Mail Order Houses In Hong Kong

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 18

Mail Order Houses In Hong Kong

IBp Our Commercial editor)

The “catalogue from Hong Kong" is now a familiar sight in many New Zealand offices and homes. What kind of firm issues these catalogues? How much business do they attract by their catalogues? How many firms in Hong Kong are in the mail order business? A two-day stop-over in Hong Kong on the way back from Japan last week gave this reporter the chance to ask some of these questions on the spot. A tight schedule limited the scope of the inquiry to’ one interview with a “mail-order merchant,” and several discussions with local residents and New Zealand officials in Hong Kong. Mr Henry Wu, manager of a firm in Hankow road, Kowloon, was the first source of information. Mr Wu's firm has just issued a new, 29page illustrated catalogue. Hankow road is one of a dozen large streets which form the main shopping centre of Kowloon. It runs back from the waterfront, near the wharf where the ferry leaves for Hong Kong Island. At the waterfront end, near the Peninsula Hotel and the Y.M.C.A building, the shops are comparatively large and the window displays carefully planned. Small Shop Area At the other end of the street, which terminates in Haiphong road, the shops are smaller and many of them cater for the local Chinese rather than the tourist. It is in this quarter of Kowloon that Mr Wu's shop is situated. It is one of many such shops in the colony; a small and dingy facade surmounted by a large and colourful shop sign; the window and interior crammed with a bewildering assortment of fabrics, garments, jewellery and objets d'art. Mr Henry Wu was not in the shop. His younger brother, a personable Chinese of perhaps 30, was a persuasive salesman and an obliging informant. He was well aware o' the recent restrictions in New Zealand on the purchase of British postal orders (the reduction from £1 to 5s in the value of orders which may be purchased by one person at a time). “Car coats? We send about 2000 a year to New Zealand There are 10 or 12 firms in Hong Kong which send catalogues to New Zealand,” he said. These car coats are produced in Hong Kong in prodigious quantities. They are for export primarily, as they are too heavy for comfort in the sub-tropical Hong Kong climate. The typical car coat is made of rubberised. waterproof material, with a quilted lining Prices range from 11 Hong Kong dollars (13s 9d) for a Childs ccat to 27 dollars (33s 9d> for a man’s coat with a hood of nylon fur. Trade Figures The New Zealand resident ordering goods by catalogue is responsible for only a small proportion of New Zealand imports from this source. In 1958 New Zealand imported £956,000 worth of goods from Hong Kong. in 1959, £806.000 worth, and in 1981. £2,200000 worth Textiles are the major product, and export, of Hong Kong “This place is certain to become a major source of supply for New Zeeland in several tines.” said a Christchurch importer in Hong Kong. He said he now visited Hong Kong twice a year at * least, to keep up with business opportunities presented by the rapidly-growing industrial production of the eolony. New Zealand's exports to Hong Kong have also risen sharply in the last three years—from £205,000 to £481.000. The trade gap has widened, however, from £751.000 in 1958 to £1.719.000 in IMO This growing deficit is. of course, not peculiar to Hong Kong, as New Zealand’s over-all trade figures have

deteriorated markedly in the last three years. Of special concern about the Hong Kong deficit is its lead to trading in the £ New Zealand at a discount. The latest catalogues and shopping guides quote the £ New Zealand at 13.90 or 14.00 dollars, compared with 15.90 dollars for the £ United Kingdom. These rates represent a discount of 12.0 per cent to 12.6 per cent, below the official rate—parity with sterling. The new restrictions on the purchase of British postal orders are likely to accentuate rather than diminish this discount If New Zealand residents continue to pay for their mail orders with New Zealand £1 notes (a practice which contravenes the New Zealand currency regulations) an increasing volume of New Zealand currency circulating in Hong Kong will force down the price of the £ New Zealand. This discount is of more concern to the New Zealand monetary authorities than the actual trade deficit. It would not be surprising if further measures were introduced to curtail New Zealand’s mail order business with Hong Kong.