Originated from Xinhui, Vinda has grown into a Group with 6 Chinese companies and 3 overseas companies. Last year, Vinda achieved a sales of over 1.2 billion RMB.
Secretary of Guangdong province encouraged Vinda to grow bigger and become more international in his visit to the company. Recently, reporter from this paper interviewed Chairman of Vinda Group Li Chao Wang.
From nobody to somebody
Reporter(R):How has Vinda grown from a small company to market leader?
Li Chao Wang(Li):Vinda was a factory producing industrial goods in 1985, where
over half of the workers were disables. In 1993, Vinda was transformed to a company limited by shares. We began to introduce advance machines from Japan and US.
In 1997, we acquired 2 factories in Hubei and Shanghai respectively. We gradually built production bases in Hubei, Shanghai, Beijing and Sichuan. With an extensive production network, Vinda became a leader in the industry in just a few years.
R: Why did the Group move its headquarter from Xinhui to HK? Is it a strategic step to go international?
Li: It would be easier to get international financing headquartered in HK.
R: Vinda has always been committed to building a strong brand. How does Vinda maintain the quality of its products?
Li: At Vinda, a good brand should always be sensitive to consumers’needs and provide premium quality. Vinda is the 1st in producing tissue with 100% original wood pulp. In 2007, the company was granted IS09002 certification. We also heavily invested in technological innovation in recent years so as to improve quality.
R: How to tackle pollution has always been a challenge for the industry. What is your experience in this field?
Li: I believe it is the company’s social responsibility to control pollution in the production process. Vinda saved 1.5 million tons of water annually by recycling waste water, reducing water cost by 2 million RMB.
Vinda began to do water recycling from mid 1990s and in 2000 we did another round of technological upgrading. Now Vinda achieved a water recycling rate of 60%.
R: What are the biggest challenges for Vinda’s 20-year development? How did you get over them?
Li: We have the biggest challenges of cultivating people. We believe people are
central to the company’s success. The lead team of the Group now have been grown with the company. They are not only good at business but also familiar with modern company management.
Not long after Secretary Zhang Dejiang’s visit to Vinda, the company started a
capacity enhancement project of 100,000 tons in Xinhui. It is expected to gain
160,000 tons of capacity upon completion of the project. Vinda now looks further
and has set a interim and long-term target for the company. If all of the targets are reached, Vinda will become the top 10 tissue producer in the world.