Mixing and matching

How do electronic coils mix with noodles and chips? In Coils Lam Wai-chun's world, very well.

For the chairman of the listed coils maker CEC International who set up the successful snack shop chain 759 Store three years ago, mix and match is the preferred business model. Even a way of life, as evident from his own name and that of his snack chain, which he named after the company's stock code.

"I use the same office for meetings of both coils and snack businesses. The drivers who deliver the coils in the morning can deliver the potato chips and noodles to 759 shops in the afternoon. The Japanese salesperson who sells the coils in Japan can also meet the snack suppliers there on the same trip. They can also help check the Japanese-language label on the snack pack," Lam told the South China Morning Post.

"Having the same team to do two businesses is how we keep costs down. Both coil manufacturing and snack retailing are very thin-margin businesses. We have to be very careful about cost control to make a profit," he said.

Lam, 55, is a home-grown success. An industrialist who has spent more than 30 years manufacturing coils for home appliances, and telecommunications and audio-visual products, he bit into the snack business by setting up 759 in 2010.

He started out at a Japanese electronics company that he joined after completing his primary school. He worked there for eight years before setting up a small coils factory in a 100 square foot building in North Point when he was about 20.