After inheriting a sewing-needle business from his late father four decades ago, Paul Yin Tek-shing looks set to break with tradition: he's brought in an outsider to help run the family firm.
Three years ago, the 68-year-old president and chief executive of Dah Chung Industrial hired Chu Weiman, a former Hong Kong Productivity Council director for manufacturing productivity, as chief operating officer. If all goes to plan, Chu stands to be a prime candidate to take over the company's management.
Yin's succession plans come at a time when Hong Kong companies like Dah Chung with factories across the border in southern China are hard-pressed to either upgrade to make higher value-added products or relocate to lower-cost locations where labour is more plentiful.
The company was founded in Qingdao in 1928. A decade later, the Yin family moved to Hong Kong and set up shop in Shau Kei Wan. With 1,000 workers, the firm was one of the biggest sewing-needle makers in the city.
But, Hong Kong's rising costs forced it to migrate to Shenzhen in the 1980s, and subsequently to Yangzhou in Jiangsu province a few years ago.
Branching out from Dah Chung's core business, Yin founded a trading unit in the 1970s selling screws and fasteners to electronics makers and car manufacturers. The company also now produces elastic items and shoelaces and has a houseware division that makes scissors, cutlery, kitchenware and cookware.
