I’m becoming a China factory expert. Yep, my second factory tour in the manufacturing capital of the world – Guangdong province, once again with a Taiwanese company through some personal contacts who have generously opened their factory for me to walk around and shoot away.
It’s a multi-million business, on a far larger scale than the company from game factory visit in Guangzhou, doing some that at first glance seems far less complicated – custom made textile products, but a large portion of the business revolves around one simple main product of different variations – shoe laces. You might wonder how much money there is to be made with shoe laces but when you’re one of the top manufactures of shoe laces in the world making shoe laces for the likes of Adidas and Nike then we’re talking a whole lot of shoe laces.
So meet Paihong of the Paiho group, which I’m betting you’ve never heard about. They have a large manufacturing plant in Dongguan with most of the management being Taiwanese and most of the workers being mainlanders coming in from all across China.
What’s to know about this company? Their official website has a bit :
Dongguan paihong Industrial Corporation Limited is a subsidiary of the Paiho Group, a publicly traded company headquartered in Taiwan. Dongguan Paihong, located in Dongguan, China, is a multi-faceted manufacturing organization that produces cutting edge textile products recognized worldwide by the TRIHOOK brand. Our products are as diverse as our capabilities and include Touch Fasteners, Easy Tape-Molded hook, Bamboo charcoal yarn, Recycled yarn, Webbing, Shoelaces, Elastic and Reflective materials. […]
Our products are sold internationally to Japan, Brazil, South Africa, England, Mexico and the United States. Its no wonder that Dongguan paihong products are not only certified but specified by ADIDAS, NIKE and REEBOK to name a few.
If that left you hanging, then the Paiho Group website has slightly more:
Founded by President Sen-Mei Cheng and his two brothers in 1979, Taiwan Paiho Limited gained global recognition for its Trihook touch fasteners.
From traditional OEM to ODM, the Company has greatly upgraded its R&D ability and is selling its products to the world’s top 20 sport shoe brands. It has established a good reputation in the global sporting goods market by continually creating new product value and leading major brands by using innovative products. With abundant experience in shoe, garment and medical material production, the Paiho Group possesses manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, Wuxi, Dong Guan and Vietnam.
Additionally, the Group has established marketing bases and warehouses in California, USA, and Barcelona, Spain, supplying touch fasteners, elastic, webbings, shoelaces, reflective materials, 2D/3D image logo, material processing, molded hooks and bamboo charcoal products. Through professional fabric, garment and shoe material exhibitions, Taiwan Paiho has successfully established business with the world’s famous brands.
You might want to check out their product page to get a sense of what they’re doing. But, essentially it’s all in this catalog…
Which includes endless samples of the following products (and more)…
Simple, right? not that simple. Plenty of customization options for the different customers, and there’s a fair share of technology involved even in those simple products.
Let’s take a look at the machines…
From the little I understand of what I was seeing, the machines are generally quite robust, manually adjusted to the order at hand with labor mainly feeding in the materials, making sure things run smoothly and then handling the end product.
What’s the plant like in general?
Deserted on a Sunday (surprising, don’t you think?), but generally quite large and spacious. Though it’s relatively small profit margins and low labor product market, I’d say the complex, the buildings, the plant, the machines and everything else is much nicer than I would have expected for something like shoelaces and from the little I was able to gather it looks like the business is going quite well.
Interesting? I hope you atleast got to see something new. Comment, thoughts and invitations to more factories in Guangdong welcome and appreciated.
i liked it
Thanks, Richard.
I have seen a mattress tape factory before which looks similar. Not much labor involved, so why do they have to be in China? Closer to buyers?
Asta – yeah, maybe, that and scale. It’s a very large scale operation. We’re talking millions of shoelaces.