Lai Kit Fong

Lai Kit Fong was born in Guangzhou in 1928.  Her family came from Hetang, Xinhui.  Her father was an outstanding student.  He used to work as the chief Chinese comprador for East Asiatic Company, and traded fabrics in his hometown.  In 1938, when Guangzhou was defeated by the Japanese invaders, Lai fled to her hometown of Hetang, where she enrolled in a private home school to study Chinese classics, mathematics and the use of an abacus until junior secondary level.  In those days, Lai was nicknamed by fellow townsmen ‘The Queen of Hetang’. Lee Sai Yik was an admirer of Lai and court her.  The two finally got married in 1949 and moved to Hong Kong in 1950.  Lee had been in Hong Kong since the Second World War.  Referred by a friend of his, he became a young apprentice at a wholesale store called Kwong Wing Hing on Kwong Yuen Street East in Sheung Wan.  By 1950, he was promoted to head treasurer. The couple lived together on Jervois Street.  To earn a living, they worked at a shop that sold foreign goods and were involved in part-time selling merchandises that they bought from the hongs.  Helpers were hired to deliver those merchandises.  Later, they accepted orders from the hongs and assigned production to local plastic factories.  A friend of theirs was unable to handle some orders that they described as ‘Fei Gei Tsai (toy plane)’, and so asked Lai and her husband to take over the production order and gave them the moulds for production. 

When the two got hold of the basic production techniques, they left Kwong Wing Hing, bought their own injection moulding machines, and set up their plastic workshop at home  named Chun Fat Plastic Products Factory (which was renamed Silver Mfy. Holdings Co. Ltd. in 1967). This factory received orders from the hongs.  In the beginning, they mainly produced pacifiers.  They imported plastic teats from the UK and made pacifiers by adding the mouth shields and handles.  Soon, they moved their factory to Sai Cheung Street into a 5-storey residential building which was also be used as a warehouse to accommodate machines.  The Lee family rented the ground floor for manufacturing purposes and also the first floor for their own residential use.  The penthouse was set aside as a packaging workshop.  A lot of ground-floor shops on Sai Cheung Street were locations of  plastic factories. Cheung Kong Plastic Factory, for example, was once located on 20 Sai Cheung Street, adjacent to a number of toy factories.

Kwong Wing Hing, where Lai Kit Fong’s husband Lee Sai Yik used to work, was on Kwong Yuen Street East in Sheung Wan. The main commodities traded there included combs, razors, hair brushes, belts and needles from the UK. From 1950, the couple started their own trading business. However, since they did not wish to compete with their former boss at Kwong Wing Hing, they only focused on lower-bracket pacifiers which only had a narrow profit margin. At last, Lee quit his job at Kwong Wing Hing and devoted himself entirely to the manufacturing business.  Lai deemed that it was a rare case for someone to change from trading to manufacturing in those days. Many of their colleagues preferred working under a boss.  The couple’s first ever factory was located on the third floor of 7 Jervois Street, and was named Chun Fat Plastic Products Factory. At that time, the couple had already learnt the way to operate the injection moulding machine. There was only one set of machine in the entire factory. At first, Chun Fat bought raw materials in small logs and settled their payment in cash.

When the Korean War ended, the price of plastic dropped significantly. The Americans buyers were not aware of the decreasing price of plastic, and thus didn’t request for a corresponding reduction in charges. They instead concluded the transaction by paying the price quoted at the time when the order was placed.  Factories like Chun Fat made a handsome profit consequently. In those years, the contracts between foreign clients and Hong Kong factories usually favoured the latter. If the prices of raw materials increased, the factories would be compensated.  On the other hand, if the prices dropped, the factories were not asked to reduce the price accordingly. To meet with the continued expansion in business scale, Chun Fat moved to a new site in To Kwa Wan where they could find lower rent and a good supply of labour. The old site on Jervois Street was transformed into a packaging workshop.  Coolies were hired to haul the products across from Kowloon each day. Chun Fat moved again to Sai Cheung Street next to other plastic factories because To Kwa Wan was after all not too convenient a place in terms of transportation. At the outset, it was mainly the Indian firms on Bonham Strand that tendered orders to Chun Fat. The factories began to manufacture as soon as orders were placed. The export of pacifiers in those days was doing quite well. 

Around the 1950s and 1960s, Hong Kong factories depended on foreign orders.  Sometimes the factories had to carry product samples and travel to the hongs to meet clients. At times, the clients themselves would bring samples to the factories and ask for quotations. It was not common for factories to design samples, rather, they would buy ready-made samples and alter them to prevent copyright disputes. Lee was responsible for buying samples according to the clients’ requirements and he hired artisans to forge the moulds. The first type of product they made was a cosmetic kit which was then very popular in the USA. Hongs such as Wah Hing Hong and Yick Shing tendered a good number of orders to Chun Fat. Lee would confer with other factory owners to agree on a division of specialty on product types among themselves before negotiating with the hongs. Chun Fat specialized in pacifiers until the end of the 1960s. In the very beginning, most of the factory’s operational matters like production, management and training were all handled by Lai. Her position was equivalent to a general manger and a factory director combined. Fabric trading had been Lai’s family business. Being a senior management personnel, her father taught Lai the business knowledge making her a great hand to her husbands’ career.

Chun Fat Plastic Products Factory had ten working desks inside the factory site on Sai Cheung Street, Sai Wan. Apart from the approximately 100 workers, they also hired outside mould master to make the moulds they needed. There were 20 male mechanics and about 60 female packaging workers. Sai Cheung Street was a hub for Fujian people and a lot of female workers came from Xiamen. These female workers were responsible for packaging and operating the injection moulding machines. The employees in those days were loyal, according to Lai. For example, some of them were willing to sleep on wooden boxes on the roadside in order to watch over the goods and prevent theft. The factory was located on the ground floor of a tenement building on Sai Cheung Street. The penthouse was used as packaging workshop. After the female workers finished their work, the men would rest on the desks while the Lee family slept upstairs.

The starting capital of Chun Fat was about 10,000 dollars which the Lee couple spent mainly on buying machines. In the 1950s, their funding came from their savings while not much came from bank loans. When business expanded, however, they had to rely on loans. In the beginning, through their friend’s introduction, they borrowed from a money shop which charged an interest of as high as 15%. The loans were approved on the basis of trust so there was no need for putting down collaterals. The money shop they borrowed from was in essence a rice merchant who also gave loans . One of the famous money lenders of this kind was Lui Hing Hop. The borrower could use the loan three days after they completed the borrowing procedures. Sometimes, factory owners who needed money urgently would collateralize their clients’ cheques in exchange of quick cash. Lai believed these owners had difficulty seeking loans from banks. In the 1960s, the Lee couple’s business improved, so did their credibility. They would be given promissory notes by the banks which promised to pay the payee after a few days’ time. The raw materials suppliers were also more willing to let the couple buy upon credit.

The Lee couple ran Chun Fat Plastic Products Factory together. Lee was in charge of external affairs such as meeting clients, seeking necessary help and attending exhibitions; and Lai oversaw production, personnel affairs, the accounts, and the domestic works.  Lai encouraged her husband to join different societies in order to expand his social network and collect business intelligence . For many years, Lee had been the chairperson of the Lee Clansmen's Association and a long-time member of Xin Hui He Tong Family Association and Guangdong Xinyi Townsmen Association.  He had been the executive chairmen of Hong Kong and Kowloon Plastic Products Merchants United Association, where he and his colleagues exchanged opinions and information (e.g. clients’ credibility). In 1965, he joined The Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong, which facilitated the setting up of a factory for Silver Mfy. Holdings Co. Ltd. in Mainland China. Lai thought that joining these societies could not boost up business results, but it helped resolving business problems. For instance, the Lee couple once received the help of a Clansmen Association member, who worked in the police force, in resolving disputes. The Association also advised members on how to protect businesses against companies that postpone payments or hongs that transferred product samples under the table from one manufacturer to another. Lai thought that it was easier in the old day for her and her husband to build a good rapport with the banks.  They worked closely with the Bank of China, HSBC, and Bank of East Asia. 

Lai oversaw internal affairs, the factory site, and domestic works. In the early years, she had to work from 7am until midnight, inspecting the factory and taking phone calls each day. She recalled how difficult it was to manage the factory. When Chun Fat exported their products to UK in the early years, the products would often be placed in custody by the customs because the ‘120 permit’, which indicated the cargo’s place of origin, did not meet the government requirements. Lai had to argue with the customs officers.  Lai also managed factory workers.  The mould makings, machine room foremen, and packaging foremen were hired irrespective of hometown or family origin. First, they hired by their friends’ referral and later by advertising on newspapers. Lai often studied things with her workers and even asked their help humbly. Initially, Lai controlled the product cost in a strict way, calculating the cost for each batch of products. However, she had to reply on her staff after the birth of her children. Errors made by her staff had once caused losses for the company. The couple had six children, who were taken care of by Lai’s mother. The eldest daughter was born in 1951. Her youngest son was born in 1961. Despite the speedy growth of Chun Fat, the couple did not request the children to help in the factory because they wanted them to focus on study. They hired a tutor to supervise the progress of their school works and enrolled the children in good schools. All of their children graduated from universities in Canada. They had high hopes for them and wanted them to become outstanding persons, so they purposefully groomed them to be future business managers of their family enterprise, and discussed business with them. During summer holidays, they often let the children go and observe the works going on in the factory.

Lai learnt her management skills from her father. She built a good rapport with her staff and mustered the support of department managers or supervisors to keep the junior staff in check. Lai treated her staff as her own kin and learnt from them all the time. She never yelled at them. On important festivals, she would even dine with them.  There was a chef in the factory to provide food for the permanent staff that loaded goods and operated the machines. When Lai selected her managers, she placed an emphasis on the applicants’ CV, past experience and appearance. Lai learnt to judge a person’s appearance by reading articles on Singtao Daily. She preferred honest and sympathetic staff. The longest-serving staff had worked for her for more than 10 years.  Lai used to study plastic industry safety codes, machine operation, workroom layout, and fire safety at the Labour Department. Though the Department would inspect factories, the Lee couple never thought about cheating. They were truly concerned about the manufacturing industry. 

Their factory never saw any major industrial accidents. Sometimes, there would only be minor accidents like the cutting of one’s finger. One female work lost two of her fingers in an accident. Lai took her to the hospital herself - an act which touched the worker deeply. Her staff made no complaints even when she had to lay off some staff because of diminished business. Lai wrote recommendation letters for many workers to help them seek new jobs. When a staff member applied to move to Australia, she would speak of that person positively so that they could get the approval from the Immigration Bureau. Lai also gave presents to her staff’s children who performed well in school. Overall, Silver Mfy seldom was met with great problems in the last few decades. Even if there were problems, the staff would help to resolve them. During the riot in 1967, a lot of factories closed down and Silver Mfy had less competitors as a result. This helped business development. The relationship between the employer and the employees was good, and thus there was no strike at all.  When the Oil Crisis broke out in 1973, the prices of raw materials rose and orders dropped.  Silver Mfy operated only three days a week. The blowing injection technician had solicited outside orders for the company and packaged Chupa Chups candies in order to get through those few months’ hardship. In the 1970s, with the influx of Vietnamese refuges, the staff recommended Lee and Lai to hire them as packaging staff and collies.

Silver Mfy’s major products in chronological order were pacifiers, toys, and doll parts (make-up tools and doll costumes). They made combs for a short time during the early days. Plastic flowers were popular in the 1960s, and Silver Mfy made them according to America client’s chosen style. A lot of plastic factory shifted to making plastic flowers. Such flowers needed similar machines as those used for making pacifiers. The factory owners generally calculate their moulding cost based on the quantity ordered, so the industry was not much affected despite the rapid changing demand in product types. Silver Mfy stopped producing pacifiers in the early 1960s and moved toward diversification by making plastic flowers, make-up toys and electroplates (such as hoods of toy cars) for American, British and Japanese markets.  Each time Silver Mfy stopped making a certain product, the mould would be scrapped and sold, hence they could adapt easily when changing from one good to another. 

Silver Mfy’s electroplating techniques were more advanced than their counterparts; as a result their electroplated products brought them the greatest profit margin.  However, there was less demand for electroplated products than make-up toys.  Silver Mfy (then still known as Chun Fat) was first set up on Jervois Street. They moved to Sai Cheung Street, Sai Wan in 1956 to a 10000-square feet site occupying two floors. They also bought the penthouse and the shop next door, raising the factory’s total area to 20,000 square feet. As business grew, Lee heard that the rents for East Asia Godown, located on the seashore of Kennedy Town, was low. He therefore moved the factory to a 30,000-square feet new site over there. In the early 1970s, when Silver Mfy had secured enough funds, they bought their current 20,000-sqaure feet site on Wong Chuk Hang Road by a sum of 310,000 dollars.  They also added a ceiling on the top level for storage and packaging use. Lai recalled that the site was humble and crude in those days, but they and their workers were not afraid of enduring hardship.

In the early 1970s, Silver Mfy’s business was growing and had to move their site from Sai Wan to Wong Chuk Hang. The Lees couple had enough capital to invest in properties. Sometimes they got too busy to respond to every incoming order, so they would outsource their production to other factories and supply them with raw materials as well as the moulds. The outsourced production was supervised. From 1978, Silver Mfy moved their production line to Mainland. The labour supply was ample in the mainland, and they would select younger and smarter workers from the pool. The value of RMB was low, so this helped lower the production cost. While Hong Kong’s labour regulation became more developed, it pushed up local production cost.

At first, the Lee couple chose to open their factory near their hometown. But since it was remote, they moved again to Bao’an. After they had moved north, foreign clients such as Mattel and MacDonald’s approached them and placed their orders with them. Lai and her sons had to travel north weekly to manage the factory. Around 1988, all of Silver Mfy’s production lines had been relocated to the mainland. In the transitional period before that happened, both the mainland and Hong Kong sites operated at the same time. The former was responsible for more complicated procedures, while the latter focused on packaging. As Hong Kong’s operation gradually waned, the workers were laid off in small batches. Since employee-employer relationship was harmonious at Silver Mfy, the laid off workers did not go on any protest. After moving north, the factory’s production capacity increased tremendously. It could take up to 100 million dollars worth of order. At its peak, the Hong Kong employed 500 people. In contrast, the mainland firm hired 10,000 people at the highest. At that time, the children of Lai had begun to take over.  The company’s heyday was from 1992 to 2000.

Lai believed she had developed some principles in manufacturing operation. In her self-assessment, she would give herself 60-70 points out of 100. She saw a stable family finance and her well educated children as her greatest achievements. She thought that leadership, problem-solving skills and devotion to work are the requirements of an entrepreneur. Some of what she learnt in her early life was applicable in her work. She once attended evening management and accounting classes at the Trade Development Council and the Labour Department. She also learnt her knowledge about plastic through researching with her staff. Lai was quite attached to the plastic industry, that’s why she remained in it until today. However, due to difficulty in operation, she was unable to do it whole-heartedly. 

In reminiscence, Lai had little family life because she was too busy working on the factory site on Sai Cheung Street. Fortunately, she lived right above the factory, so she could have dinner with her family after work or go out to movies or picnics on Sundays. The family made a yearly trip overseas. Her daughter attended St. Stephen’s Church College, while her son studied at St. Louis’ School in their secondary school years. All her children completed university. Her first and second sons studied business. The youngest son read metalware design. Her three daughters took business administration, accounting, and social work respectively. In the mid-1980s, her son graduated from university in Canada and returned to train at Silver Mfy to learn to manage the company’s accounts and finances. In the early 1990s, the son started to take over. Until today, the second generation of the family had not abandoned the plastics business. With dwindling business in Hong Kong in recent years, their Hong Kong office only mainly takes care of paperwork, declaring goods at the customs, and transit trade, etc. The company has accounts in both Hong Kong and mainland China.  The factory in the mainland is still being managed by Hong Kong managers and technicians. Her second eldest son focused on real estate business, managing a property company.