Shine Jean Gains Foothold In Luxury Car Upgrade Market

Eugene Hsiao, the young and vigorous president of Shine Jean Industrial Inc., has proven his ability to gain a reputation for quality in the specialized international market for high-end car-upgrade accessories.

Today, as a result, most international buyers recognize Shine Jean as a specialized developer, manufacturer, and trader in the field of upgrade/decoration accessories for the top two German luxury auto brands, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Besides hard work, Hsiao concedes, success sometimes requires luck. The president himself became involved in the auto parts and accessories industry in 1984 when he joined a major accessory company as an international sales specialist, where he accumulated an abundant store of experience and built up close relations with domestic suppliers of high-quality products.

He set up Shine Jean in 1995 to concentrate on the design and production of fender trim for Mercedes-Benz and BMW autos. Since then, he has been diversifying his product line and setting up cooperative ties with local suppliers of exterior and interior accessories for the two German brands.

"From the very start," he recalls, "I realized that the only way to create a global reputation in the competitive international auto upgrade accessory market was to focus on a specific top-end sector which offered the higher unit prices and margins needed to support a relatively low sales volume." That realization was only the beginning of an effort to focus on hard work, concentration, and intensive investment aimed at keeping one step ahead of the competition.

Avoiding Competition

Today the company has withdrawn from the fender trim sector to avoid fierce competition from rivals in Taiwan and, especially, mainland China. Now, Shine Jean offers a comprehensive range of products covering almost all interior and exterior accessories for the two brands.

The company currently manufactures four categories of products--plastic grills (now 25 models, with the number growing by one or two models per year), wood/leather steering wheels and wood interior decoration kits (over 20 steering wheel and dozens of interior decoration kit models), chrome head/tail lamp rims (dozens of models), and, beginning this year, aerodynamic carbon/FRP body parts (spoilers, engine hoods, side skirts, etc.)--at wholly owned, joint venture, and satellite plants in both Taiwan and mainland China.

Hsiao notes that his company collects market information from various resources, including data on new parts and accessories made by original equipment (OE) suppliers and big international performance-tuning brands (AMG, Brabus, Lorinser, Carlsson, AC, Hartge, Hamann, etc.) as well as on latest fashion trends in the line. This information enables Shine Jean to meet market demands and pinpoint for development new items with state-of-the-art design and advanced functions, but with prices that are much lower than those demanded by original-equipment producers.

To assure the highest quality, Hsiao says, his company designs and develops all of its own molds and dies for grill and lamp rims, and, for the production of steering wheels, uses top-end materials such as bird's eye, burl walnut, zebrano, and burl chestnut wood imported from various countries, as well as pure leather from Italy.

After years of intensive market research, the president comments, his R&D team is fully cognizant of the requirements of different consumer groups in the Mercedes/BMW upgrade/decoration accessory market. For example, he explains, most younger drivers prefer carbon-feel accessories with a cold, high-tech visual impression, while middle-aged drivers buy more wood/leather steering wheels and wood decoration panels.

Generation Gap

Young consumers have totally different consumption habits from their parents, according to Hsiao, especially when they buy expensive cars and special accessories.

Iin addition, Hsiao continues, chrome-plated accessories are widely popular in Southeast Asia, while sales of such products in Japan are anemic. The more experience the company gains, he asserts, the more comprehensive the marketing strategy it will be able to map out.

Its location in Taiwan has also contributed to Shine Jean's success, Hsiao notes. The island has become a vital production base for the international auto accessory industry, with local manufacturers boasting a global reputation for strong development capability, high product quality, and reasonable prices. Taiwan also has a worldwide reputation for its solid mold and die development industry infrastructure, as well as high manufacturing flexibility achieved by a cross-strait division-of-labor system. The island has an unmatched small-batch, large-variety production mode, which is essential for a company in the high-end auto accessory business.

These advantages have attracted a growing number of international auto parts and accessories buyers to the island, generating a marketplace effect that benefits all companies in the line.

Shine Jean has established solid ties with suppliers--no easy task, Hsiao says. Equally important, he goes on, is the determination to constantly deepen production and marketing roots in specific segments, and to continuously develop new customers.

"Our goal," Hsiao asserts, "is to become the most comprehensive suppliers of Mercedes/BMW accessories on the island, and to let our customers all over the world know that they can come to us for anything they want in the line, no matter how big the volume."

Thanks to vigorous advertising and promotion, the president reports, at least two American customers buy Taiwan-made Mercedes/BMW accessories only through Shine Jean. This strategy is paying off in booming business performance for the companies, Hsiao says.

Shine Jean exports its products under the "Eugene" brand, mainly to Japan (which takes 40% of the total), the U.S. (30%), and the Middle East (20%).