What He Experienced at The Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo

Lam Leung’s factories, including Winsome Plastic Works, Advance Plastic Factory and Forward Products Co.. had participated in the Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo (HKBPE) for six to seven times during the times of Governor Alexander Grantham, Robert Black, and David Trench. Winsome was a producer of photo frames, lampshades and signs for the local Hong Kong market. They had a shop on 93 Hennessey Road. Winsome was the first of Lam’s factories to join the HKBPE. It was an opportunity to directly promote the factory to the public and businesses, and they were well received. Alice Doll and Forward, on the other hand, manufactured for the overseas markets. Lam explained that running a booth at HKBPE could boost company reputation and promote the company to foreign businesses in Hong Kong. At the same time, it was a good time to sell out a sizable volume of products. Forward used their female factory workers in the Miss Exhibition Pageant, and one of them had wun an award one year. Forward also advertised on Overseas Chinese Daily News. Lam stressed that the HKBPE was not only a chance for local sale, but also for marketing and connecting factories to exporters.
Lam introduced photos taken at the HKBPE: Governor Robert Black visiting Fowind’s booth, Winsome’s products in the 1950s, Group photo at Winsome’s booth, Group photo at Forward’s booth. Lam spent 20,000 to 30,000 dollars every year in designing and building his booth. Only a certain selection of products was sold in the exhibition. But that was enough for the company to break even. The HKBPE stipulated the size of each booth, so the participant factories all tried their best to design the booths in ways to attract visitors. Lam displayed different sorts of doll costumes and crystal balls at the booths. The dolls looked like Barbie, for a lot of Hong Kong factories copied foreign products in those days. It was not common for plastic factories to be present at HKBPE. One of the more outstanding exception was Red A. Toy factories did not take part actively either. Large factories with abundant capital, such as Red A, put up booths with eye-catching design, so did the major producers of vitreous enamel, torches and crystallised ginger. Lam’s booth was constructed by an interior design company. Usually, those companies would come to pitch their services after the factories registered for the HKBPE. The two parties would confer with each other to work out the booth design.

Interviewee
Company Forward Winsome Industries Limited
Date
Subject Industry
Duration 15m41s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Source Hong Kong Memory Project Oral History Interview
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-FW-SEG-009
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