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Caitlin Wong

Business Tips

Hong Kong's merchandising and purchasing industry can only excel by  staying one step ahead of customers' business needs.

Contempo is a 30-year veteran of apparel merchandising and purchasing which has  combined  creativity and  service-driven business management to develop from a  local buying agent into a global operation.

Winnie Kwok Suet-chu,  the company's executive vice-president and chief merchandising officer, said: 'Competition is fierce. To keep going these days, you have to stay ahead of the pack with creative ideas and comprehensive and excellent services, and always deliver what you promised.'

The company provides a one-stop service that incorporates the full cycle of product development and marketing, starting from conceptualisation through to post-delivery follow up. It also comes up with  new product ideas.

'We always try to spot new opportunities and initiate innovative yet marketable proposals for our customers to consider,' Ms Kwok said. 'We have to not just read our customers' minds, but we also have to plan their businesses as if they were ours.'

The company today operates in all categories of apparel and hard goods, with some 470 employees in 18 offices in Asia, Africa, America and the Middle East. More than 90 per cent of its customers come from the US and many are long term.

Contempo began to take on product development  about eight years ago.

'We went through quite a learning curve trying to get a  handle  on this,' she said. 'We had to do so because this is such a competitive industry [that] the mediocre ones get squeezed out. There's no place for complacency; you just have to keep innovating and improving yourself.'



Service and creativity keep apparel firm  at the cutting edge