Gardening Product Makers Shed Light on Strategies for Sustainable Development

One maker plans to launch electromechanical agricultural items to stay ahead

Makers of gardening tools along with accessories generate export revenue of around US$95 million on average yearly help to drive hand tool exports in Taiwan.

Besides being popular with professionals and DIY gardeners in the U.S. and Europe, and despite global economic uncertainty that have occasionally sapped demand for gardening tools, such products have sold comparatively well in global markets over the past few years for the successful strategies adopted by makers.

Several suppliers share insights with CENS, detailing plans and innovative formulas that have kept them afloat amid a global economy that continues to be volatile despite the short-lived upturn in 2011.

Optimizing Competitiveness
Wise Center Industrial Group Inc. has been growing steadily in recent years, to be well on its way to a world-caliber supplier of branded garden tools, said the chairman Thomas Lin.

Lin stated that his company has been developing SOPs for production and other operations in compliance with TS16949, whose certification is expected to be obtained in October, a rarity in this industry that will help every employee to cultivate the concept of standardization to more efficiently produce consistently better products. In short, this traditional small-and medium-sized enterprise is adopting globally-recognized standards of production and efficient management.

“Implementing production and quality management to meet TS16949 is a lifetime job, which takes considerable effort but is worthwhile to enhance added-value for customers, while a maker today must prove to customers its capacity to meet global standards in addition to making good products in this increasingly challenging market,” said Lin.

To achieve such goal, the company adopts cross-industry cooperation, working with peers, academia and research institutes to optimize production and operations to improve yield rates and operating efficiency. Besides, the company has also been building worker-friendly work environments to meet demands from buyers who are against dealing with sweatshops, said Lin.

“Foreign customers evaluate a supplier not only on product quality, but also management systems, work environments and worker-friendliness,” said Lin. The maker also aims to acquire the Certification of BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) established in Europe.

Market-driven R&D
Meanwhile Wise Center has also been broadening its line to enhance brand sales. Lin noted that his company plans to build 10 different product families in the short term for cutting and trimming bushes, trees, fences and lawns and other special purposes. “Our new products are specifically developed to meet market demands, instead of merely to fill orders, which enable our company, a manufacturer of branded items, to dedicate resources more effectively,” said Lin.

The maker has developed three new product families, including telescopic shears with one-touch button, pruning shears and lopping shears with easier operation.

The maker aims to achieve sales growth in three years with the product R&D project and the competitiveness optimization plan, as well as having set up footholds across China with sub-brands, with a new production line of branded products to be established in China by the end of this year for the local market, according to Lin.

Founded in 1991 in Taichung County, central Taiwan, Wise Center specializes in production of gardening tools and accessories, filling OEM (original equipment manufacturing) and ODM (original design manufacturing) orders with two plants in Taiwan and one packaging plant in China, as well as in recent year moving upward to OBM (original brand manufacturing) operation.

The company mainly offers pruners of various types, parts, shovels, flower scissors, water pipe shears, ladders, aluminum, zinc castings, lighting fixture parts, household hardware, plastic products, building materials, molds, forged and die cast products.

Targeted at Professionals
Mainly focused on professional-caliber spray guns for gardening and agricultural purposes, Evergreen Spraying Technology Co. has consistently achieved brisk sales growth since its establishment four years ago, said the president S.J. Lin.

With over three decades of experience in developing, making and marketing spray guns and accessories, Lin is dedicated to OEM and ODM business and has successfully built a solid name among buyers from the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., as well as marketing products under the house brand EST worldwide.

This four-year-old company owes its success in the professional-level, metallic spray guns segment to its cutting-edge know-how of structural design, said Lin, who added that this segment is traditionally dominated by Japanese suppliers with few Taiwanese.

For example, Lin has built into all the spray guns innovative structure to enable easy switching of nozzles, with the improved structure made of light alloy or stainless steel for lightweight and still able to spray water at high and low pressure.

To enhance working efficiency for professional users, the company has also unveiled a couple of special spray guns with unique designs and beefed-up functions. For example, the long range spray gun has a 360-degree rotatable nozzle and lockable trigger, and another specifically for arecas with improved spray to 13 meters. Another model designed for strawberry farms has multiple, interchangeable nozzles with three different angles on the fork-shaped shank, assuring effective irrigation.

“Professional-level sprayers are more specialized and functional than DIY models, which call for higher technologies and know-how but generate higher margins. EST may be only four-years old but has decades-long expertise and is well recognized by foreign professionals,” said Lin.

Lin showed another sprayer for watering street-side trees that, besides driving banner sales growth, is sought-after by customers in the U.S. for excellent functionality, with shipments steadily increasing to exceed 10,000 units in 2011 from less than 6,000 units in the first year. Since demand for professional-caliber sprayers is more stable than for DIY models, Lin hence believes sales will keep growing in 2012 to continue to do well in the future.

Besides sprayers, this maker also supplies hoses, valves, nozzles, sprayer parts and hose joints, all of which are also used in cleaning and sterilizing equipment.

New Products
Focused on developing new products, Sheng Yih Hardware Enterprise Co., Ltd., founded in 1976 in Changhua County, central Taiwan, also achieved revenue growth in 2011 mainly due to sales to Japan and China, said the chairman J.T. Hsieh.

Sheng Yih offers gardening tools as pruners, hand tools, peripheral equipment and parts, shovels, flower scissors, water hoses, and shears, as well as hardware, household products, building materials, molds, forged and die-casting products, aluminum zinc castings, lighting fixture parts, plastic products.

Sheng Yih has successfully shipped products to Europe and Japan to build a reputation for commitment to R&D, said Hsieh, who stressed that his company's cutting tools feature functions and innovations superior to competing models.

Only by engaging in R&D based on real world experience can a maker develop marketable and functional products, a strategy that Sheng Yih has used to achieve business growth in recent years.

The HH1411B hedge shear is a prime example that features a dual-pivot blade design that enables more efficient and easier cutting than conventional models with a single pivot. Moreover, the dual-pivot structural design enables the shear to cut 20mm twigs and branches without need for supplementary tools.

To meet demand for lightweight gardening tools, this shear has blades of SK5 steel coupled with a handle and shank of a mixture of nylon and lead, and aluminum, respectively, allowing customers optional coating for added-value.

“We have continued applying practical experience to develop new products and will repeatedly fine-tune to attain optimal performance,” Hsieh once again said of his company's R&D concepts. “We aim to provide the best, practical gardening tools that exceed users' expectation.”

Quality Pumps
Committed to making high-quality pumps for power sprayers and manual backpack sprayers for professional use, Lu Shyong Machinery Industry Co. also achieved robust growth in 2011, said the manager K.C. Lin.

The quality-driven company is ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 certified, and supplies major customers in Germany and Japan on an OEM basis. Consistently emphasizing R&D, the maker is experienced in handling ODM orders and is working towards OBM with its own Whale Best brand, which is synonymous with reliable quality.

Lin said that high quality and functionality of its high-pressure pumps is mainly attributable to its ample aluminum die casting and CNC machining technology that is achieved with CNC machining centers and skilled workers. The company's pumps have output pressure up to 280kg and all are CE certified.

Drawing on its technologies, the company has developed and produced a wide range of agricultural equipment as power sprayers, knapsack sprayers, sprayers with built-in rechargeable batteries, portable power sprayers, high-pressure cleaning machines, high-pressure industrial pumps, fogging machines, air coolers, diaphragm pumps, brush cutters, power tillers, spray guns, washing guns, nozzles, pullers, hose reels, hoses, extension rods, and twirl preventers.

Lin showed the SB 528 pump as a hot-seller in the past four years, which has been improved with a water seal to not need lubrication, and a piston design to achieve lower power consumption. The LS1311 high-pressure pump is another sales driver that has a timer delay switch system, a ceramic plunger and pump head of forged brass that is ideal for industrial use.

To counter increasing rivalry against Chinese makers, Lin said that his company will develop more niche products, while expanding its factory in China to step up production integration. “We will continue to develop high-quality pumps for our customers to achieve bigger market share, and venture into electromechanical products for agricultural use to differ from rivals. Few Taiwanese pump makers are capable but we plan to unveil such a product by the end of this year,” said Lin.

Lu Shyong can supply about 6,000 units of agricultural products, together with accessories monthly, with over 70% of output exported, including 39% to Asia and the Middle East, 15% to America, and 8% to Europe.

Diversification
Diversifying from garden hoses, brass nozzles, brass connector sets, valves and sprinklers for gardening to industrial purposes as food making, Yong Yen Material Co., Ltd. has found new growth drivers in recent years, said proudly K.S. Huang, the chairman.

With over two decades in the field, Yong Yen is a major parts supplier for gardening item makers in Changhua County, with core competitiveness being excellent production capability and ample capacity. Huang said the company employs over 40 sets of CNC lathes and 10 plastic injection machines to provide customer-oriented, timely manufacturing services.

“To build sustainable development, Yong Yen has stepped up developing and making precision parts for more applications. One new product line is valves and connectors for NSF-certified faucets and reverse osmosis filters, which generate higher gross profits than those for gardening products to increasingly contribute to revenue growth over the past years,” said Huang.

Huang said that parts shipped to the gardening product industry command a half of Yong Yen's overall shipment, with the other half being for other purposes, a diversification strategy that has been effective, with production lines fully booked January through May, adding that the maker is moving towards being an all-around manufacturer in a challenging global climate.