Central Textiles' factory, facilities and production in the 1950s
Central Spinners was established by Central Textiles, and at its earlier stage it was a 5-storey factory on Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan. In 1957, Central Textiles started its plan to open a spinning division. In 1958, Central Spinners was in operation. To increase its productivity, Central Textiles bought a piece of reclaimed land in Tsuen Wan (i.e. 8 Sha Tsui Road). In 1962, Central Spinners and Central Fabrics were moved from Castle Peak Road to the new factory on Sha Tsui Road. Central Textiles was operating 24 hours a day. At first there were two shifts, each of 12 hours. Later it changed to three shifts, each of 8 hours. At the beginning, Central Fabrics made his products by weaving. When the second generation took over, knitting and dyeing were introduced with the set up of production and sales of knitted fabrics. Central Spinners bought cotton from India, Pakistan and US, and sold the yarns to local factories, and also to supply its own fabrics division. When Central Fabrics was established, it produced twill, khaki and greige fabrics for the export to UK and Southeast Asia. Later with combed cotton yarns it was able to produce water repellent fabrics for supplying to UK's rain coat factories.
Succession of a family business for Central Textiles, its development, progress in technology and backgroun...
Central Textiles was founded by Vincent Woo. He started a small spinner in Shanghai before he moved to Hong Kong and started Central Fabrics, followed by Central Spinners. During that time, most of the spinners also ran fabrics factory, such as South Sea Textile and Nanyang Cotton Mill. Hong Kong Spinners was one of those that only had spinning as their sole business. Central Spinners started with a small factory. Its manpower and product quality could not compare with the bigger competitors. During the mid 1960s, Vincent Woo's son, Alex Woo, took over the business. Alex Woo studied in the UK when he was young. Later on he went to London University to study engineering. Under his father's request he also studied management. During 1967 to 1968, Alex Woo introduced knitting production and sales to the family business. At that time, Cheng Chi Ping was already promoted to supervisor. At its earlier stage, Central Textiles' management system was copied from that of Shanghai, with machines bought from Japan. Its products were selling under the Double Happiness brand. Central Textiles was able to follow what the market demanded and produced in mass certain products, such as Dacron fabrics. From the late 1970s onwards, Cheng started to attend international fairs on textile machines to learn about the latest machines in the world. He also visited new spinning factories in Europe and began to buy the latest European spinning machines in the market. With new machines, Cheng was able to make new fabrics and cotton yarns to compete with manufacturers from Taiwan and Korea. From 1980s to 1990s, he took multiple trips to Japan and visited spinning factories there. He examined the process of producing elastic yarns and bought Japanese machines to improve on them. During the early 1990s, Central Spinners started to produce elastic yarns which were used to produce elastic denim. The company was the first among all spinners in Hong Kong which was able to produce elastic yarns. In retrospect, Cheng said the introduction of new machines enabled them to produce new yarns and fabrics. In 2005, Pat-Nie Woo, son of Alex Woo, joined the business. Pat-Nie Woo studied accounting and chemical engineering at the London University. From 2000s onwards, Central Textiles tightened its association with tertiary institutions, with the aim to research and develop new products, such as to improve the softness of cotton yarns. For decades, Cheng was responsible for the production technique of Central Textiles. The management and technical team of Central Textiles came from different background. Some were graduated at local institutes, some studied textile related subjects in Shanghai, and some were graduates from universities in UK, US and Japan. Cheng said though with a diverse background, but everyone works harmoniously in the company.
Development of Central Textiles' production after 1970s (1): introduction of knitting, investment in fabric...
At the beginning, Central Textiles was mainly in the production of greige fabrics. The fabrics would be further processed by local dyeing factories before they were sold to local garment factories. Central Textiles started with weaving. In the 1960s, knitting was also introduced to the production line. The company added its dyeing department as knitting required the yarn to be dyed first. In the mid 1980s, the Hong Kong government rolled out its environment protection policy. Since Central Textiles had no land to build its own sewage facility, it closed its knitting division during 1988 to 1989. The company thus had its knitting business for around two decades. In the early 1990s, Central Textiles started to invest in its factory in mainland China. At that time, there was a state enterprise looking for a business partner in Zhanjiang, with a factory in place for production. Through a close connection, Central Textiles partnered with this state enterprise and moved some old machines from Hong Kong to Zhanjiang. The factory there would produce fabrics that were easier to handle, and production cost was lowered. Cheng Chi Ping reckoned it would be good to start with products that were easier to handle as the working habit was still very different in mainland China than in Hong Kong. Since the Hong Kong government’s vigorous push of its environmental protection policy, many local dyeing factories had to close down. Central Textiles started to produce denim in 2002. To produce denim, the yarn has to be dyed before production. The environment of a denim factory is less desirable than that of a factory that produces greige fabrics. During the earlier days, most of the larger fabric factories would produce greige fabrics, and smaller factories run by Cantonese industrialist would produce denim. Looking back at Central Textiles' decades of operation, Cheng believes that a constant improvement of machinery and products is the key to survival. Even larger factories would not be able to survive for standing still.
Changes of Central Textiles' sales channels and its export market
Central Textiles spent a lot of years producing greige fabrics. At its earlier stage, sales were led by buyers' demand. The company's clients would make contact and place order and the company would produce according to the clients' requirements. There were also OEM orders from clients in the US. Nowadays the company is selling its products directly to its clients, providing fabrics to garment factories here as well as those in Japan. In 2002, after the company started to produce denim, it also became more fashion conscious. In 2005, for the first time the company took part at the exhibition, Premiere Vision, held in France. Its fabrics were displayed for the fashion brand companies to choose and place their orders. The exhibition became a sales opportunity for the company. Marks and Spencer has been ordering denim from Central Textiles for the production of its men's fashion. Central Textiles was also among the first few manufacturers in the world which uses T400 (an elastic silk fibre) to produce denim. With T400, it can produce 360 degree stretch denim which was comfortable to wear. In the earlier days Central Textiles' denim yarns were mainly for the supply to local denim factory. From 1990s onwards it started to export to Japan. At the end of 1980s, the company started to produce elastic yarns. Before that the company imported elastic yarns from Japan. But since its own production started, the company was able to export elastic yarns to Japan. Factories in Japan had higher standard towards the yarns. Central Textiles had to constantly improve the quality of its products. Apart from denim and elastic yarns, the company also had other yarn products for the export to India, US, Switzerland, Thailand, Belgium, etc.
production after 1970s (2): factory relocation, workers' welfare, automation and product developoment
Central Textiles had spinning and fabrics divisions. Its spinning division had moved to industrial area at Sha Tsui Road, Tsuen Wan. Its fabrics factory has moved to the ground floor of Kong Nam Industrial Building in Tsuen Wan. When the Hong Kong government reclaimed land in Tsuen Wan that provided land supply for spinners to build their factories. Cheng said during a period of industrialization, spinners would be considered as major manufacturers at that time. Governors of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose and Sir David Wilson, had paid visits to the factory of Central Textiles. In the early days the company provided quarters for its workers, which were in tenement buildings just opposite the current Tsuen Wan Town Hall. The company bought part of the building's fourth floor and the whole of fifth floor, converted the space into 38 units as free quarters for 200 to 300 workers. It also provided shuttle buses to Tuen Mun and Kwun Tong to pick up workers who did not live in the provided quarters. The company had a three-shift system. Those who took the night shift were mainly male workers. In the earlier days clients' demand on quality was not that high. Central Textiles adopted a mass production system which required a lot of labors. The mobility of textile workers was high. Workers would change their jobs between different factories, and they also took up extra shift outside their normal working hours. In view of shortage of labour, Central Textiles hired refugees from Bangladesh and Vietnam to do non-technical tasks. Nowadays it also hires technical workers and even professionals from mainland China. At the end of 1970s, Cheng Chi Ping attended German exhibitions regularly to learn more about new machines in other countries. To become more automatic, the companies bought expensive machines from overseas, or make improvement on existing machines, to automate the production process so as to avoid human errors and to improve the quality of its products. For instance the company bought some new machines from Switzerland but at the same time improved the setting so as to mass produce denim fabrics. Products became more diversified for Central Textiles. In the early 1990s, when the company started to produce elastic yarns, other manufacturers even sent “spies” to its factory trying to copy the technique. “Spies” were sometimes spotted in the company's mainland factories. In recent years Hong Kong Polytechnic University has many specilised development projects for the enhancement of spinning technique for Central Textiles. From the 2000s the company started to market its products to the fashion brands. And from 2005 onwards it participated regularly at fashion exhibitions in France, to sell its fabrics there. Apart from the fashion houses, the company also submit tender to government departments to sell its special function fabrics. Looking back at Central Textiles' almost half a century of development, Cheng Chi Ping said the most prosperous was when the company was producing elastic yarns, as only Central Textiles was able to produce that at that time and they could not cope with the demand. In recent years, local textile industry has become a sunset industry. Central Textiles was only able to barely survive. Since production cost in the mainland was low, it has been hard for Hong Kong's industrialists to compete. In view of the deterioration of business environment, local spinners had to retreat from Hong Kong in order to lower their production costs.
The decline of Hong Kong textile industry
After the 1970s, Taiwan and Korea started to develop their spinning industries which posed competition to Hong Kong's spinners. The land where the spinners sat became more valuable which also attracted the owners to sell their land for profits. Spinning is a capital intensive industry. Most of the spinners need to have their own factories, which need dust and air-conditioning facilities. This makes it a costly exercise if the factory needs to move from one location to another. Central Textiles' factory in Zhanjiang only measured to 20,000 spindles, which worried Cheng as he was afraid it cannot withstand the competition from other mainland spinners in the long run.
Background of managerial and tenical staff of Central Textiles’ spinning factory and weaving factory . Ch...
Chi Woo Wha worked at the maintenance and safety department of Central Textiles’ weaving factory before he went to Africa. In 1973, he returned from Africa returning to Central Textiles’ weaving factory as an engineer, mainly assisting in the overall management of the mill. Work at Central Textiles’ factories was divided as follows: Cheng Chi Ping was the manager overseeing the spinning factory, while Hui Ho was his deputy mainly responsible for the weaving factory’s production. Hui Ho came from Shanghai and had been engaged in the textile industry for many years. Although he had no formal training in textiles, he learned from his master and was very experienced. In Central Textiles, a manager was assisted by a deputy manager, and further below was an engineer. Production at Central Textiles was arranged by the engineer in accordance with the specification of the job orders. The engineer had a wide scope of duties, overseeing the mechanical aspects of production. He also had to oversee planning, production management, and scheduling of production; supervise of the labour force; check on product quality; and estimate production volume and costing. Upon Hui Ho’s resignation, Chi Woo Wha took over all management work at Central Textiles’ weaving. When the weaving factory was relocated to its present site in 1989, Chi Woo Wha was formally promoted to factory manager.
History and development of Central Textiles' weaving factory: plant relocation, adding new machine, knittin...
In 1989, Central Textiles’ weaving factory was relocated to the current premise as there was pressing need for expansion of production scale. Previously, the factory was on the 2nd floor of Central Textiles’ building. Since the weaving factory installed a new air jet loom in 1985, the vibrations generating from the high-speed rotation of the loom were so great that they set the whole building for shaking! In order to eliminate such disturbances, Central Textiles decided to move the weaving operations to the ground floor of the present address. In the early stages of its relocation, the weaving factory actively installed new machines. As the new machines occupied more space, the older equipment was replaced. In 1995, the weaving factory had replaced all the old looms with shuttleless looms. The new equipment was bigger, ran at higher speeds and could produce fabrics of larger width. With higher production volumes, the production cost was reduced. Central Textiles had once operated a knitting factory, which was a separate operation from the weaving factory. The knitting factory ceased production later due to operational problems. Chi Woo Wha maintained that knitting would not replace weaving although it did not require cotton pulp, involved fewer processes and had lower production costs. Today, there are many knitting factories in China, some of which were family operations running at very low costs. Reasons for higher market demands for good quality fabrics. In the past, the market in Hong Kong had little demand in regard of the quality of fabrics. Due to the constant improvements in textile technology, greater market supply and increased competition, weaving factories had to improve their products to maintain competitiveness. This trend began to emerge in the early 1980s and became the most apparent in 2000. In the past, there were around 40-odd textile factories in Hong Kong. Today, only two remain, i.e., Tai Hing Cotton Mill and Central Textiles’ spinning factory. Nowadays, it is very difficult to run a weaving factory and many Hong Kong operations have relocated to cheaper places such as Africa, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Textile companies who fail to stand out in the competitive market were either closed down or shifted to other businesses.
