Chan Wah Cheung

Biography

Chan Wah Cheung was born in Hong Kong in the early 1950s to a family engaged in construction, transportation and other businesses. Chan Wah Cheung’s father passed away when he was 7. As family economic status got worse, Chan Wah Cheung dropped out of school after Form 2 to start working as an apprentice in a PVC products factory in 1964. While there, he learned how to operate a high frequency machine. Chan Wah Cheung started his own business in 1969 with a small capital of $3,000, founding Chit Shing P.V.C. Products Manufactory Limited (“Chit Shing”) in a Tai Kok Tsui residential unit producing document bags, stationery and wallets. Orders kept coming non-stop during Chit Shing’s first eight years. Despite it, during the same period the factory had a total loss of around $500,000 as he admittedly lacked knowledge of effective cost control and he made small marginal profit working for orders referred by trading firms. The company’s operating income was barely sufficient for Chan Wah Cheung to feed his family. From 1978 onwards, Chit Shing adopted an OEM production mode and specialised in handling orders for overseas customers producing products with popular cartoon icons. From this point on, the company began making profits and both its workforce and factory plant continued to expand. In 1985, Chit Shing set up a factory in Shenzhen’s Luohu District processing supplied materials (“PSM”) from customers, mostly Japanese. From 1989, PVC bags became the company’s main products. Chit Shing even created its own trademark “Panda” in the 1990s but this line eventually ceased due to poor sales performance. Chit Shing moved its Shenzhen factory to Dongguan in 1995 where it adopted one-stop production. In 2004, the company was re-organized into a non-profit-making social enterprise which contributes all of its profits for charity purposes.