Ace Style Apparel
- HKGCC Membership No. :
- HKA0252
Ace Style Apparel
No one knows exactly what will happen when global textile and apparel quotas start to be phased out on January 1, 2005. Concerns that China will dominate the market prompted the World Trade Organisation on October 1 to explore countries' worries to such a claim -- an unusual move for an organisation whose mission is dismantling trade barriers.
Andrew Sia, CEO of Ace Style Intimate Apparel, and Chairman of the Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries' Association, said that even before the WTO announcement, the industry was facing some problems with the U.S. which slapped a quota restraining mechanism on exporters. Companies were forced to observe the order if they wanted to continue doing business with the world's largest consumer market.
Fears that China will take over the textile and apparel market beginning next year are being driven partly by fear of the unknown, sensationalism, and propaganda, the textile veteran says.
"I recently had a meeting with China's Department of Foreign Trade, and they told me that China currently supplies about 20 percent of the world's apparel market. That means China will have to increase production by 80 percent if it were to dominate the world market," he said. "This is just unrealistic: Where do you get all the cotton from? Where do you get the workers from? Where is the infrastructure to handle such a huge increase? And don't forget, with a third of the world's population, China still has to clothe its own citizens."
In fact, he sees China more of an opportunity than threat.
"All we have to do is to have the right designs, quality, products and the right plans to sell in China. This is why I am now focusing on building brands in this part of the world because there is huge demand in China already," he says.
Although Ace Style Apparel produces around 30 million garments annually for some of the world's biggest names in ladies' underwear, it began with much humbler origins. Mr Sia, together with his wife Mimi, started a small company manufacturing narrow elastic for underwear in the early 1970s. In 1976, they sold the business and started selling machinery that made the elastic, and two years later set up a small manufacturing facility to produce bra cups.
In 1985, the couple decided to enter the garment business after international buyers coming to Hong Kong to source lingerie were struggling to find the products and quality that they wanted.
"It all began in a small factory in Taikoktsui, Kowloon, with 60 workers," Mr Sia explained. "Instead of starting out doing OEM (original equipment manufacturing) which was the tradition in the garment industry of Hong Kong, we began with designing instead. Today, my wife and I run 10 companies related to the business from textile production, to manufacturing to sales offices in London, New York and Milan."
The company employs a small army of engineers to keep its two factories in the Mainland, two in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong running. His creative designers work mainly in the company's London, New York and Milan offices, while the technical designers work in the factories making sure the creative designs can be produced.
He calls his designers special, rare, and valuable, and invests a lot of time and money nurturing and training them up. He has also pledged donations to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to establish a design institute for intimate apparel, and provides the environment for the students to come and work at his offices and factories to see how the industry operates.
"I think it is a very meaningful thing to do, and I will call upon others in the industry to provide places, training, and scholarships for these students, because I think the whole future of the industry, especially in the design area, is very exciting now," he says.
With most of the world's underwear being produced in Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta, and neighbouring countries, he expects that Asia will become not only the production hub for lingerie, but also the design center.
"That is why we need to develop more designers, and why it is important to keep all the factories in the region running. We mustn't put all our eggs in the China basket -- even though producing in China is very attractive -- as this might trigger some sort of trade war. So we have to be very careful to avoid any foreseeable disasters," he says.
Instead of producing more in the Mainland, Mr Sia has his sights set on selling more to the market. After designing lingerie for international brands -- some of which he now sells at retail stores in Hong Kong under a franchise agreement -- he recently started developing his own brand.
"Many international lingerie brands feel it is still a little too early for them to make the plunge into the Mainland market, but some booming metropolises in the country are ripe for the picking," he says.
"The China market is very vibrant. Some lingerie designs there are very vibrant, the quality is not bad, but they can do a lot to improve in their point of sales, marketing and building of brands," he says. "The retail side is also something that we need to learn. We are good in products, but just a new kid on the block when it comes to retail, marketing and branding. But this is just the beginning of a whole new side of business for us. It's going to be very exciting."
Company: Ace Style Intimate Apparel Ltd
Business: Lingerie design and manufacturing
Established: 1985
Year joined HKGCC: 1994
Web site:
