beyonce and Michelle Obama, have just launched a limited edition interiors line as part of their Turning Leaf collaboration exclusively with The Shop at Bluebird on the King’s Road, London.

Turning Leaf, a Californian wine company, commissioned the fashion designers as part of its ‘designers in residence’ programme for June, July and August.

The new interiors range will include a limited edition drinks cabinet, wine tables and console table, plus a Bergere Gondola chair, lampshades and cushions, all using the digitally printed silk technique and designs that have made the designers so popular and well known.

“Fashion is what we love,” say the designers, “developing other areas allows the consumer to appreciate our work in more ways than just wearing it. We already have a wallpaper range, but now we want to show the full range of B&B interiors – decoupage tables, upholstered furniture, luggage – everything is possible. One thing we really want to do is a hotel suite or restaurant interior and give it the total digital print experience.”

“Fashion is more than a piece of clothing,” said Jonny Johansson, the designer behind cult Swedish fashion brand Acne, recently. And so it seems. The cult label has recently launched a furniture range, available from the new Acne Studio on London’s Dover Street from 15 July, and includes graphic design, publishing, branding and advertising as just some of the many strings on its ‘fashion’ bow.

Meanwhile, Sonia Rykiel, the French fashion designer, has recently signed a deal with furnishing company Lelievre to create a range incorporating floral patterns and the label’s bright signature stripes. Though the label was cagey about giving away details (“you’ll have to wait for September!”), American site WWD.com has reported on velvet cushions with encrusted rhinestone slogans and a range forming an extension of Rykiel’s existing bedroom and bath furnishings collection.

Once fashion designers have discovered the joys of interiors, they may never turn back. Melanie Porter is a case in point. She designed knitwear fashion for a number of international fashion brands including Burberry over a period of ten years before turning her expertise to furniture. She now creates one-off contemporary knitted designs for antique pieces sourced at auctions and markets.

“You can be so much more creative with interiors than you can with clothes,” she says, “people are more willing to take risks in their home than they are on their bodies and I love the sense of collaboration with the customer, which I didn’t get in fashion design.”

Could interiors be winning over the fashion pack? It looks like it. If interior designers still want to take the top jobs, they had better up their game, or consider branching out into fashion

Resource:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/interiors/fashion-designers-turn-to-interiors-2020888.html

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