Golden News

Volume 14 No 27 9th January, 2001   

The Weekly Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile
www.rckgm.org 

JANUARY IS ROTARY AWARENESS MONTH

Last Meeting

Visiting Rotarian                    Classification                From

Rtn John Northcroft                Finance               Falmouth, Cornwall, UK

Rtn Harry Ahluwala                 Sports Dealer      Peninsula, Kowloon

Guest                             of Rtn                              From   

Ben Pasco                       PP Brian                            Hong Kong

Nallen Ting                    Rtn David                          Hong Kong

We sat down to dine at 1.10 p.m. and President Cassidy called the meeting to order at 1.19 p.m. followed shortly by sorely needed Happy Birthday choir practice. We may be the best Rotary Club in Asia (hrm!!) but we still cannot sing, collective(welcome)ly anyway! The Sergeant at Arms having spent a lazy holiday with family in Germany eating stuffed duck and all sorts of other forbidden calorie laden carbohydrates, decided to be lenient to us, lenient as in Germany ofcourse (We haf ways...). The fine was HK$20 per pound of increased weight during the holidays and no refunds for those who had lost weight, if such a rare circumstance might prevail.

PP Cassidy then gave notice of the change in the next Board meeting, which has been officially communicated elsewhere; "..so why talk put it here?", I hear you say. Good point. 

Rotn (eye'n dry) Carola then introduced the speaker, just one week after (re/in)duction, Rotarian, Skipper, Susie Misini, a fitness instructor and trainer and director of the New York Fitness Centre in Hollywood Road. Not too far away there is another institution, with similar attributes. We haf ways to mak/ oops help people chan// oops to help people make changes in their lives, both mentally and physically. Susie told us about the various types of clients both corporate (?) and individual, their needs and how to go about manipu// manacl// oops motivating and facilitating their goals and potential; the translation of business into personal goals and how to avoid pain and move towards pleasure. Sounds good to me.

Susie showed great commitment to her profession, that is, leading people and her business to great health; had obviously earned the right to talk about it; was excited about it and was demonstrably eager to communicate this to others. Phew! where did we hear about those 3E's before.

There was obviously great interest in the subject as there followed a lengthy session of questions ranging from eating supplements to Susie's boxing habits. I think it was Rtn Balu who gave the vote of thanks, but I might be wrong.

The meeting finished with a toast to Rotary the world over coupled with a toast to the Rotary District of the United Kingdom.

On Vocation! With Miranda Kong - Classification Manufacturing - Garment Labels

Following is an article provided by Miranda which appeared in the November issue of Labels & Labelling International Magazine in its November/December 1998 issue. I tried to produce it as is, complete with pictures and newsprint appearance. Alas this takes up too many bytes and would upset many of our members and our web-master during its lengthy download time. So Urchin’s back at the typewriter again I’m afraid!

Clotex Labels in Hong Kong is aiming to offer a complete “One-Stop Shop” for both domestic and international garment label buyers.

                Alan Abrahams reports

Miranda Kong admits she had no formal training in the label business. She learned all she knows as she went along. And Clotex Labels was not a family firm she inherited. She built it up starting with just a single machine back in 1978. But today it is probably one of the largest label companies in Hong Kong and is unusual further in that the entire operation – from initial design through to final packaging of the finished product – is done within Hong Kong.

It takes in multi-coloured, woven, overdyed, printed, sew-in and self-adhesive labels. Actually the the entire process is within a single building. That’s unusual in a city where most of the manufacturing process is done north of the border.

The beginning was low-key. She started her career selling yarn to companies making woven labels. Later she shifted to selling for another company that made the labels. The trouble was, when she decided to start her own business, woven label machines were very expensive. Too expensive for her certainly. No problem, she bought a machine for printed labels instead. A Fasco. At that time the machine represented very new technology. “I’m always trying new things. But it was easy to handle," she points out. “That was unusual.” Another reason for buying such a state-of-the-art unit was that Miranda wanted the business to be outstanding and not easy for anyone else to compete with.

Within a year or two she had bought two new Vaupel machines and was back in the woven label business. “I think I was the first in Hong Kong to use computerised machines”, she says. “Actually, they were only semi-computerised, but in those days we called them computerised.” She still uses Vaupel’s. Muller units have been added too. Today she has 13 machines split between both brands. For the record she has also another 13 machines for printed labels, five for letterpress, the usual array of subsidiary equipment and employs about 60 staff.

Building the business was hard work. She was dealing only with local garment suppliers. “I was doing the usual things, she says, like cold calling. But over time that changed.” Garment manufacturers, anxious to protect their own good name with their clients started recommending her because they knew she could give the service the buyers demanded, and not embarrass the manufacturer. Buyers from the UK, especially now, form a large portion of her customer base, many being household names there, such as the Burton Group, Debenhams, Littlewoods and Makays.

Ten years ago she started a joint-venture with the UK-based Braitrim PLC, a company specialising in garment hanging. The idea was to meet the growing demand for integrated garment packaging supplies.

“The UK Market,” she says, “needs good quality and the labels are always complicated… a lot of information. We have the programmes that can handle that.”

“I’m always aiming to provide good service and good quality”, she says; and that insistence paid off. “Local manufacturers recommend me because they want to protect their own name”. That is how the bulk of the company’s new business is found these days. “We do exhibitions”, she says “They’re good for exposing our name but we rely on recommendations for the business.