Biography

L.T. Lam was born in Hong Kong in 1924. His family’s native place was Nanhai. During his childhood, he studied in Nanhai as well as in Hong Kong. However, he dropped out of school at the outbreak of Japanese invasion into Hong Kong in 1941. After the fall of Hong Kong, he went to Nanhai for farming and did not return to Hong Kong until the war ended. In 1947, he joined Yuen Hing Hong Co. Ltd., a company that traded plastic materials. A year later, he started his own business. Between 1948 to 1957, he set up Raymond Plastic Factory, Advance Plastic Factory, Forward Products Co. and Alice Doll Fashions Limited, which made plastic utilities and toys. In 1960, he founded Forward Winsome Industries Ltd with his partners, making toys for consumers in Europe and the USA. Fowind grew rapidly and began to expand into new business sectors such as motor vehicle products in the 1960s. In 1969, he opened a branch factory in Taiwan, and then further ventured into the OEM business during the 1970s. Lam availed himself of the new opportunities under the Economic Reform in Mainland China, and began to start up production facilities in Dongguan, Nanhai and Lianzhou since 1979. The Hong Kong production line finally closed in 1989. In recent years, Fowind had come under the management of Mr Lam’s children.