Raymond Lee, chief executive officer of Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Ltd
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【11】 【12】 Supported by his farther, Lee established Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing in 1994. The company makes paper, cardboard boxes and cartons for packaging.
Since its listing in Hong Kong in 2004 the company has recorded a threefold growth in sales and profit over the past four years. Its annual turnover increased 74 percent in the fiscal year 2008 from a year earlier. The company has a 12 percent market share of China's massive container board market.
Lee has invested heavily in environmental protection. The company now uses a production method that has slashed the amount of water and coal used in the paper manufacturing process. In addition, the company sources recyclable paper from the United States for its products, and is undertaking a huge tree-planting project in China to ensure resources are renewed.
Q: Could you please share some of your experiences in starting a business?
A: My company was established in 1994, but it came to operation in 1998. During the four years, we started from scratch. With little knowledge about making paper before, I had to learn everything about it before the operation.
I realized I have to cope with problems myself, because no one but myself can save me. From then on, I really worked hard.
The startup period was very difficult, as the year 1998 happened to witness an Asian financial crisis. My staff worked overtime, then we together weathered the storm. From that, I learned we may always have the pressure of difficult times, but tomorrow will be better if we get through it.
Q: What was the major turning point for you and your company?
A: Ten years ago, our annual production capacity was just 80,000 tons, relatively small in the papermaking industry. With a small production scale, you cannot survive. This is a rule in the industry, which left our company no other choice but to grow bigger.
During a holiday trip to Japan about nine years ago, I bought at a much lower price a paper machine with a 300,000-ton production capacity, which was abandoned in a warehouse due to the Asian financial crisis. From then on, our annual production capacity jumped from 80,000 tons to 300,000 tons all of a sudden, rocketing Lee & Man to an internationally known company from being little known before.
Q: What is the driving force to keep Lee & Man growing rapidly?
A: China's continuing economic growth has created a huge demand for the industry. We have seized the opportunity and expanded our facilities. In addition to market demand, another reason for our fast production expansion over the past decade is the pressure from competitors. I'm afraid of losing the race so we had to run better and faster.
The keys to maintaining sustainable competitiveness are cost control and business focus. Looking back, I found some investment projects were unsuccessful and should be written off as non-starters. In the future, we should focus on business worth investment and reduce costs to ensure core competence for a sustainable development.
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