Jewellery queen shines in crisis
Annie Yau was thrust into leadership of the TSL empire in difficult times but she and the company thrived, expanding outlets and crafting new tie-ups, writes Celine Sun
Annie Yau took over the helm of her family’s jewellery empire in testing circumstances five years ago after her husband and father-in-law were both jailed for paying illegal kickbacks to travel agents to take tourists to their showrooms.
“I knew it would be a tough task. But my love for my family gave me courage. I also believed I was the best person to carry on the ‘DNA’ of the family business and make it prosper,” Yau said.
I knew it would be a tough task. But my love for my family gave me courage. I also believed I was the best person to carry on the ‘DNA’ of the family business and make it prosper
A graduate in computer engineering from Boston University in the United States, Yau worked as a project manager at Motorola Semiconductor and IBM’s offices in the United States and Hong Kong before joining Tse Sui Luen Jewellery in 2002.
Four years later she was appointed as executive director assisting her husband Tommy Tse Tat-fung, who was TSL’s chairman between 2000 and 2008. Soon thereafter she was propelled into the post of chairwoman and chief executive of the family business after founder Tse Sui-luen was jailed for three years and Tommy Tse for five.
By the time of the sentencing, trading in the company’s stock had been suspended for more than two years and many people believed the once popular, decades-old brand was about to collapse. It was at this critical moment that Yau, a mother of three children, decided to take charge of the family business to restore confidence in the brand.
In November 2008, TSL released a half-year result showing that net profit for the six months to August jumped 141 per cent, despite the global financial crisis.
In June of the following year its stock resumed trading after Yau had hired independent consultants to review its systems, and the stock price responded to the occasion by shooting up from 81 HK cents to HK$2.98 on the day.
Over the next two years, under Yau’s leadership, TSL steadily expanded, and by the end of August last year, it was operating more than 200 shops in Hong Kong, on the mainland, and overseas. For engineering this dramatic turnaround, Yau received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award last year.