Philippine STAR Exclusive: Glory to Filipino ingenuity

Christmas in October in Hong Kong? Christmas was definitely in the air — and in our hearts — at Global Sources Gifts & Home Products China Sourcing Fair held Oct. 20-23  at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong. We felt the holiday vibe happily winging through the exhibition halls as we saw the most divine angel figurines, the awe-inspiring belens, the most festive Christmas trimmings, and the jolliest Santa Clauses. Of course, we were in Hong Kong, but it felt so much like home with this merry mix of Christmas decorations that we Pinoys love adorning our homes with at the first hint of Christmas.

“I just love Christmas in Manila!” gushes Sarah Benecke, Global Sources executive director. “I lived in Manila for five years and spent five Christmases there. And I loved that the Christmas celebration in Manila begins around September, when you start hearing Christmas music.”

Not only does Australian-born Sarah love Pinoy Christmas; she loves Pinoy ingenuity, too. “Color, creativity, and communication skills are the Philippines’ big advantage over the Chinese companies.”

We couldn’t agree with Sarah more (but more on Pinoy ingenuity later).

Why Hong Kong? But why not Hong Kong? Hong Kong is indisputably Asia’s trade show capital and a major sourcing capital of the world (the world’s largest companies have buying offices in Hong Kong). It is also Asia’s transport capital with 800 flights daily to 150 countries on every continent.

That said, it’s easy to understand why this year’s Gifts & Home Products China Sourcing Fair drew over 3,000 exhibitors from over a hundred countries around the world. Over 80,000 buyers had pre-registered to attend.

“Marks & Spencer and a majority of retailers have representatives from their home countries and buying offices at Global Sources,” notes Merle Hinrichs, chairman and chief executive officer of Global Sources.

At a conference, he tells members of the Asian press, “Our product is information and we have an audience of buyers from all over the world. We’re very much focused on what information they need to do their job and on helping them improve their performance. We’re focused on the quality of information, whether we provide them in print, online or via trade shows. What’s important for us is to do it well, absolutely well.”

Now you know why Global Sources has become a leading business-to-business (B2B) media company and a primary facilitator of two-way trade with Greater China.  But here’s more: It helps a community of over 635,000 active buyers source more profitably from complex overseas supply markets. Providing the most effective ways possible to advertise, market, and sell, Global Sources enables suppliers to sell to hard-to-reach buyers in some 230 countries. And read this: The company  delivers information on 1.8 million products and more than 150,000 suppliers annually through 13 online marketplaces, 12 monthly magazines, over 100 sourcing research reports, and nine specialized trade shows which run 22 times a year across seven cities.

Last Oct. 18, Global Sources launched Global Sources Online 2.0 (http://www.globalsources.com), a next-generation B2B sourcing service, which is quite unique in the market, offering buyers comprehensive search results and third-party verification of suppliers.

Going site-seeing? The new site gives buyers comprehensive supplier and product search results composed of Global Sources Verified Supplier content and content from select third-party sites and general results from the entire World Wide Web. Through the site, Verified Suppliers can attract more customers and set themselves apart from competitors who fail to meet Global Sources’ verification standards.

Says Hinrichs, “We consider this to be the most significant milestone since  1995, when we were the first to launch a B2B online service to connect global buyers with Asian suppliers. We are confident Global Sources Online 2.0 will significantly change buying and selling behavior in the markets Global Sources serves — and attract many more buyers and sellers to the Global Sources community.”

To rattle off a few of Global Sources’ extra services that serve to create business opportunities for buyers and suppliers: private buyer meetings that create exclusive opportunities for pre-selected exhibitors to meet face-to-face with some of the world’s top buyers (like Carrefour, Decathlon, Playtex, QVC, Sears, and Woolworths); virtual buyer meetings to enable exhibitors to meet top international buyers who can’t make it to the fairs via an on-site videoconferencing system; vendor summits to save buyers’ time by allowing them to introduce their companies and outline sourcing requirements to up to 50 pre-selected exhibitors in a private conference room; the brand zone featuring exhibitors committed to building their own B2C and B2B brands through product innovation and quality, etc.

Survey shows there’s a growing focus on quality. Ninety-five percent of suppliers cite improving product quality as major focus while 87 percent of suppliers are looking to work with quality buyers as key to survival and growth. Also, 73 percent of suppliers said they need to look for new markets (other than the US, which is still a major market), like the Middle East with its oil money, India with its huge group of newly wealthy people, and the Russian market.

“The recall problem (of China-made toys found to contain lead toxin)  has forced the Chinese government to take a second hard look at product quality,” observes Tommy TW Wong, general manager of Global Sources Exhibitions. “But even in the face of the rising cost of materials and the shortage of skilled and manual labor, companies can’t give up; they have to look for creative solutions to their problems (like setting up factories in other parts of the world to reduce costs). The current problems will only make Chinese manufacturers better.”

And how did the Filipinos fare at the Hong Kong fair?

“I find Phlippine-made handicrafts really beautiful and quite unique, you don’t have a lot of competition from other areas,” says Sarah, who only has glowing praises for RP-made products. “The Philippines makes beautiful furniture and Christmas decorations. It’s a perfect positioning for the Philippines, but these companies need to come to Hong Kong to meet international buyers. Hong Kong is only an hour-and-a-half away by plane and I’m sure Philippine companies will meet buyers from more than a hundred countries around the world.”

Surely, Filipino creativity shone brightly, side by side innovative products such as a Shenzhen’s talking clinical thermometer that reads out results in English, French, German, and Spanish; Taiwan’s intelligent handsfree dustbin (so intelligent that it automatically opens when users are within 10cm. and closes 10 seconds later); a fully automatic vacuum cleaner; the first music-playing massage rocker chair; and a bathroom scale that doubles as a massager (of course, you may also need an ego massage when the cruel scale shows excess poundage).

Each manufacturer/exporter we visited at the China Sourcing Fair has a unique story to tell.  Like Bobby Bautista whose Craftmill has been exporting to the US (with its products finding their way to mega stores like Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, and Sears), Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. Out of the most ordinary indigenous materials, Craftmill has fashioned some extraordinary products: gift/stationery items, picture frames, storage boxes (which buyers use to put their chocolates and dates in), even small furniture.

“They’re things both functional and decorative for the home and the office; gifts for the boss or for VIPs who have everything,” says Bobby.

Happily, Craftmill also sells its products in the Philippines. “We design for the local buyers, too, and they’re not export overruns. They’re designed for our lifestyle,” asserts Bobby, whose wife Jean Guerrero Bautista, an interior designer, designs for the Marikina-based company.

Craftmill’s Grassroots has outlets in Rustan’s, SM Megamall, and Market! Market!, among others.

“This is our service to our fellow Pinoys so that they, too, can buy Pinoy world-class products,” declares Bobby.

Our most imaginative and avant-garde designers and artisans have transformed ordinary materials we take for granted — abaca, bamboo, driftwood, banana bark, sugarcane stalk, tobacco leaf, coco shell, dried leaves, (Boracay) sand, seagrass, etc., and even walis tingting and fish scales — into works of art that elicit wows, oohs and aahs. The more than 20 Philippine booths that we visited at the China Sourcing Fair were glowing proofs of that.

Even Dubai is putting its oil money on Philippine products. “They buy a lot of our Christmas decor because they’re beginning to celebrate Christmas,” says Nikki Milano of Sally’s Crafts.

“We always challenge our young designers to think of what else we can do using locally sourced materials,” says Salvador Sordo of Island Accents, Inc. with office/showroom in Tunasan, Muntinlupa City. “And at Island Accents, we try to stay focused on one line or one theme so we don’t end up becoming a sari-sari store.”

“We’re always on the lookout for new markets, new Christmas items, those opting for new trends,” chorus mother-and-daughter team Nanette and Alessa de Rivera of Alriver Export Corporation based in Pasig City. “We try to come up with something from all our experiences, from market trends.”

“We develop new products every season and exhibit twice a year at the Manila FAME  (Furnishings & Apparel Manufacturers Exchange),” says Napoleon Chan of Native Crafts & Arts.

“We’re happy and proud to carry world-class designs by the most innovative designers like Carlo Tanseco and PJ Arañador,” says Tony Ganal of Marianka Crafts that specializes in papercraft.

“We hope to meet new buyers, aside from our existing ones from Taiwan, Europe, and the US,” says Nancy Ko, general manager of the Cebu-based Enpekei International, Inc., a first-timer at the Global Sources fair, which exports decorative accessories and furniture made of tin, iron, and abaca.

“Our biggest buyer is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,” says Erika Hernandez, marketing director of the Parañaque-based Mary Kel Co., giftware exporter and manufacturer. “We do their miniature shoes.”

For the most glorious season of all, Maria Elena International, Inc. has come up with the most heavenly native angels in the most colorful native dresses. “Our US market likes whimsical pieces while our European buyers like decor that’s elegant, toned-down, with antique glitter,” says Ellen Chua.

Just by looking at all these native beauties, you know that Christmas this year won’t be blue. You’ll be dreaming of Christmas in the most vivid colors. And even hear the angels sing: Hark! The herald. Glory to Filipino ingenuity!