Its no need to start something totally new

成功全因無懼轉型 花邊4人幫 年生意逾億
(明報) 08月 10日 星期四 05:05AM

【明報專訊】15年前香港經濟暢旺，不少大學生投身金融業，要他們走到深水[土步]搞 傳統批發貿易，似是不可能，但當年確有4名大學生身先士卒在該區開設「萬順 行」，經營花邊批發貿易生意。後來香港製衣廠北移，店舖生意驟減，4人憑幹勁，加上靈活變通和團結精神，因應時勢變遷將公司轉型，一洗傳統貿易商古老而 被動的經營模式。15年後的今天，該公司已是專業的「花邊供應平台」，生意額較15年前增加約4倍，至去年逾億元。

這4位創業者說﹕「我們之間沒有老闆，佔多少股權並不重要，各人分工清晰，自己做自己應做的事，最重要是有合作默契。」回顧成功經驗，還有他們「面對客戶什麼要求也嘗試做，不輕易說不」的認真態度。

深水[土步]舖起家

萬順行4名掌舵人的名片沒有印上職銜，只有姓名及聯絡電話，驗證了「我們之間沒有老闆」的說法。4人合作多年，卻甚少爭拗。股東之一楊佩認為，關鍵在於彼此分工清晰，理念相似，不只向錢看，對事情看法即使不同，亦能達成共識。

對於他們，股權並不重要，最重要是把工作辦妥。另一股東林靜文稱﹕「扣除各樣開支後，若只剩4元，我們會各分1元。」

4名股東在大學時代認識﹕楊佩主理設計項目及攝影室，其丈夫林靜文主責對外投資關係，如與合營廠的股東開會，尹麗嫦負責銷售，張文珊打理帳目。訪問前一天，各人方由外地返港。

現在，4人已建立合作默契，只要每年底開一次會議釐定來年業務發展計劃後，之後便不用開會，有要事會用電話聯絡。

愈來愈多買家繞過貿易商，直接向廠商買貨，減低採購成本，令貿易商生存空間收窄，但萬順行的例子反映，只要能及時轉型，貿易商仍有生存空間。

增設計部門 強化競爭力

萬順行在1991年創立，最初在深水[土步]汝州街以店舖形式經營，至今因應時勢先後經歷2次轉型。當時該公司經營花邊批發生意，倉存大量現貨，由於有很多本港製衣廠買現貨，生意很快上軌道。

1995年後，香港工廠紛紛北移內地，該公司批發生意減少，遂由銷售現貨的批發商轉型為代理商，伙拍海外、日本和內地廠商接單，店舖則轉型為聯絡辦公室。1998年店舖結束營業，辦公室移至荃灣。

林靜文說，當時伙拍接單的工廠日漸壯大，自行見客接單，不欲與他們合作。為提高競爭力，該公司1999年再轉型，增設產品設計部門。今天，萬順行已由貿易商提升至集齊多種款式的「花邊供應平台」，供買家一站式採購。

多次轉型 營業額三級跳

創 業初期，該公司每年營業額3000多萬元，第2次轉型後的1999年增至逾8000萬元，去年達1.5億元。營業額增加，證明轉型的方向正確。從 前，花邊是衣服的輔料，近年已變為主角，主要用於睡衣、內衣及時裝。楊佩稱，使用加入設計的花邊作配襯，能為衣服增值。該公司現有客戶，包括法國內衣設計 師Chantal Thomas，及國際服裝品牌Gap和Victoria's Secret等。

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Today I continued my experimental cooking. This is the Cream of Mushroom Soup. It looks chunky. Yet the taste is not too good. I added too much chopped onion into it and it became too sweet. Then I added salt into it but the taste doesn't mix. Is there anyone could tell me how to improve that?

'cos my intent to add chopped onion is to remove the taste of flour & butter. Now, its right that they have been removed, but now its getting too sweet. I want it to be salty... sigh... but with diced mushroom it is likened by many people. :)

白汁蜆肉墨魚汁通粉

Today we tried making 白汁蜆肉墨魚汁通粉 using the following things:

- Flour
- Butter
- Milk
- Clam

Seasoning
- Chicken Powder
- Garlic Salt

Its interesting though in 白汁 is not really related to cream, although we'd really using whipped cream to replace milk. It took us just half a hour to do it but I'm sure that if we arrange all those sauce nicely it would take even shorter time. But its named something related to 'butter', certain people would know that its real greasy.

We learnt making roux (麵撈) from the cooking class at 工聯會 and its basically the mix of butter and flour in 1:1 portion and it'd help in thickening the sauce. It's pretty ok this time but we just felt that its a bit quite fat. We'd just taste the flour and butter in this penne dish. Well, its the first time and we'd be able to master the skill later.

It's pretty disappointed that the penne from CitySuper really sucks. Some of them broke after cooking for just 5 minutes. It's already the product from Italy. Certainly next time we need to try another brand.

This time the dish doesn't look appealing but I guess I need to think how to arrange all these on a dish... haha. The better it looks the more expensive it'd be sold. I hate that 'total experience' thing in western cuisine, but that'd be the most profitable excuse to ask you to pay more!