Solvent was the the major cause of accident in paint industry. The Kwun Tong factory of China Paint Manufactory Company was located in an industrial building of 4 to 5 levels. The factory workshop had limited space for storing solvent. Therefore, the factory built five underground tanks to store the dangerous solvents. Solvents were pumped out from the tanks when they were need for production. Gilla Paints Work had a fire as it had stored a large quantity of chemical materials in its factory. Nitrocellulose, a solvent for paint production, had a low ignition point and so it easily caught fire. Nitrocellulose was the major cause of fire in paint factory. There was a minor fire in the Kwun Tong factory which was quickly put out by the staff. There were fires at the factory at Arran Street, Mongkok because the workers were careless in handling nitrocellulose. In 1991, the China Ministry of Defense had a serious nitrocellulose explosion. As a result, the Chinese government imposed stringent regulation upon the storage of nitrocellulose. The legal regulation of storing nitrocellulose was as stringent as that of explosive and blasting products.
There were not major explosive accidents in Hong Kong. It was because the paint factories in Hong Kong were designed and built under the Hong Kong building regulations. Architects had to comply with government regulations and find appropriate locations to store solvents. Therefore, most of the paint factories in Hong Kong had shared similar design.
Wong Wing Man also helped out Amoy’s stalls at the Hong Kong Products Expos (HKPE) held in Tsim Sha Tsui, taking charge of operating the machines for transporting cans and for launching flying saucers. Flying saucers were ejected once every half an hour and attracted big audiences. A few Expos were held in Tsim Sha Tsui in the 1950s and Wong Wing Man worked on Amoy’s stalls at around this time. Many people liked to buy Amoy’s soy sauce here and the company also gave away tens of thousands of small souvenir bottles free of charge each day. People also liked to buy canned dace with salted black beans and pig’s trotters with gingers. At that time, no other company in Hong Kong produced canned dace with salted black beans. In those years, Amoy was a very big name locally and its boss Huang Du Xiu had served as Chairman of the Chinese Manufacturers Association. As a result, he always demanded the staff manning Amoy’s stall do their very best.Leung Wai Ho’s failure to make a mark with North American watch buyers. With the issue of the UK’s 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China still to be resolved, 1983 was a year of political instability for the Territory. Leung Wai Ho’s family emigrated to Montreal in Canada in 1984. As Montreal was close to New York, it was a convenient base from which to contact Dailywin’s US customers. The fact that the city was located in Canada’s French-speaking zone also helped Leung Wai Ho’s children learn French. Leung Wai Ho bought the SAGA brand in Canada and given it a Chinese name. From 1986, he focused on promoting the brand’s sales in Canada. As he could not oversee the business on the spot and North America’s vast population and landmass made advertising and marketing very expensive, the venture eventually came to an end. Leung Wai Ho retained his faith that Hong Kong was the ideal place for developing a retail business. Learning from his failure in North America, Dailywin began expanding its retail operations in mainland China with effect from 1992 onwards.
Developing China retailing on a consignment basis. In 1992, Leung Wai Ho accompanied a party from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to the mainland to promote retailing. While there, he secured sales space in Guangzhou’s Nan Fang Building which had roughly the same status as Hong Kong’s Shui Hing and Sincere department stores. Leung Wai Ho subsequently rented a shop in Guangzhou’s Shangxiajiu Road, opening a flagship store to promote SAGA watches. Having many years of production and sales experience, believing there was a huge potential market in China, and serving as Vice President of the CHA, Leung Wai Ho had every confidence he would be successful in applying for his sales quotas. As a result, he worked hard to promote his mainland retailing activities.
Dailywin’s 1995 listing on the London stock market. Dailywin spent a full year trying to raise funds to develop its domestic sales in China and listed itself on the London Stock Exchange in 1995. It subsequently used all funds raised to expand the Dongguan factory operation. In those days, the UK market had a lower listing threshold, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange did not welcome small companies capable of earning less than $50,000,000 within three years.
Dailywin began mainland retailing. Dailywin’s China domestic sales team began by focusing on consignments to shopping malls with all selling conducted through wholesalers. As Leung Wai Ho was not familiar with the mainland market and lacked experience in retailing, wholesalers often took the goods and defaulted on payment. This cost him considerably in terms of both goods and money. Between 1994 and the end of 1996, Leung Wai Ho lost a total of $50,000,000 in this way. After this failure, Dailywin was listed in Hong Kong in 1997 to raise funds for a comeback. From 1997 onwards, Leung Wai Ho directly managed the company’s mainland retail stores, using a “shop-in-shop” mode to open 25 shops in big cities across China. Leung Wai Ho was well aware that as a manufacturer he lacked retailing experience, and therefore hired full-time sales managers to run the shops. One of the managers he employed had previously worked in Giordano. Leung Wai Ho rented spaces of 20 to 40 square metres in each large shopping mall. He also co-operated with foreign brands such as Timex, Casio, Disney, Elle and Esprit to market lifestyle watch brands. Labelled Time Zones, these retail corners collected and analysed sales information on a daily basis. Leung Wai Ho admitted that the Guangzhou flagship store was not suitable for selling brand watches and that he had chosen the wrong location.
The difficulty of building successful own brands. Leung Wai Ho bought into the idea of creating Dailywin’s own brand, agreeing that retail profits were much higher than manufacturing equivalents. However, only producers who lived within their financial means could hope to succeed in such a market. At this time, Leung Wai Ho is no longer willing to take risks as he grew content with earning smaller profits. He continued to believe that brand building is a long-term enterprise involving huge investment capital and with returns only likely to come some 50-60 years later. As success required some understanding of retailing, a novice’s chances of success are ultimately not high. Leung Wai Ho cited Baleno and Jeanswest as enterprises which had successfully developed retail arms. In recent years, Dailywin sold its retail business to Peacemark. Apart from keeping the SAGA brand, the company’s remaining brands’ license and staff were all transferred in this move.
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