The profile of overseas Chinese role in China development There are many like him maybe thousands via Taishang
Chinese miracle beckons for Filipino 'snacks king'
Updated: 2018-09-28 06:42
(HK Edition)
China's economic reform and opening-up has turned entrepreneur Carlos Chan's Liwayway Group into one of the country's largest and trusted foreign corporations. Willa Wu reports.
The Oishi Shanghaojia brand is one of the most widely-respected and recognized brands in China - a remarkable success story of how the country's economic reform and opening-up policy has pulled in foreign investment.
The company, renowned for its snack foods, is a part of the Chinese miracle - brought here by Carlos Chan, a Chinese Filipino, who is today ranked No 21 on the Forbes list of the Philippines' 50 wealthiest individuals. The tycoon shared the secrets of his success with China Daily.
Chan set up Oishi's first overseas plant in Pudong, Shanghai, in 1993, in cooperation with two State-owned companies. He gave his brand the Chinese name - Shanghaojia, which literally means "excellent, top grade and high quality".
The auspicious name didn't bring much luck to Chan at the beginning. He had to wait for nearly half a year for the plant's operating license to get the nod.
Then, no sooner had the plant opened when it looked like his fledgling enterprise was bound for disaster.
Chan got a phone call from the manager of his newly-established Oishi plant in Shanghai.
"I'm afraid we have to leave the China market," Chan recalled his plant manager telling him. "The employees here won't cooperate with us."
Chan answered: "I will come and talk to them." He had already learned valuable lessons, working shoulder by shoulder with his father in the family business - "be patient" and "make friends before doing business".
The entrepreneur recalled the tense atmosphere as he walked into the meeting with the plant's Chinese workers. "They were all standing, red-faced. I wasn't allowed to sit either." Chan stood for almost an hour listening to his employees' complaints.
The workers had been hired from two State-owned companies that had leased the factory to the Filipino group.
"They were dissatisfied with the management. We were foreign employers. They thought we were capitalists, intending to exploit them. It was an ideological issue," Chan said.
Talking slowly, Chan described himself as "a shy man", something he had to overcome to follow his father's advice to be patient: "That to me, means having an attentive ear and talking to people regardless of their background."
Chan heard the workers' complaints and answered them. Tensions eased. Chan was invited to sit down. The Chinese Filipino employers and their Chinese workers started calmly discussing how to build mutual trust.
Chan ordered annual increases in their salaries. The workers had been earning only 200 yuan ($29) per month in the first place. He installed heaters in the staff canteen. "We needed to let them know we cared about them and not treat them like mere laborers."
Chan's communicative management style has imprinted his corporation. "We've maintained good relationships from top management down to frontline workers. Every decision is made after we put everything on the table to discuss," said Desmond Cheng, the plant manager of the corporation based in Cavite City, Philippines.
Chan's style won him loyalty from his staff and business partners. Cheng joined the company in 1996 and has worked for the group ever since. In his eyes, Chan is a "good and down-to-earth boss" who is always ready to talk to employees and willing to help whenever they need it.
According to Cheng, many of the employees with Chan's Liwayway Group of Companies in the Philippines are like him, having worked with the group for more than 20 years. "They view the company as their family, willing to build their entire career here," Cheng said.
It was 1994 when Oishi's Shanghai plant produced its first lot of prawn crackers. Chan recalled the trucks waiting outside the plant to deliver the crackers to distributors across China. "We faced little competition in China. We managed to cover the initial cost in the third year after we entered the Chinese market. Demand exceeded supply," Chan noted.
There's also loyalty among Liwayway's dealers in China. Many of the 700 wholesale distributors have maintained partnerships since the group entered China in the early 1990s.
"I often told my dealers that without Deng Xiaoping, Oishi would not have what it has today," Chan said.
Thus, the reform and opening-up policy became the catalyst, helping to create one of China's largest and trusted corporations.
Deng, the architect of modern China, put forward the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, allowing the once reserved country to open its doors to foreign investment. The policy has lifted around 700 million people out of poverty and has been the driving force behind the Chinese economic miracle.
Eight years after Oishi Shanghaojia was nearly forced to close, it became the first non-Chinese company to win the Shanghai Famous Brand Award. It's an honor given to brands ranked among the top five in their respective industries, and which have earned broad consumer trust. In 2006, Oishi Shanghaojia won the additional honor of being recognized as a "China Famous Brand".
Today, Oishi Shanghaojia snacks can be found everywhere, in small convenience shops or large supermarkets all over China. The company, now in its 25th year in China, has 15 plants across the country. The company's products are distributed throughout the country by over 700 wholesale distributors.
Data from Liwayway show that, currently, Oishi's market share accounts for 26 percent among similar products in China.
Oishi's success story began in the Philippines in 1946 when Chan was only 5. His parents, immigrants from South China's Fujian province, founded Liwayway Marketing Corporation in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.
The company started out repackaging products like coffee and starch. It then began manufacturing products for the local snacks market. In the 1970s, the company started producing Oishi Prawn Crackers, making it a market leader in the local industry.
The family had held on to its Chinese roots. Chan was raised in a traditional Chinese family setting heavily immersed in Confucianism. The idea of contributing to the land of his ancestors was planted deep.
Chan attended Chinese schools in the Philippines. He is proficient in spoken and written Chinese and even gave himself a Chinese name, Shi Gong Qi.