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Chan Kwok Man
Chan Kwok Man
Founder, German Pool Group Company Limited
Sex: Male Birthyear: 1950 Age at Interview: 63 Education: Upper Secondary Occupation: Industrialist Theme: Industry, Community Chan Kwok Man entered the electrical appliances industry in 1972 and started selling appliances in a small-scale family business three years later. Chan Kwok Man describes Hong Kong in the 1970s as not yet being fully part of the electronics era. As a result, electrical appliances used by the average household tended to be nothing more than a washing machine, a refrigerator and a colour TV. Chan Kwok Man and his partners believed that Hong Kong would sooner or later become a fully ‘switched on’ city and so conceived the idea of starting their own business to sell appliances. In doing so, they began to look for a product that could be cost-effectively manufactured to high quality. This process involved understanding the usefulness and practicality of individual electrical appliances and the popularity and quality of the raw materials needed to produce them. As a result, they were confident that water heaters would be indispensable in the future development of Hong Kong. They spotted a gap in the market for electric water heaters.
Title Entering the industry to produce electric water heaters Date 31/05/2013 Subject Industry Duration 2m6s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Chan Kwok Man Accession No. TKW-CKM-HLT-001 In 1975 Chan Kwok Man joined forces with several partners to set up an electric water heater factory in Chi Kiang Street. They subsequently moved their factory to the rooftop of an industrial building on the same street. The company found its plant via street bills. As the rooftops tended to be cheaper to rent than lower floors, the partners decided to use the roof as a factory. The new plant was only six street numbers away from the company’s previous plant! The front end of Chi Kiang Street back then was largely full of residential buildings, while the back end near Hoi Sham Temple mainly consisted of factory buildings which have now been converted into office towers. Space was the biggest difference between the new and old plants. Located in the light well of a residential home, the old factory had a smaller area. Not only was production volume very low, the old site had difficulties in serving as a warehouse. As it was located on the rooftop of a factory building, the new plant had more space and thus handling raw materials and large-scale production was easier and more efficient. Although their plant had relocated, the company’s operation had not left To Kwa Wan. Chan Kwok Man and several of his partners had been accustomed to working in To Kwa Wan which was close by to where the partners lived and found it very convenient.
Title Setting up factories in light well and rooftop in an old district Date 31/05/2013 Subject Industry| Community Duration 1m53s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Chan Kwok Man Accession No. TKW-CKM-HLT-002 In 1975, Chan Kwok Man joined forces with four partners and co-founded a company that produced electric water heaters. Covering an area of less than 1,000 square feet, the plant accommodated the paint baking room and machinery for assembling the heater’s top and bottom covers. Back then, Chan Kwok Man and his friends used to outsource main production processes such as material preparation, metal cutting and pressing because these processes required the use of large machines. The sub-contractors involved in these processes were mostly family-run mould factories located nearby. In those days, many small factories in To Kwa Wan operated out of the back of grocery stores, with a few large machines placed around their ‘plants’. Each of these processes was handled by different factories.
Title Outsourcing main production processes after he founded his own factory Date 31/05/2013 Subject Industry Duration 2m20s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Chan Kwok Man Accession No. TKW-CKM-HLT-003 Chan Kwok Man began his career as an entrepreneur by managing a family style factory. Immediately after setting up the family-style factory, Chan Kwok Man had to take on a lot of work, including looking for buyers, delivering goods, and supervising his workers. As he was still young at that time, he found it easy to handle the extra responsibilities. He even loaned a hand on the production line to get orders out on time himself. He still displays a scar from where he accidentally cut his finger on a drill bit during one of these hectic sessions. Chan Kwok Man stresses that back in the 1970s, entrepreneurs like himself were not afraid of hard work and were happy to muck in and do things themselves rather than rely on others. Strictly speaking, bosses in those days worked far harder than their employees. In those years, employees dared not ask for, and would not have, any special requests from their boss as they all knew well that he was as familiar with the production processes as they themselves were.
Title Handling all kind of task of his family style factory Date 31/05/2013 Subject Industry Duration 2m20s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Chan Kwok Man Accession No. TKW-CKM-HLT-004 When Chan Kwok Man later created his own brand, he knew that the area he needed to focus on most was the building up of a strong image. He knew that establishing a brand personality is a very long-term investment. When Chan Kwok Man founded German Pool in 1982, he provided each new customer with an unprecedented 10-year warranty in order to establish creditability. He continues to believe that optimal product quality must be maintained. Businesses that do shoddy work and use inferior materials in production will end up losing customers’ confidence in their products. Chan Kwok Man remains a believer in the fact that investment in branding takes time and a full range of publicity materials to establish and that related costs cannot be haggled about in the short-term. He continues to ‘put his money where his mouth is’ by advertising German Pool’s products on leading local TV stations.
Title Promotion strategies of German Pool Brand Date 31/05/2013 Subject Industry Duration 3m14s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Chan Kwok Man Accession No. TKW-CKM-HLT-005 Having firmly taken root in To Kwa Wan for over 30 years, Chan Kwok Man has no intention of moving. Although the office building’s close neighbours include some dilapidated-looking gas holders, Chan Kwok Man does not think that this downgrades German Pool’s image as customers’ confidence in the company's overall performance is far more important. The company’s current headquarters occupy a total of 12 shops, an area spacious and comfortable enough to receive and serve customers of all types. Further underlining the fact that office location does not affect others’ judgment, German Pool had also won all of the major brand awards available in Hong Kong. For Chan Kwok Man all that really matters are reasonably priced, top quality genuine goods.
Title An international brand is firmly taking root in To Kwa Wan Date 31/05/2013 Subject Community Duration 1m50s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Chan Kwok Man Accession No. TKW-CKM-HLT-006