The founding of Forward Winsome Industries Ltd and shares distribution

After Lam Leung left Advance Plastics and returned to Wing Sun Plastics, he was disillusioned with the job prospect. Eager to excel himself, he started Fuk Wo Products and B Alice Doll Fashions Limited. The owner of Wing Sun Plastics, Mr Yeung, did not object to Lam's adventures, so Lam was able to take orders for the three companies. In 1960, Yeung suggested to merge the three companies. Lam agreed to the merger of Fuk Wo and Wing Sun, but left Alice Doll Fashions Limited independent. Forward Winsome Industries was established after the merger, with Yeung and Lam each held half of the new company, with an initial capital of HK$250,000 each. Unfortunately Winsom soon faced problems with unfair distribution of dividends and clients' discontents with the merger. Lam had no choice but to raise capital to buy out Yeung's shares of the company.
Initially Lam did not have the necessary funds for the buy out. A friend of his learned about it, and encouraged Lam to purchase the shares with a cheque of HK$250,000. The money was given with three conditions: no receipt, no interest and no repayment schedule. This friend earned his fortune with business leads from Lam, thus he was repaying the favor. Lam was not sure whether to accept the cheque or not. One of Lam's clients in New York heard about this, and suggested to place orders with deposit so Lam could get credit from banks. Three other merchants at this time also agreed to do the same. With these business supports, Lam took to HSBC and the bank agreed to Lam's purchase of shares. Lam finally agreed to accept his friend's cheque and bought out Yeung's holdings of the company, with a small amount of cash as running capital.

Interviewee
Company Forward Winsome Industries Limited
Date
Subject Industry
Duration 15m1s
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-004
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