Kelly International

"We were selling anything and everything that was made in Hong Kong, from plastic flowers to toys to sundries. We were just your typical small- and medium-sized trading company in Hong Kong," said Mr Reginald Van's (pictured above) son and Director of Kelly, Douglas Van.

By being very careful with its credit and customer relationships, the company managed to survive and even expanded to set up an office in Taipei and, with the relaxing of China trade, an office in Shanghai. Before long, Mr Reginald Van was travelling from North and South America, to Europe and the Middle East hawking goods from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

"Because we also have a Taipei office, we tried to sell Taiwanese products, which were a little different from Hong Kong products," Mr Van said.

But in the 1980s, general trading was becoming increasingly difficult in Hong Kong because everyone was offering the same goods to the same customers.

"By chance, or because we'd been around for a while, we branched out into toy premiums. So I would say Kelly now almost specializes in toy premiums," Mr Van said. "The important thing is you stay involved in what you are doing, and if you stay involved and put in the effort then something will come up. For us it has been toy premiums."

Among Kelly's client base is Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs. Mr Van says there is definite expertise in being able to produce such toy premiums because they are not just cheap, throwaway toys since they come in such close contact with food.

The company had to develop expertise in finding non-toxic materials and to find ways to treat the painted figurines to remove any solvent residue on them, as well as develop ways to keep them clean while in transit.

Branching out Like so many SMEs, Kelly's biggest challenge was trying to do as much as possible with its limited resources, which resulted in the company having to take the occasional gamble.

"You basically have to take a bet on certain things you believe in and those things may pay off, or they may be a total failure," he said.

Starting in the mid-1970s, the family branched out into many side ventures. It acquired a seat on the local Stock Exchange, which is now run by Mr Van's brother. But its share business is conservatively run and therefore has remained small and is basically used as a vehicle for friends, family and the company's own trading purposes, Mr Van said.

It also invested in real estate in the U.S., Singapore and a few other countries. "In those areas, we bought a shopping centre in Houston and then we bought some office buildings when the markets were really down. I sold them a few years ago and made a healthy profit. So those are the more opportunistic types of activities that we are involved in. As an entrepreneur, it is just a matter of believing it? a good buy -- with appropriate analysis done first of course -- jumping in headfirst and hoping your timing is right," he said.

Passing the baton

In 1996, Mr Van decided to dedicate a lot more time to the family business after being in charge of the investment business in the U.S. His parents had asked if he would like to take over the reins of the company and he said he was interested.

"While I'm taking over the company, my parents are still involved," he said. "They are entrepreneurs and really have no other hobbies except work, and that is all they know how to do and so it's hard for them to keep their hands off."

Mr Van said the current challenges for the company are ensuring that the company continues to grow, and finding a balance between his parents' conservatism and his inclination to be more of a risk taker.

This is part of his belief that trading companies can no longer be merely order takers and original equipment manufactures (OEM). For example, Kelly hires designers to help develop new products and designs for its customers where necessary.

"That obviously is an important aspect of the service you deliver. You don't just deliver as an OEM anymore. You have to deliver the whole design, marketing concept and production to customers," he said.

He is also making a few investments on the side in e-trade, in start-ups. One is a Mainland company selling digitized Chinese content books and magazines in China, while the other is a mobile content provider delivering information to consumers on deals they can get using their credit cards.

"When the WAP phone really takes over it will tell you which restaurants you can eat at or which shops to go to and how much discount you will get with the credit cards you are holding," he said.

He is also in talks with some U.S. traders who are starting to branch into e-commerce as a way to facilitate trade.

"Now all the Internet hype has died down, companies are looking at how they can use the Internet to facilitate trade and we think this is something that will definitely happen," he said.

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