Explainer | Toilet-paper maker, fruit-tea drink start-up among five companies from Jiangmen that stand out from the crowd

Heytea, the famous Chinese tea-drink brand known for its fruit-tea drinks topped with creamy cheese, has its roots in Jiangmen
Vinda gained attention when the Covid-19 pandemic saw people rush to buy toilet paper

Greater Bay Area

Martin ChoiandEnoch Yiu

Published: 1:00pm, 1 Jul 2021

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From start-ups to cutting-edge technology firms, the Greater Bay Area city of Jiangmen is home to companies covering the entire spectrum of industries.

While some of the enterprises have turned their founders into billionaires, ranking among the richest people in China, some of the promising start-ups have the potential to turn more into the rich league.

Here are five of the best-known companies from the city, one of the nine in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong that make up the Bay area with Hong Kong and Macau.

Heytea

The Chinese tea-drink brand known for its fruit-tea drinks topped with creamy cheese has its origins in Jiangmen.

The founder Nie Yunchan has grown the company from a small tea shop of less than 20 square metres (215 sq ft) in 2012, to over 800 stores in less than a decade, spread across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.

The drink start-up has leveraged the power of free internet marketing, attracting scores of Chinese millennial consumers who do not mind waiting in long queues for hours on end to try its non-traditional tea drinks.

In 2016, Nie received a 100 million yuan (US$15.5 million) investment from IDG Capital and venture capitalist He Boquan, followed by 400 million yuan from Meituan in 2018. Its founder was also listed on Forbes’ “30 Under 30 Asia” list in the retail and e-commerce section in 2019, which recognises the top 30 executives under 30 years of age in their respective industries.

Vinda International

China’s largest producer of tissue and toilet paper was founded in Jiangmen in 1985 and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2007.

Vinda’s four business segments are tissue paper, incontinence care, feminine care and baby care. The German tissue brand Tempo, hygiene product brand Tork and baby diaper brand Dryper are some of the key brands in its portfolio.

While Vinda has long been a household name in China for its tissue paper and hygiene products, it gained elevated attention when panicking consumers around the world began hoarding toilet paper during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as rumours of a shortage spread online. In an interview with the Post in March 2020, Vinda’s chief executive allayed fears about a shortage in supplies of toilet paper in Hong Kong or China.

The company also reported its most profitable quarter since 2015 during the first three months of last year, helped by the lower price of pulp, the raw material for making paper.

The Gudou Hot Spring Valley is a popular tourist attraction. Photo: Handout

Gudou Holdings

The city is popular for its hot springs, with the Gudou Hot Spring Valley in Xinhui heading the list. It is where Gudou Holdings operates its resort business. The firm was listed in Hong Kong’s GEM board in December 2016.

Established in 2001, the Gudou Hot Spring Resort can easily be accessed by rail and road from other Greater Bay Area cities.

The resort, spread over 650,000 sq m covering mountains, lakes, springs and beaches, has six themed hotels with facilities for both leisure and business travellers.

The Goudou Hot Spring Town tourist attraction, which receives between 500,000 and 600,000 visitors per year, is rated AAAA, the second highest rating in China.

Jiangmen Dachangjiang

Founded in 1992, Jiangmen Dachangjiang, is the top seller of motorcycles in China since 2008, according to the China Automobile Industry Association.

While Dachangjiang makes motorcycles under the Haojue brand, it also manufactures them in partnership with Japan’s Suzuki Motor. Both these brands are exported to over 80 countries and regions around the world, according to the company.

Haojue was ranked 87th in China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands 2021 list compiled by the World Brand Lab, with a value of 65.3 billion yuan, the highest among the motorcycle category.

Dachangjiang, which has a workforce of over 10,000, has also stepped into the electric vehicle space. In May, the company formed a joint venture with Chinese electric bicycle maker Yadea to deploy a new electric refuelling system in China that will use Taiwanese company Gogoro’s smart battery swapping system.

Lingyi iTech (Guangdong)

The maker of magnetic materials and panel displays, which counts Apple among its customers, can trace its roots to Guangdong Jiangfen Magnetic Material, which set up in 1975, in Jiangmen. It later restructured and merged with Guangdong LY Intelligent Manufacturing and was renamed as Lingyi iTech (Guangdong).

The Shenzhen- listed company employs about 70,000 people and is in the process of applying for a listing in Hong Kong, according to a Shenzhen exchange filing on June 18.

Chairwoman Zeng Fangqing is one the richest self-made women in China. The 56-year-old ranked sixth in the Hurun Richest Self-Made Women in the World last year, with a net worth of US$7.6 billion.

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