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Martin Wong

Court-appointed liquidators for a garment manufacturer and retailer have sacked nearly half  its Hong Kong workforce and shut 20 of its shops in the city as they seek a buyer for the company.
Nearly 200 U-Right International Holdings staff  lost their jobs - about half  from the back office, which  will now be run by a core of 20 people, according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu,  the court-appointed provisional liquidator.
'Our goal now is to find a white knight. The company is not yet liquidated,' Edmund Yeung Lui-ming of Deloitte said. 'We are restructuring the company and are in talks with two or three potential buyers.'
The company originally had 500 workers and 95 shops  in Hong Kong, and 516 mainland shops.
'We also closed about 20 outlets in Hong Kong which had been losing money for quite a long time,' Mr Yeung said. Each employed about four people.
The remaining shops across the city and on the mainland will operate as usual.
'The sacked workers may  be re-employed and deployed to other outlets. We will also recommend the future buyer to employ them,' Mr Yeung said.
All the sacked workers  would be compensated according to the employment ordinances. Staff salaries had been paid to the end of September, but commission on sales that month and pay for this month was outstanding, the accountants said.
'The amount is less than HK$1 million and can be paid from  the company's  assets,' Mr Yeung said.
'These two to three weeks  are critical for us to find a buyer. We told the workers that we need their support.'
He said the company's problem was rooted in overinvestment, with much of  its capital tied up  in  the  mainland.
The company owed about HK$1.2 billion to 18 banks and other financial institutions.
The Labour Department has made arrangements to help the U-Right staff  affected, and 155 of them  had contacted the department by yesterday. There are three hotlines for the affected employees: 2928 7112, 2928 7002 and 2150 6397.
'In addition, the department has set up special service counters at all of its labour relations offices  to help employees pursue termination compensation,' a spokesman for the department said.
Raymond So Wai-man, associate professor of finance at Chinese University,  noted the company's financial hardship was mainly due to poor investment.
'However, we really must pay attention to the financial downturn. With so many giant banks collapsing, it is impossible that the economy won't be affected. People's willingness to spend will be influenced hugely, so that the retailing industry will be hit hard,' he said.
Yesterday a U-Right shop in Sheung Wan  was crammed  with people hunting for bargains.
'It is a shopping paradise. The quality of these clothes is very good. I have bought many from U-Right for a few years,' one shopper said.
The U-Right layoff came less than two weeks after HSBC cut 1,100 jobs worldwide, including 100 in Hong Kong, amid the global financial chaos.
At the time of the HSBC job cuts, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah warned more jobs could be lost  because the economy was showing signs of slowing.



Liquidator shuts 20 of chain's stores, sacks staff