The Welltrust Industries Co., located in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan, is a leading manufacturer and exporter of furniture with a focus on office furniture, chairs, and accessories. Thanks to years of efforts to upgrade, the company has won a good reputation for quality among its buyers in upscale markets.



The company has recently moved into a new manufacturing center in the Tainan Technology Park, most of whose resident firms are high-tech enterprises. The new center is a four-story building that has an area of 15,000 square meters and accommodates R&D and production facilities as well as conference rooms, a cafeteria, a KTV room, mini bars, and VIP suites for visitors from abroad.

"I became involved in the furniture industry in 1993 as a trader," recalls Charly Lin, Welltrust`s managing director, "and never had my own factory until eight years ago. That sounds like kind of a bold move, because I didn`t have any manufacturing experience at the time. But I had to do it, because my suppliers could not satisfy my clients."



"In the beginning I had only five or six workers in the plant, and we worked very hard to break even and tried our best to meet the demands of our clients. Luckily we got a lot of help from both our counterparts and satellite plants, and we`ve gradually gained expertise in the line. Our emphasis on R&D is the force that has led us to success in the international market; today, more than 10 of our 80 employees are involved in R&D."

His experience as a trader made Lin knowledgeable about international markets and sensitive to market trends. "To move in line with the international market," he comments, "I often go abroad to visit leading international furniture shows and look for international designers we can cooperate with in creating different styles for different markets."



"We`re now commissioning an Italian designer to design chairs to suit the taste of consumers in the European market. We sign contracts with the designer on a case-by-case basis, and we`re having him create five or six chairs for us this year. In the future, we may cooperate with Japanese or American designers to create furniture products for those markets."



Focus on Quality

The Welltrust motto is "Quality." To ensure that all of its products meet high quality standards, the company has invested heavily in cutting-edge design software and high-precision inspection equipment, and its own quality-control team inspects products at every stage of the manufacturing process from the procurement of raw materials to finished products, packaging, and shipment. The company has won ISO 9001 certification, and most of its products are patent-protected in the United States, Europe, and mainland China, as well as Taiwan.

The firm has its own "Welltrust" brand, but most of its products are manufactured on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis. "I realize that brand recognition is based on the value of our products, so we`re stressing the improvement of quality instead of rushing to build our brand profile in the international market," Lin explains. "but while we produce mostly on an OEM or ODM (original design manufacturer) basis, we plan to put more emphasis on developing marketing channels for our own-brand products. We`re aiming especially at markets in mainland China and Southeast Asia."



Amy Su-Mrs. Lin-is the key person charged with design and quality control in Welltrust`s R&D department. "I do have an instinct for beautiful things, and I`m quite interested in creating innovative products," she says with a strong touch of modesty. It is she who screens most designs and makes the final decision on whether to go with them or not. Normally, the company introduces about 100 new product styles each year.

All of the firm`s products, enough to fill about 80-100 containers a month, are exported, mostly to the U.S. and Europe. "Generally speaking," Lin notes, "American clients like sturdy, large-sized furniture, while European buyers favor cute products with simple designs. So our R&D team has to develop different styles to meet the needs of different markets."



Revenues total around US$8-10 million a year, and the company hopes to keep income growing partly by developing sales in the highly demanding Japanese market. To do that, Lin concedes, "We have to keep upgrading the quality of our products. We will also continue exploring high-end markets in order to avoid price-slashing competition with rivals from mainland China and Southeast Asia in low-end markets."



Lin is full of energy, enthusiasm, and optimism, and is confident that he will be able to reach his goal of building Welltrust Industries into one of Taiwan`s top three branded furniture makers in the future.

(by Judy Li)