PROD-ART Technology is near the forefront of the pager craze sweeping China's major cities. They are one of the three major pager suppliers in China, and the company's earnings potential has not been fully appraised.
Brokerage Smith New Court forecasts the company will record a 355 per cent profit growth to $100 million in 1993, and 130 per cent to 1994.
The company was set up in 1973 by the Chan family as a metalware and silk-screen-printing OEM subcontractor, primarily for consumer electronics manufacturers.
The group started developing facsimile machines and numeric pagers in the late 1980s. Fax production was halted in 1991 owing to a global glut, but its pagers have been highly successful.
Prod-Art is China's third-largest pager supplier in terms of volume, commanding roughly 17 per cent of the market share. The company makes pagers in its 80,000 square foot Shenzhen factory. Established in 1990, the operation is 65 per cent owned by Prod-Art and 35 per cent by Guangdong Posts & Telecom Administrative Bureau (GPTAB).
The co-operation with GPTAB has already proved valuable: it has helped Prod-Art to become one of the largest suppliers of pagers to telecom bureaus in numerous provinces. About 95 per cent of the group's pagers are sold to telecom bureaux.
To reduce the renminbi devaluation's impact, the group raised finished prices from 810 yuan in early 1993, and to 900 yuan more recently. Despite the hikes, the products remain competitive.
