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Chris Oliver

Hong Kong shops might appear saturated with every kind of product imaginable, but Ed Bin has found a gap.
The economist turned entrepreneur, 35, leveraged an old friendship to secure the Hong Kong franchise rights to what may be one of the hottest new retail concepts in years. 
The result is the launch last week of an upmarket designer stationery shop, Prints. It is one of the first to inject fun and colour into notebooks, photo albums, diaries and gift cards. 
On the surface, the idea might not sound revolutionary, but a quick visit to the Prince's Building second-floor shop in Central proves there is appeal in good design. The day after it opened, the shop was inundated with customers buying merchandise intended for a wide age group. 
'In Hong Kong we do not have many places offering intelligent designs in paper products,' Mr Bin says. 
'If you think about it you go to Hallmark, you buy cards with messages wrapped in cellophane. It does not bring out your creativity.' 
The key feature behind Prints is a range of paper products designed with Scandinavian minimalism. It is an approach that merges craft techniques in graphic design, book binding and paper production with Ikea-style prices. 
The concept originated last year in Singapore as a partnership between Swedish-born Lars Vikman and Indonesian Neny Suparman after they discovered a shared passion for graphic arts. Mr Vikman, trained in typography and interior design and had years of experience working in Singapore with a local graphic arts company, while Ms Suparman brought years of business experience. She also had the financial muscle to get the venture off the ground. 
With S$100,000 (HK$450,000) in start-up capital, they spent months developing a product line, eventually opening a shop last July. After strong public response they opened two more outlets in Singapore, with a third planned in September. 
The Hong Kong shop is the first overseas outlet. Sales last year exceeded S$1 million. 
'On opening day we had people coming into the shop asking us if they could secure the franchise rights to places like Australia and Britain,' Mr Vikman says. 
Mr Vikman is the chief designer, turning out four to six designs a week. Most of the print production work is done in Singapore, which has an established book publishing industry. Writing paper is sourced from Sweden, France and Spain, with a small amount from Japan. Accessories such as pencil holders are produced under contract in Thailand. 
The shops also sell a variety of branded European products, such as photo frames from Danish firm Folle, shoulder bags from Marimekko Finland, and Lami pens from Germany.
Mr Vikman believes the business's rapid growth is due to its unusual product line. 
'If you go to different cities, you can't really find another concept like this,' he says. 
Mr Bin crossed paths with Mr Vikman, an old London friend, during a business trip to Singapore last year. 
Impressed by the early success in Singapore, he offered to take the concept to Hong Kong - a move which sat well with the founders' vision of rapid brand building. 
Securing the Hong Kong franchise rights would normally entail a hefty licence fee, but the group decided on a profit-sharing plan with Mr Bin as the licence holder. 
In drafting a business plan, Mr Bin used the sales data from the Singapore shops to make his own projections. 
The spread sheets added up, but Mr Bin says he has assumed a significant risk by importing a foreign business into a new market. 
Mr Bin has covered a $200,000 shop fit-out and, with a further outlay of $500,000 for stock, legal fees, deposits and other expenses. He has funded the entire venture - his first self-run business - from his own pocket. 
He has no intention of quitting his day job as an economic forecaster - at least for now. Instead, he plans to visit the shop in the evenings and do weekend shifts, otherwise entrusting daily operations to staff. 
'I think eventually I will have to make a decision,' he says. 'We do have plans to open more locations.' 



A great idea on paper puts fun into stationery