May-Jul 2021 “Hong Kong Industrialist”

Fortunately, Ryan eventually reached an optical fiber manufacturing company who was willing to rent a spare clean room to them. But then, there came the challenge of purchasing raw materials, “Melt-blown non-woven fabrics, which is the core material for surgical masks, have seen soaring demand all over the world. The quality of supplies was very unstable, while those suppliers that can provide qualified materials can never meet the delivery timeline.” As Ryan recalled, his team used to make hundreds of phone calls a day to find the right suppliers as they were all new to the industry. In the end, Ryan was connected to a qualified supplier through referral and finally stabilised the supply of raw materials. While Ryan was about to kick-start production after getting the clean room and materials ready, he unexpectedly found that the machines he purchased can hardly assembly a surgical mask in a right shape. "The machine did complete the whole assembly process after switching on – but none of the finished product was ‘right’. From clamping, cloth loading, folding, insertion of the nose clip and straps… Our technicians have to make adjustments repeatedly to make everything get in shape and so that our output has stable quality that meet external standards.” During the epidemic, the technicians in Mainland China cannot travel to Hong Kong to provide support. GoodMask finally began production at the end of March after their technicians managed to fix the machines all by themselves. Indeed, this whole bumpy journey of GoodMask setting up its manufacturing plant has been shared by many other surgical mask manufacturers in Hong Kong at that time. In the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, online pre-sales became the dominant sales channel for many surgical mask manufacturers as customers wanted to stay home. Many suffered from the ill-conceived online purchase process and delayed delivery. To establish brand reputation, Ryan decided not to take the pre-sales approach. Instead, GoodMask launched the online sales in April after the first batch of products 李秉峰最終在機緣巧合下，租得光纖製造 廠備用的無塵車間。隨之而來便是採購原材 料的問題，「當時世界各地對口罩原材料熔 噴布的需求急增，供應商供貨的質素非常參 差，質素合規格的又未能履行交貨期。」初時 團隊對採購過程茫無頭緒，李秉峰的同事每 日平均打過百通電話尋找供應商，最後還是 靠親友轉介才能找上合適的公司，將原材料 供應穩定下來。 租下無塵廠房及採購原材料後，李秉峰原 本以為口罩生產線可正式投入運作，豈料購 置的口罩生產機幾乎都出現故障。「機器能 接上電源正常啟動及完成所有工序，但口罩 成品卻總是奇形怪狀。機器的每個工序，由 夾布、上布、疊起布料、攝入鼻樑固定條、 釘耳繩等，每一步都需要師傅反覆調整，機 器才能穩定地產出符合標準的口罩。」疫情 期間，內地口罩廠的技術專員無法來港支援， GoodMask的師傅屢敗屢試才調好機器，讓 公司在三月尾正式開始生產。GoodMask的 經驗，相信是香港許多口罩廠的真實寫照。 疫情爆發初期，市民在家避疫，口罩生產 商都透過網上預售，在購買流程、交貨期等 都衍生過不少問題。李秉峰沒有採取預售策 略，而是在做好一批口罩後、約四月時方開 設電商平台發售，讓客戶能安心選購並很快 收到貨品，建立了良好商譽。隨著疫情日漸 緩和，GoodMask在多個黃金地段開設實體 店，增加品牌曝光；現時實體店的銷售額更 已超越網店。公司亦在加拿大、英國等海外 地區批發分銷口罩，今年三月更進軍台北， 冀拓展外銷市場。為吸引客戶繼續選用， GoodMask不斷推出新款設計，除了自家設 計的印花口罩、日本卡通人物授權設計外， 也計劃與本地設計師推出聯乘口罩系列，保 持客戶新鮮感。李秉峰指，「過往港資廠商 專注於代工生產 (OEM)，但現在作為口罩廠 商，除了要懂得製造優質口罩外，更需要經 營品牌，由生產到零售要一手包辦。」現時， GoodMask的團隊已經有近200人，除了生 產線的部份，亦需要不少人手負責設計、營 FOCUS STORY | 專題 18 | 5-7/2021