~ "CYCLE 2007" 英國自行車展~

英國自行車展Cycle 2007由去年Excel展覽館移往Earl’s Court展覽館展出，不僅在場地上大了一倍，各個廠商可發揮的展示空間增加許多，Earl’s Court展覽館的燈光也十分明亮，所以展出效果比去年好許多。主辦單位初步估計今年自行車展吸引2萬5,000人來參觀。參展廠商以英國廠商家數最多， 來自其他國家的參展廠商包括北歐的丹麥、瑞典及挪威；歐洲的義大利、西班牙、荷蘭及德國等，來自亞洲的台灣、中國大陸、斯里蘭卡及印度等國，以及美國，共 有超過12個國家的廠商共襄盛舉。

英國自行車展的展示區域包括: 自行車/相關產品製造業及經銷商展示區、自行車流行服飾表演舞台、自行車服飾及用品零售業專區-Retail Zone等，Retail Zone銷售的品牌包括Adidas、Milano、Shimano等1000個以上著名品牌。並設有為不同年齡開闢之自行車試騎區(test track)。自行車及相關產品製造業商及經銷商中參展之著名業者如下該參展:
Diamondback自行車公司展示各種越野單車，並展出2008年將上市的最新專業自行車款:XSL Elite，市價約1500英鎊。

全球知名的Raleigh自行車公司為兒童自行車精心設計附屬商品來吸引兒童，如Molly系列的女童車即附Molly娃娃、粉紅色的絨毛椅套及裝飾手把的閃爍亮條等，吸引參觀者駐足。

著名衛星導航器製造商Garmin展示最新自行車導航器Edge 605及705系列，市價每台介於329至399英鎊。該系列強調防水、可擴充記憶體，螢幕顯示在太陽光下亦不受干擾等功能，705系列還增加了心跳測量及無線感測器傳輸資料的功能。

Exelite公司設計的反光飾條，可應用在背心或背包上作為警示駕駛人注意的騎車安全配件。
西班牙廠商展示設計新穎又實用的百變魔術頭巾，該頭巾採用百分之百的超細纖維(Microfiber polyester)材質，無接縫圓筒狀，織物分子細小，觸感滑順，排汗，快乾，不生異味。 抓絨材質的頭巾還有許多花色。

由自行車連鎖店Evans Cycles代理的英國高級專業自行車品牌-Pinnacle，該廠牌採用碳纖維(carbon fiber)生產的自行車支架，使自行車更為輕盈，受到許多自行車專業賽車騎士的喜愛，該商並以贊助法國自行車大賽來推廣該品牌。

丹麥自行車製造商Velorbis以生產懷古自行車著名，其造型具有英國古典自行車的風格，座椅以直立型的騎士姿勢來設計，這種款式在北歐相當暢銷，每輛最高單價為4000英鎊起價，令人咤舌。

本中心本年在英國自行車展Cycle 2007中設立攤位，為外貿協會將於明年舉辦的自行車展作宣傳，並推廣介紹各種服務項目，獲得許多參觀人士的洽詢，並有英國自行車廠商當場報名參加明年台北國際自行車展。

台商肯昌公司在自行車展Cycle 2007是唯一台灣參展廠商，該商的產品主要以零配件為主，吸引許多潛在買主參觀並詢價。

本中心派員訪談多家參展廠商，大多數廠商皆表示:此展比去年更為熱絡，人氣更旺，由於Earl’s Court展覽館較大，整體動線比較流暢。其中有三家英商對該公司在英國自行車市場的發展趨勢，提供下列資訊，謹供我自行車業者參考:

Evans Cycles:該商大力推廣的Pinnacle為純英國設計生產的自行車，強調碳纖維及鋁結合的材料可塑性高，以該材質生產的自行車能增進賽車騎士的成績，儘管Pinnacle公司方成立兩年，其自行車的品質及性能皆受到專業人士的肯定。

Squire 為百年老店，以生產掛鎖(padlock)而著名。該商經由銷售各式掛鎖而建立的商譽開始發展自行車及其配件產品。該商有許多產品的供源來自台灣。 Squire公司的資深經理表示，英國本身的內銷市場就很大，英國自行車製造商將低價位的自行車移往中國大陸生產，高單價且比較專業的自行車則仍然留在英 國當地生產，一方面，設計師可隨時調整或依消費者的喜好來更新設計，英國著名的產業特性為bespoke設計。

Pearson 為著名自行車製造商，設有一家專賣店，該商大部分自行車的車身是自台灣採購，該商十分推崇台灣自行車的產品品質，另有一部分則由義大利進口，其原因為歐洲 僅有義大利的自行車供應商願意客製模具打樣來符合英國廠商要求，英國就找不到這種供應商。雖然當地的連鎖店以大量買進，再以平價的方式賣給消費者，使自行 車專賣店利潤受到擠壓，然而，自行車提供產品專業諮詢及售後服務仍是相當重要的一環，因此，獨立的自行車專賣店仍然有它生存的空間。

此次參展的肯昌公司進入英國市場時，英國的代理商由於對肯昌產品沒有把握，並沒有幫忙肯昌做行銷宣傳，而是進口少量多樣產品來試銷; 反觀歐陸的進口商，則願意贊助促銷肯昌的產品，打英國的市場，故導致該公司打英國市場比進入歐陸市場晚了3年。迄今肯昌在英國的行銷廣告皆為自費。肯昌表 示:參加此展的開支(包括差旅費)約為1萬英鎊。肯昌是台灣高單價自行車零配件製造商，成員有40人。該肯昌公司供應消費者高品質的零配件，來改裝產品。 它的行銷通路以進口經銷商為主，經銷商再批發給零售商，再供應給自行車的售後零配件市場。

肯昌在此展中生意不錯，吸引許多英國潛在買主前來詢價。肯昌早期幫捷安特及美麗達等世界知名品代工達7年，從4年前開始行銷自己的品牌明年該公司將再來參展，不過如果屆時英國代理商願意自行負擔參展費用，則可交給代理商參展。

~Formosa Tools~

{出自天下雜誌} {CommonWealth Magazine}

Formosa Tools Co., Ltd, based in Jhanghua County, Taiwan, had its “Formosa” brand recognized at the end of March as one of the “Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands.” It is one of those SMEs taking new steps to expand its operations overseas. The company has been loading equipment and materials from its 20,000 square-meter factory into containers and shipping them to Thai Binh province in northern Vietnam, where it hopes to open a new factory in early May to coincide with the company’s traditionally slow sales period from April to August. The first phase of the project consists of a 50,000 square-meter plant that will generate annual sales of an estimated US$30 million, a total that would equal Formosa Tool’s current sales and make it the largest Taiwanese business in northern Vietnam.

Founded in 1974, Formosa Tools is Asia’s most prominent garden tools manufacturer and was the first such Taiwanese enterprise to set up offices and distribution warehouses in Europe and the United States.

“They insist on staying away from trading companies and rejecting OEM business. They develop their own products and target big markets and large chain retailers as their prime marketing channels,” observed Walter Yeh, Taiwan External Trade Development Council’s executive vice president.

In its early days, Formosa Tools built its business on sickles. To develop a marketing strategy, company chairman Hsu Chin-tun traveled to Europe, the U.S. and Japan and discovered that the garden tools in these consumer markets were all made by domestic suppliers. None came from Taiwan, and no trading companies seemed interested. Formosa Tools decided to dedicate itself to manufacturing, and had a large, well known trading company handle export sales.

Before long, however, the trading company took the products Formosa Tools was designing and had them made at lower prices to improve their margins.

The resilient Hsu absorbed the blow and from that point on refused to rely on trading companies to promote overseas sales. Formosa Tools, with a big production volume and NT$100 million in sales, decided to rely on itself to gain footholds in markets abroad.

Hsu wanted to attack the world’s biggest market ― the United States ― and traveled to Los Angeles to set up an office with eight employees and a distribution warehouse. To make the most efficient use of time, he bought three Panasonic fax machines, which then in the early 1980s each cost tens of thousands of Taiwan dollars. After visiting countless stores and exhibitions, “my father handed to me at least 200 name cards from potential customers in the U.S. alone,” recalls Formosa Tools general manager Tony Hsu.

Going Directly to Big Retailers

The turning point in Formosa Tools’ efforts to sell directly to the U.S. came when it hooked up with K-Mart. In 1986, with the Taiwan dollar appreciating rapidly, trading companies were unable to meet K-Mart’s price points, and Formosa Tools stepped into the void.

“It really wasn’t worth it for us to ship, but my father said without any hesitation that if the trading companies couldn’t fill the orders, we would. Four months later, we delivered on schedule to K-Mart,” Tony Hsu recalls.

After that, Formosa Tools took over all of K-Mart’s direct orders for garden tools.

“At the time, the profit margin was nearly 50%. For every item we sold, we were earning another one,” the younger Hsu remembered.

With trading companies no longer marking up its sales prices, Formosa Tools had a competitive pricing advantage. But with the rise of China, cutthroat competition over manufacturing costs and sales prices erupted. Relying on its track record with K-Mart, Formosa Tools began to directly approach big distributors.

Aside from the “Formosa” brand of his father’s era, Tony Hsu developed another brand called “Garden Pals” that also targeted the U.S. market. To differentiate the two brands, Formosa Tools invested 3 percent to 5 percent of its sales annually on research and development, coming up with new materials and functions for their products. They imported specialty steel from Japan, hoping it would create added value.

“If you go to their showroom, you will see a really diversified product line,” observes Hai-ping Tsui, deputy director of the Metal Industries Research & Development Center’s Regional R&D Service Department.

Soon, however, Tony Hsu discovered that companies that focused only on honing their manufacturing processes would always be playing catch-up. He needed to find a way to gain insight into customers’ needs if he wanted to grab opportunities before others did.

“You have to assume you are a department of the customer’s company and have to come up with a solution,” says Tony Hsu, demonstrating a service attitude rarely seen in traditional industries.

Changing their focus away from manufacturing and adopting integrated service concepts opened another boom period for Formosa Tools.

‘Wal-Mart Hero’

The younger Hsu, in his early 30s at the time, was Formosa Tools’ “U.S. representative.” His presence there coincided with the rise of Wal-Mart in the 1990s, a development that led to the consolidation of America’s retail sector. Wal-Mart found itself attracted to Hsu’s approach of tailoring solutions to customers that included price point, marketing, and point-of-purchase display elements.

Hsu came up with a unique garden tool display concept tailored for Wal-Mart called the “Pretty Damn Quick (PDQ) display” that revolutionized how garden tools were presented in U.S. stores. Hsu became a “Wal-Mart hero.” The retailing giant, which had only been buying three products from Formosa Tools, immediately took on 40 items, with annual purchases soaring from US$3 million to more than US$10 million.

“At that time, we took away about half of the business of Wal-Mart’s other garden tool suppliers,” Hsu says.

Formosa Tools had established a model for penetrating new markets, setting up new branches and directly targeting retailers with tailored solutions. Hsu copied that model in attacking the European market, setting up a logistics center in the Netherlands, and even a distribution warehouse in Australia.

“But you can’t copy your sales strategy in different markets. Salesmen need to do their homework. They have to understand the markets’ needs even more than the customers’ buyers,” Hsu says, again stressing his proactive nature that has allowed him and his company to continue to seize the initiative in their business dealings.

~縫紉機出口~

【劉朱松／台中報導】-【轉載自工商時報】

全球前三大家用縫衣機廠商，包括日商車樂美、兄弟與百慕達商勝家，由於彼此實力難分軒輊，為甩開同業，最近不約而同加重台灣或大陸廠的營運分量。躍居業界產量龍頭的車樂美證實，明年不僅將微幅提高台灣廠的產能，也首度授權台灣廠主導華人地區的售後服務市場，期許集團明年產量能挑戰二百萬台，同時拿下全球產、銷量的桂冠；無獨有偶，已陸續關掉台灣等四座工廠的勝家，未來仍將持續加碼委託伸興工業等四家公司的代工量，試圖力保業界銷售的一哥地位。

商車樂美剛以去年（去年四月至今年三月）集團家用縫衣機產量一百七十九萬台，蟬聯全球產量龍頭，其次為兄弟的一百七十萬台；不過，本身產量不到一百萬台、排名第三大的勝家，在委外代工量的襄助下，去年卻以全球銷售量一百八十萬台奪冠，硬是擠下車樂美與兄弟等兩家業者，
使車樂美與勝家在全球家用縫衣機的產、銷市場，各領風騷。

面對全球第二大縫衣機業者兄弟，明年將旗下大陸珠海廠的月產能，由今年的十二萬台，提高至十四萬台的大動作，尚未赴大陸投資設廠的車樂美，最近為拉大與同業的差距，則強化台灣與泰國等兩處工廠的營運布局。

台灣車樂美副總經理白茂隆說，由於台灣廠已成為集團最大的生產基地，每年約有一五％的產品回銷日本，未來不僅將強化日本接單、台灣出貨營運模式，且在母公司授權下，台灣廠未來不只負責生產，也將首度跨足華人地區的售服市場；即日本以外的亞洲華人地區售服市場，未來改由
台灣車樂美主導；另外，車樂美旗下泰國廠今年產能，將提高至六十五萬台。在泰國廠增產下，集團設定明年產量目標為二百萬台，略高於今年一百九十萬台的目標，期許明年同時拿下全球家用縫衣機產、銷量的龍頭。

曾勇奪全球家用縫衣機產、銷量一哥地位的勝家，近幾年來已陸續關掉台灣、日本、義大利與土耳其廠，旗下工廠僅剩下大陸上海廠與巴西廠。為不讓車樂美專美於前，負責台灣內銷市場的台灣勝佳公司處長張坤榮表示，該集團不僅會持續加強上述兩個工廠的營運，也會加碼委託包括伸
興工業、信合、幸福與東京重機等四家縫衣機廠商的代工量，作為因應之道 。