Strengthening their partnership, Coffee retailer Starbucks India is helping lift international exposure for India’s Tata Group brands.
Starbucks is introducing Tata’s single-origin coffee in the US and its mineral water in Singapore, and helping develop a signature Indian tea blend. In return, Tata group is introducing Starbucks coffee on Vistara flights and launching its specialty tea brand Teavana in India.
Starbucks will sell single-origin, premium coffee from India at its Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle, says chairman/CEO Howard Schultz said after meeting Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry at the iconic store. Starbucks will be opening a similar outlet in Shanghai next year.
Tata-Starbucks will also introduce Kenyan and Sumatran coffees at Starbucks stores across India, says the company, and Starbucks coffee will be available on Vistara, a full-service airline, later this year. Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, and has more than 457 flights weekly to 17 destinations.
Following the success of the tea category in its US stores, Starbucks will extend its Teavana specialty tea brand to India in December. The joint venture is also collaborating on the development of a signature Indian tea blend for Starbucks stores in India.
India has become Starbucks’ fastest-growing market since the first cafe opened in 2012 in a partnership with Tata Global Beverages. The chain has expanded to 84 locations across six cities.
The company’s China and Asia-Pacific unit generates about 13 per cent of its total revenue, and Starbucks plans to open about 900 outlets in the region this fiscal year, compared with 700 store additions in the Americas and 200 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It has more than 2000 cafes in China alone and plans about 500 new stores a year in the country.
Starbucks also plans to expand the availability of Himalayan Mineral Water, bottled by Tata Global Beverages, beyond Starbucks stores in India to Singapore this year. It is also exploring opportunities to introduce the brand to stores across Starbucks China and Asia-Pacific region.
Tesco Thailand aims to double its online shopping sales annually for the next three to five years.
Local digital and online business director for the UK-owned Tesco Lotus business, Wanna Swuddigul, told The Nation newspaper Thai shoppers are looking for instant access to product information and to be able to buy while they browse. The company’s eCommerce site is especially popular in Bangkok and larger Thai regional cities. More than three in four shoppers are female.
“The largest age groups are 25-44 years old. Most online customers are mid- to up-market customers,”Swuddigul said.
“As demand tends to come from customers living in urban areas, Tesco Lotus has recently introduced a new delivery service at lockers located at 48 condominiums along the BTS and MRT lines, in prime residential neighbourhoods such as Sukhumvit, Sathorn, Ratchada, Phayathai and Phaholyothin,” she said.
Tesco Lotus launched an online store in 2012, claiming to be the first major Thai retailer to do so.
Besides its own store, Tesco Lotus offers more than 9000 items on the Lazada online mall.
Tesco Lotus uses big data to carefully monitor changing customer preferences for products and service expectations so as to constantly update the range online.
“By constantly listening to what our customers want and need, we innovate services and solutions that address their pain points,” she told The Nation.
“We aim at least to double the growth of our online sales and order numbers every year, as we have done since the launch of our online business in 2012.”
The best-selling categories online are cold beverages, household chemicals and cooking needs, such as seasonings.
Disney Springs, at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, will be the location for the latest store for Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo US.
Opening next month, the first Uniqlo store in the US southeast will occupy 25,000 sqft (2300 sqm) across two sales floors. It will showcase the brand’s full assortment of LifeWear as well as items incorporating its Japanese heritage plus special Disney-inspired products.
“We hope to make every day at our store feel like opening day for our customers,” says Uniqlo US CEO Hiroshi Taki.
There will be Japanese-inspired daily giveaways, as well as in-store events each week and month like Taiko drummers and a Japanese-style game show.
Uniqlo continues its link with Disney, which started in May last year with its global launch of a line featuring Mickey Mouse as a professional tennis player and golfer. The same month, the store launched Disney’s new Tsum Tsum concept plush toys.
In July, Uniqlo announced “friendship in Disney Pixar movies” as the theme for its annual UT (Uniqlo T-shirt) Grand Prix 2016 design contest.
The following month Uniqlo launched the “Magic for All” global initiative with Disney Consumer Products, adding Marvel action and Star Wars themes to its LifeWear fashions.
In September, Uniqlo opened a Magic for All store on the fifth floor of its Shanghai global flagship store, the largest in the world, and in April the Magic for All line was installed on the 12th floor of the Uniqlo Ginza Global Flagship Store in Tokyo. It will be there until the end of next month.
A brand of Fast Retailing, Uniqlo has 43 stores in the US, including Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle, and its online store.
Hong Kong-listed lingerie brand Cosmo Lady says it will venture into overseas markets to seek global business partners.
The first Chinese underwear brand to go public, two years ago when it launched on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Cosmo Lady is seen in China as “the Oriental version of Victoria’s Secret”.
In 2015, Cosmo Lady ranked number one in the overall China’s intimate wear market with a market share of 3.3 per cent and total revenue increased by 23.6 per cent to about RMB 4.95 billion. Cosmo Lady Group primarily focuses on the design, research, development and sales of its own branded intimate wear products including bras, underpants, loungewear, thermal clothes, hosiery and other items. While China’s underwear market been growing by 10 per cent year-on-year over the last few years, the company believes there are also big opportunities to expand offshore.
Cosmo Lady opened 1032 retail stores 2015 and its distribution network now comprises 8050 retail stores in more than 330 cities.
“Cosmo Lady will continue its progressive expansion strategy of retail network in five major types of locations, including commercial streets, residential neighborhoods, transportation hubs, school zones and supermarkets and its high-end retail network in malls, department stores and shopping centers,” the company said in a statement.
Chairman and CEO Zheng Yaonan said the company will progressively expand in locations with not only the lower market share but also high growth potential, and continue to explore the industrial external growth opportunities.
“At the same time, Cosmo Lady will also be committed to improve core competitiveness and outperform their competitors through a series of initiatives such as the expansion into overseas markets and the collaboration with other well-known underwear brands, which will the company’s long-term strategic plan.”
This year, Cosmo Lady secured the rights to use Walt Disney characters on several specially-designed underwear lines.
The brand launched its latest range last April, reaching more than 200 million people through live broadcasts on social media platforms such as Weibo and WeChat.
“It is the company’s ambition that in the future Cosmo Lady will hold an Oriental version of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show in the US.”
India’s Bharti Airtel has adopted Cloudera Enterprise as part of efforts to build a 360-degree view of its customers in India.
The deployment aims to help the operator better leverage customer data to execute successful omni-channel campaigns and influence buyers in India’s highly competitive market.
Airtel’s product offerings in India include wireless and fixed services, mobile commerce, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, and national and international long distance services to carriers.
With over 265 million customers across its India operations, Airtel needs to make sense of and leverage the huge volumes of customer and network data it collects on a daily basis from its multiple channels, which was previously stored in multiple traditional systems built over a period of time.
With Cloudera Enterprise now at the core of Airtel’s information architecture, the massive volumes of data are in a centralized location, and available to all business users and groups.
“As part of our digital journey at Airtel, our main focus is on providing the best customer experience with our new business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform, powered by Cloudera,” Airtel group CEIO Harmeen Mehta said.
“Now, we are able to gain an even greater technical edge, empowering our marketers with intelligent data and analytics to make better decisions and improve the entire customer lifecycle with customized offerings.”
Trend Micro Incorporated has announced an agreement with NXP Semiconductorsto join forces for a virtualized Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE) project on NXP’s ARM-based NFV platform.
“With the introduction of NFV, security is no longer limited to on-premise networks, bringing new opportunities to telecom carriers and providers for service delivery,” said Dr. Terence Liu, vice president, Network Threat Defense Technology Group, Trend Micro.
“For more than 27 years, we have been committed to protecting our customers, and as technology evolves, we continuously innovate and develop solutions for next-generation networks such as NFV.”
Trend Micro’s DPI technology provides network security and management functions, such as virtual patching, parental control and quality of services (QoS), and has been widely adopted in a variety of products, from home routers to enterprise-facing Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW).
This vCPE integration is optimized for NXP’s QorIQ LS2085A processor in order to provide better performance for carrier-grade NFV environment.
“NFV requires a scalable, open platform to deliver security throughout the network,” said Noy Kucuk, Vice President of Product Management for NXP’s Digital Networking business.
“Integrating security acceleration and standard ARM CPUs, NXP’s QorIQ LS series of ARM-based processors lay the ideal foundation for NFV infrastructure. We’re pleased to collaborate with Trend Micro as service providers prepare large-scale vCPE deployments later this year.”
The Indian telecoms services market is on track to pass the $100 billion mark by 2020, maintaining its status as one of the fastest growing markets in the world, a new report predicts.
Market Research Store forecasts that the market will grow at a CAGR of 10.3% for the period between 2015 and 2020 to reach $103.9 billion.
Wireless services will grow at a 9.3% CAGR over the same period to reach $39.02 billion, with 4G services achieving a CAGR of a strong 26.6%.
According to the report, increasing network coverage and shrinking tariff rates due to heavy competition have served as the main drivers of the market in recent years. Due to these factors the market has grown exponentially to emerge as the second largest market in the world.
Bharti Airtel leads the Indian wireless market, followed by Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications. Reliance Jio Infocomm is meanwhile expected to have a disruptive impact on the market when it fully launches pan-India 4G services.
The banking, financial services and IT enabled service industries are helping to drive demand for telecoms services as they seek to engage more with customers through mobile applications, the report states. Oil and gas is meanwhile emerging as another key industry segment.
Generali Life Assurance is forging ahead with plans to tap the country’s growing middle class in what until now has been an under-explored market for wealth management products generally, and especially insurance solutions.
With most high net worth (HNW) investors preferring to park money in US dollar or Euro-denominated products, wealth management may seem to be a non-starter in the Thai economy.
But being largely unexplored, Thailand, where the country’s financial system had been fortified and the local business sectors gained much more sustainable strengths after the infamous Asian meltdown of the 1980s, offers attractive opportunities for wealth managers, say local players.
According to Bundit Jiamanukoonkit, country manager and chief executive officer, Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc, the country is witnessing traction in the demand for local products – both in the asset management and insurance segments.
And although the demand for traditional insurance products currently dominates the sector, a growing middle class is helping the market for wealth management-type solutions get bigger.
“I think it’s under-explored,” says Jiamanukoonkit, commenting on the growth opportunity for wealth management in Thailand.
He adds that over the last 10 years, with an increasing number of Thais turning “middle upper class”, the wealth management sector has started coming of age as well.
Competing
The motivating factors, according to Generali, are the same as elsewhere in the region, in terms of children’s education, retirement planning and ensuring social security.
“People want to have available funds to meet their medical needs, and for some in the affluent segment, even planning succession and passing on wealth,” explains Samdarshi Sumit, chief retail officer, Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
And according to Jiamanukoonkit, an interesting feature of the competitive landscape in Thailand is that there is no-one who really dominates the HNW market for life insurance.
New channels
Consequently, Generali – with its rich experience dealing with all type of customers including HNW individuals in Europe – has crafted an exclusive tie-up in Thailand with the Kiatnakin Phatra financial group, a local banking group and a significant wealth management player.
This opens up access to a huge client-base with products that clients want.
“We have a complete range of products which are focused on all the segments, including endowment, annuity, whole life protection, accident and health [policies], and everything which is needed by all the segments including the affluent,” says Sumit.
Jiamanukoonkit adds that despite the growing demand for wealth management and insurance products, there remains a need to educate investors.
For instance, the HNW clients think they have more than enough and insurance is not a necessity, he explains.
Months after its debut, Generali with KK Priority’s first HNW insurance solution “CHRONOS” – the 24/7 solution providing worldwide experience that makes life of HNW customers much easier and more fulfilled – has proven the market opportunity that’s worth to pursuit, he adds.
“We want to seek for more understanding among Thai HNW [individuals] and also get closer [to them],” he says.
Still, Jiamanukoonkit’s priority is to scale up, and to be the “number-one choice retail insurer”.
And, however lofty that may sound, he also believes that the goal is not far-fetched.
“As there is no strong established player in the segment, we can do something great and acquire this group of customers and earn their trust,” he says.
His other objectives include offering “better service and a premium brand at a reasonable price”.
New experiences
Generali has also identified ‘going digital’ as an area of significant importance.
“This is especially in the direct marketing business where we have a significant portion of our premium coming from,” says Sumit.
In line with this, Generali has already created a digital platform called Generali 365. This allows its clients to avail of a range of services, from transaction experience to online generation of tax certificates.
“Generali 365 can be downloaded to a mobile and customers can see new offers and new products, as well as get special privileges offers that fulfil their lifestyles on food or hotels, and everything is there within a single application,” explains Sumit.
But being largely unexplored, Thailand, where the country’s financial system had been fortified and the local business sectors gained much more sustainable strengths after the infamous Asian meltdown of the 1980s, offers attractive opportunities for wealth managers, say local players.
Bundit Jiamanukoonkit
And although the demand for traditional insurance products currently dominates the sector, a growing middle class is helping the market for wealth management-type solutions get bigger.
“I think it’s under-explored,” says Jiamanukoonkit, commenting on the growth opportunity for wealth management in Thailand.
He adds that over the last 10 years, with an increasing number of Thais turning “middle upper class”, the wealth management sector has started coming of age as well.
Competing
The motivating factors, according to Generali, are the same as elsewhere in the region, in terms of children’s education, retirement planning and ensuring social security.
And according to Jiamanukoonkit, an interesting feature of the competitive landscape in Thailand is that there is no-one who really dominates the HNW market for life insurance.
New channels
Consequently, Generali – with its rich experience dealing with all type of customers including HNW individuals in Europe – has crafted an exclusive tie-up in Thailand with the Kiatnakin Phatra financial group, a local banking group and a significant wealth management player.
This opens up access to a huge client-base with products that clients want.
“We have a complete range of products which are focused on all the segments, including endowment, annuity, whole life protection, accident and health [policies], and everything which is needed by all the segments including the affluent,” says Sumit.
Jiamanukoonkit adds that despite the growing demand for wealth management and insurance products, there remains a need to educate investors.
For instance, the HNW clients think they have more than enough and insurance is not a necessity, he explains.
Months after its debut, Generali with KK Priority’s first HNW insurance solution “CHRONOS” – the 24/7 solution providing worldwide experience that makes life of HNW customers much easier and more fulfilled – has proven the market opportunity that’s worth to pursuit, he adds.
“We want to seek for more understanding among Thai HNW [individuals] and also get closer [to them],” he says.
Still, Jiamanukoonkit’s priority is to scale up, and to be the “number-one choice retail insurer”.
And, however lofty that may sound, he also believes that the goal is not far-fetched.
“As there is no strong established player in the segment, we can do something great and acquire this group of customers and earn their trust,” he says.
His other objectives include offering “better service and a premium brand at a reasonable price”.
New experiences
Generali has also identified ‘going digital’ as an area of significant importance.
“This is especially in the direct marketing business where we have a significant portion of our premium coming from,” says Sumit.
In line with this, Generali has already created a digital platform called Generali 365. This allows its clients to avail of a range of services, from transaction experience to online generation of tax certificates.
“Generali 365 can be downloaded to a mobile and customers can see new offers and new products, as well as get special privileges offers that fulfil their lifestyles on food or hotels, and everything is there within a single application,” explains Sumit.
Cross-border e-commerce in China will hit $85.76 billion this year, up from $57.13 billion in 2015, as 40 percent of China’s online consumers buy foreign goods, according to a new analysis by digital marketing researcher eMarketer.
EMarketer estimates that each of China’s digital shoppers this year will spend an average of $473.26 on foreign goods, up from $446.33 last year. By 2020, half of China’s digital shoppers–or more than a quarter of the country’s population of about 1.4 billion–will be buying foreign products online, eMarketer estimates, with total sales of $157.7 billion.
This growth is part of an overall increase in online shopping in China, which soared more than 70 percent in 2015 to $672.01 billion driven in part by a higher standard of living and the advent of global digital sales platforms such as Alibaba’s Tmall Global, launched in 2014.
Cross-Border Retail E-Commerce Buyers in China
Tmall Global and other business-to-consumer, or B2C, platforms allow international brands to sell their products directly to China’s digital shoppers and break into the market. Online retail remains the easiest channel for all types of consumers to obtain products that are otherwise difficult or expensive to access within China. China’s consumers tend to prefer foreign goods in specific categories such as milk powder, diapers and pet food, perceiving them to be of higher quality and more trustworthy.
Cross-border e-commerce remains on the rise despite April’s implementation of a new tax on overseas purchases, noted eMarketer analyst Shelleen Shum. While it increases prices slightly for some product categories such as jewelry and infant formula, “the demand for foreign goods via the cross-border e-commerce channel is still expected to remain strong due to better prices compared to offline retailers, perceived quality and better variety,” she said.
Shum added that B2C channels are also integral to the growth of foreign goods sales in China, because they help customers feel they are getting more bang for their buck. B2C platform sales are expected to take up a growing share of the cross-border e-commerce market in 2016 as consumers shift to channels they regard as more professional and organized. “Since the merchants selling on these B2C platforms have to be authorized, they are considered more trustworthy,” noted Shum.
Globally, cross-border e-commerce habits vary. But when it comes to China, the demand for foreign products is surging, thanks to the combination of overseas travel, increased internet usage, exposure to foreign brands and convenience of online retail. China is projected to become the largest cross-border B2C market by 2020.
Hong Kong-based electronic payment processing service company ePayWeb Asia has agreed to acquire 10% stake in the planned Allied Wallet (AW) Virtual Mall.
As per the deal, ePayWeb agreed to invest $100m in exchange for a 10% stake in the company.
The AW Virtual Mall is an online shopping experience which is expected to have over 3 million independent stores and over 1 billion shoppers per day in the next 48 months.
In addition to creating a new experience for online shoppers, the new online shopping mall will allow consumers to find required items available at the best prices by taking a picture of it.
Claimed to be the first of its kind, the AW Virtual Mall will enable users to find a product they are looking for, by uploading a photo of the item.
The AW Virtual Mall users can then select the best price, which is quoted by the store owners, and checkout safely and securely.
Allied Wallet founder and CEO Andy Khawaja boldly said: “E-commerce is projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2019 and we’re on track to provide the most state-of-the-art shopping experience in the industry – like nothing anyone has ever seen.”
AW Virtual Mall said that the website provides complete social media experience for users to personalize their profile, communicate, and share.
Allied Wallet is a provider of e-commerce merchant services and online payment processing services.
GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd held its Bubur Lambuk Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme at Giant Hypermarket Petra Jaya here yesterday.
Themed ‘Ceria Ramadan bersama Giant & Adabi’, the event saw the presence of Assistant Minister for Early Childhood Education and Family Development Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali who distributed the popular must-have Ramadan dish to people from all walks of life at the mall.
GCH Retail general manager Johalias Fazili Fazi and senior manager (Government Relations) Mohd Shahrizal Ayub were also present.
In addition to preparing the ‘bubur lambuk’ and distributing them to the people, GCH Retail also donated RM5,000 to Kompleks Kebajikan Laila Taib.
About 30 children from Kompleks Kebajikan Laila Taib were accompanied by Hasidah on a shopping spree at the hypermarket mall during the event.
Now in its fourth year, the annual programme was first introduced in 2013 and have since received great response from the people nationwide.
GCH Retail Malaysia & Brunei regional director Dato Tim Ashdown in a statement said Giant was honoured to once again organise the programme for a charitable cause as well as to foster closer ties among GCH Retail and the people especially the needy.
“We will continue this commitment of ours to hold this charitable effort in the future.”
This year, visitors of Giant Hypermarket will be able to receive their complimentary bowls of ‘bubur lambuk’ from noon onwards at selected Giant Hypermarkets in seven locations nationwide.
The globally renowned jewellery retail chain expanded its presence in the Malaysia by opening its second showroom, located in Lulu Hypermarket, Capsquare Mall, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur.This is as part of their mega expansion plan for this financial year as committed rapid expansion across. The Showroom was inaugurated by Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor wife of YAB Dato' Sri Mohd. Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Hon. Prime Minister of Malaysia in the presence of Mr. John Paul Alukkas, Executive Director, Joyalukkas Group, many local dignitaries and VIP’s.
Joyalukkas’s first foray into Malaysia was in 2014, with the opening of the biggest jewellery showroom in the country at the heart of Kuala Lumpur at Jalan Masjid India.
“When we first arrived in Malaysia, the response from the public was simply overwhelming. We set out to offer the best jewellery shopping experience to the residents and they have rewarded us over and over again with their eager patronage,” says Mr. Joy Alukkas, Chairman & MD, Joyalukkas Group.
“We are very grateful to the wonderful people of Malaysia and look forward to delivering more choices, better value and an even higher standard of customer service at our second showroom,” said Mr. John Paul Alukkas, Executive Director, Joyalukkas Group.
Joyalukkas opened at the Lulu Hypermarket and Department Store, Capsquare, Kuala Lumpur in time for the Mega Winnings campaign, where customers get the chance to win four diamond necklaces and up to 2 KG gold till 14 August 2016.
Joyalukkas opened at the Lulu Hypermarket and Department Store, Capsquare, Kuala Lumpur in time for the Mega Winnings campaign, where customers get the chance to win four diamond necklaces and up to 2 KG gold till 14 August 2016.
Hong Kong clothing retailer Bauhaus International (Holdings) Ltd saw its annual net profit plummet by 59.1 per cent to HK$52.9 million (US$6.6 million) for its past fiscal year, due to the plunge in the company’s earnings from the Hong Kong and Macau markets.
According to its filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last Friday, the retailer’s total turnover posted a year-on-year decrease of 5 per cent to HK$1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, compared to some HK$1.59 billion one year ago.
“As a result of Mainland China’s uncertain economic prospects, instability of financial markets and the appreciation of the Hong Kong dollar against other Asian currencies (including the Renminbi), the consumer spending momentum obviously deteriorated during the year under review and resulted in highly volatile and discount-driven retail dynamics,” it claimed.
For the financial year, the clothing seller generated some HK$1.03 billion from its sales in Hong Kong and Macau, which represents a year-on-year decrease of 8.8 per cent compared to HK1.13 billion one year ago.
In addition, the company claimed that a negative same-store-sales growth rate of some 9 per cent was recorded in the two cities.
The decreases in sales in the two cities led to a slump in the company’s profit before tax from the segment, down by 46.6 per cent year-on-year to HK$99.6 million.
As at the end of March, Bauhaus was operating 214 self-managed outlets, including 86 stores in Hong Kong and Macau, 94 in Taiwan and 34 in Mainland China, as well as 11 franchised outlets in the country.
The company’s turnover derived from the Mainland China market also registered a decline of 2.8 per cent year-on-year to HK$128.8 million, but turnover from Taiwan jumped by 9.2 per cent year-on-year to HK$342.2 million for the year, according to the filing.
The retailer proposed a final dividend of HK6.0 cents per ordinary share to its shareholders, which is down by 56 per cent year-on-year compared to HK$13.5 per cents for the 2014/15 financial year.
A look inside Alco Electronics Ltd.’s factory in China shows what it takes to succeed as a maker of gadgets for the rest of the world — human precision in tiny tasks and increasingly automated manufacturing, but also flexible thinking and perks to keep the best employees.
Chinese workers in blue coats and caps worked on a production line making tablets during The Associated Press’ recent visit to the 2.5 million-square-foot plant. Their tasks can be tedious, such as soldering a connecter onto a circuit board. Machines do things like inspect incoming circuit boards and tighten screws on tablets — automation that lowers costs and improves quality. A droning noise signals where tablets are undergoing testing for all functions for eight hours before they’re packaged. That’s critical to help reduce returns.
Sunroofs keep the production floor lit and reduce energy use
The company, which counts Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as one of its top five retail customers, gets about 60 percent of its sales from tablets and other computer products. Nearly 70 percent of its annual sales of about $330 million came from North America. It ships its products under the RCA and Venturer brands.
Alco, founded in 1968 to make AM/FM radios to export primarily to North America, has shifted with market demands. In 1980, it moved production from Hong Kong to China in search of cheaper labor. Due in part to automation and the changing labor market, it has about one-tenth of the employees it had at its peak of nearly 20,000 workers.
The company is now juggling customer demand for affordable but high-quality electronics as it wrestles with escalating labor pressures and other costs in China. David Leung, head of sales for North America, recently spoke with about what’s selling, the differences in the Chinese and U.S. markets, and what Alco needs to do to attract workers.
Q. So the tablet is hot.
A. In the U.S., Wi-Fi is everywhere. So any device with the Wi-Fi capability is very popular. Content owners are putting the apps onto the tablet so they can sell directly to the consumer. We work directly with Wal-Mart on Vudu (which distributes movies over the internet to TVs.) The tablet is like a vending machine for your home. In peak times, we can do 40,000 (tablets) a day that is if all 200 components arrive on the same day.
Q. What kind of worker are you hiring?
A. It is not a shoe factory or a garment factory. In general, we don’t need a skilled worker. We need a disciplined worker, a worker willing to learn.
Q. How are you trying to attract workers given the labor shortage?
A. Wages alone is not the biggest incentive. It’s wages plus perks. We provide classes for them to learn in their free time. Many workers like to learn Cantonese and English as well. We also have karate classes, cooking classes. We have hired table tennis, basketball and yoga teachers to better their skills. We also host tournaments for volleyball, basketball, table tennis and badminton in our Sport Centre. Since we are now making electric bicycles for Europe, we also have a cycling team.
Whatever the worker likes to do, we will try to find a teacher.
Q. Where do you sell your products other than the U.S. market?
A. Canada, Mexico. We ship to South America, Central America. And lately we’re making shipments to India.
Q. What about China?
A. At the moment, we do not do a lot of business in China. Our product is more geared for the overseas market. We are starting to do some China business. We (started) selling Window tablets in the China market using portals like JD.com. In China, the physical store is not a big thing. They all rely on the internet. So we need to do our product with different packaging that is more suitable for the internet. Many of the streaming portals are not available in China. Even YouTube is not available. Also, Google is not available in China so we have to redo all our software.
China is a very big country. We need to learn about the distribution channel in China. We’ve been doing export market selling to the United States for the past 30 years. So although our factory is in China, selling in China is a brand-new market for us.
Q. How is marketing products in China different from North America?
A. Online is No. 1 in China. China skipped all the shopping mall phenomenon and they jumped right into internet selling. So in order to sell to China, you have to find the right website. You have to really get into the social network to promote your product. It’s not the advertisements on TV that is the most important. It’s the advertisement through social networking that is key in the selling of your products.
NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational provider of information and communication technology products and services with headquarters in Tokyo.
The 117-year-old firm started operations in the Philippines some 20 years ago when the local subsidiary NEC Philippines was incorporated in January 11, 1996. Gervacio points out that the global firm has been in the country as far back as the 1960s through a Manila Representative Office. In July, it will be celebrating its 20th anniversary with a conference and exhibition in Manila.
A technology giant recognized for its cutting-edge innovation, NEC delivers IT and network solutions to business enterprises, government and individual customers in the form of software, hardware and related services. Through a combination of its advanced technologies in ICT, it is providing safety for the public and thereby helping to establish safer cities.
Under the strategy of “Solutions for Society,” NEC offers product solutions for biometric such as facial and fingerprint recognition technology. The use of it for security and authentication purposes has become increasingly common due to its accuracy and efficiency. An example of use is the e-passport system where it has been implemented in many countries around the world, including Southeast Asia.
The system incorporates NEC’s world-class biometric technology in facial and fingerprint recognition for secured identity protection and eradicates duplication. Ranked world No.1 by United States’ NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), NEC offers facial recognition and fingerprint technologies deployed in solutions such as NeoFace® Watch and NeoFace® Smart ID.
With terrorism and security threats being a growing concern in public areas and international borders, these solutions have helped law enforcement agencies and security organizations all over the world identify individuals and tighten security measures.
With cyber attacks on a rising trend in a borderless world, NEC’s powerful advanced cyber security solutions can protect organization’s IT and security systems from various cyber threats even before it occurs.
It recently opened its Cyber Security Factory in Singapore which complements NEC’s Security Operations Centers located in strategic parts of the world including Japan and Australia, with an aim to provide an inter-connected network to share intelligence on cyber threats and deliver 24/7 security to customers.
NEC is known mainly to electronic experts, but its platforms and solutions are everywhere from the sky above, on land, and deep in the bottom of the ocean waters.
Up in the sky, NEC satellites are orbiting the earth and their cloud solutions are a boon to computer and phone interface and exchange. The NEC radio systems are responsible to bounce signals to our cell phones.
On land, the Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) allows connection to a local number, while the Key Telephone System (KTS) enables multiple users control over multiple telephone lines without the requirement for an operator, system attendant or receptionist.NEC Point of Sales(POS) Solution can also be found at major retail stores nationwide.
NEC’s presence can also be found in the bottom of the seas because the company’s thousands of kilometer long cables are lying in the ocean depths, which are responsible for transporting through fiber optic the data and communication exchanges from one country to another.
