Company Name: Yick Sun Knitting Company

Year of Founding: 2000

Mainstream Products: Knitting

Brief History:

Yick Sun Knitting Company was founded by Au Kwan Cheung in 2000s. Located in Wing Hong Street, Lai Chi Kok, the factory was of small-scale and was mainly responsible for producing grey cloth for local garment factories. Yick Sun Knitting Company was formerly known as “Tai Hing Knitting Company” and was founded by Au Kwan Cheung and his partner in 1969. Au Kwan Cheung started as a qualified knitting worker and specialized in manufacturing and technical knowhow. His partner had worked as a sales representative for a company importing chemical fibres, and became responsible for raw materials and sales. Tai Hing used the newest knitting machines which utilized cotton yarn, chemical fibres and blended cotton at the same time. Tai Hing’s factory was first established in factory buildings in Tai Kok Tsui and occupied an area of 1,000 square feet.

In 1973/1974, Tai Hing was relocated to Yee Tak Factory Building in Cheung Sha Wan. Located on the fifth floor, it had expanded to 2,000-3,000 square feet. Two to three years after the relocation, Au Kwan Cheung terminated the partnership and became the sole proprietor. A few years later, he rented the 3,000 square feet unit next door and the whole factory expanded to over 5,000 square feet. He also received some abandoned machines from a closed clothing factory.

1980s to 1997 was the golden age of Tai Hing. The knitting company supplied their products to local clothing factories. Among them 60% were used for producing garments to be exported to Europe and America while the other 40% were for garments for local retail. The knitwear sector in Hong Kong flourished at the beginning of the 1990s. Au Kwan Cheung took reference from magazines from overseas and obtained knowledge about the trends of the types of fabrics. He then developed elastic fabrics and brought them to a dyeing factory and dyed some himself. He sold them to the garment factories selling fashion in Cheung Sha Wan. With more local garment and dyeing factories relocating to the north, the business environment for local, small-scale knitting companies were getting increasingly difficult.

In the 1990s, Au Kwan Cheung established factories in Zhong Shan and Fo Shan in China but both turned out to be vain attempts. In the 2000s, Tai Hing restructured into Yick Sun Knitting and their sales wilted. The factory shrunk to just over 1,000 square feet and the business gradually shifted to trading. After receiving purchase orders from customers, Au Kwan Chueng contacted raw materials suppliers, clothing factories and dyeing factories and arranged cotton to be shipped to the mainland factories for knitting and dyeing, and then transported the end product back to the customers in Hong Kong for export. For these he could earn meager income as an intermediary.