"Stand-out product catalog"? "Stunning product colors"? Or even "simply perfect cosmetics"? SPC stands for all of this and more as Josh Chen provides us with an insight into the ideologies and structure of the cosmetic manufacturing company that has transformed itself from Sung Power Plastic Container Ltd to Sung Power Cosmetics — or to put it simply, SPC.

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What is SPC and what does the company do?

SPC is a cosmetic —including make-up— packaging company. The business focuses on color cosmetic packaging and customized production that is a tailored design for a customer, and the corresponding packaging design development.

SPC has an excellent selection of products for customers to choose from already and we also provide design services as well as a tooling service.

According to your customers, what is SPC's primary appeal?

There are actually a number of things which customers know that they can expect from us, and customers return to us again for these reasons.

We know that we are far more flexible in comparison to other cosmetic packaging suppliers. We also have a very impressive track record for coordinating project concepts with production plans.

Our customers have told us that they trust in us 100% because of our good quality and that our competitive prices are an added benefit.

Does the company primarily distribute or manufacture?

We are a cosmetic packaging manufacturer, producing our wares in our own manufacturing workshop. There are though some products which we do not produce, such as some for skin care products, and for those products we are able to recommend suppliers to our customers.

We also offer an on-site quality checking management service for those customers which have requirements that certain supply conditions be met. As well as this, we also provide a service to help customers settle their negotiation and do quality management checking locally in China to ensure that customers' projects are completed on time.

We call this our Professional Management Service and it is a service of great value to our customers who entrust us to support and fulfil their packaging needs.

What is your role at SPC and what does it entail?

I'm the Sales Director for the company.  My primary activities are in sales and marketing management, therefore I am responsible for the annual sales plan along with all of the marketing and promotional activities.

What are your current locations?

The business is actually Chinese, although I am from Taiwan and spend my time working between both countries, with the majority of my work being from China.

In China, SPC has a very successful supply network that has been built up and I'm working to duplicate the system in Taiwan. It isn't an easy task, but I want to see more cooperation with Taiwanese companies and this will be of great benefit to the company.

What markets does the company target?

In terms of geography, we work primarily with customers in Europe and America. We have more American customers than from anywhere else, however, in the last few months we have seen that the company's sales figures from Europe are higher.

Businesswise, most of our products see delivery to cosmetic make-up brands. Our produce is seen in a number of make-up markets, although rarely do we produce items targeted especially towards the younger consumers in their early teens, for example. We also have contract manufacturers that work with us constantly.

What changes or milestones has the company achieved in the last ten years?

Ten years ago, in 2007, we opened our second factory, offering an additional 8000 square metres of work space with 33 injection machines. We then went on to achieve the ISO 9001 certification. We were one of the first companies in the Asian region to accomplish the award and this strengthened our reputation in the packaging industry.

SPC has had some really positive market feedback from these changes. Since 2008 the company has been benefiting from a tremendous growth in sales, and the figures just keep getting higher!

Another very significant change for the company has been the rebranding from Sung Power Plastic Container Ltd. to SPC (Sung Power Cosmetics). The change reflects the company's targeted business focus in cosmetic products and also through working with internationally known brands in an industry that is very fashion oriented, the company's new name has been part of a significant upgrade to fit such a fast-moving industry.

What is happening in the business right now?

Business is continuing to go very well. We are expanding our automatic production line at the moment and also building a new facility to incorporate more production lines. It's a really busy time!

We've also gotten more "large orders" from certain brands. Because of confidentiality agreements, I can't reveal any names, but large orders mean continuous production in the factory and less costs for making changes on the production line. Furthermore, as we can use automated production, it saves on human resources and production management costs.

One important target for 2017 is to launch a new company web site. Our involvement on Webpackaging has been an important part of this project so that we could start marketing in the digital space and connect ourselves with the Webpackaging community to enhance the launch of the new site.

With such expansion, is anything proving a challenge for SPC?

There are always challenges in this business! Environmental awareness is an increasing concern in China and the government has set up a number of new regulations and changed others which affect decoration suppliers. As such, we need to strengthen our network of decoration suppliers because many have been forced into closure as they are not qualified according to the latest government regulations.

There is also continuing increases in prices for raw materials —paper, plastic, etc— and the industry in general is suffering to find qualified employees as the younger generation has lost interest in factory work.

Luckily for us, however, we have all of these issues sorted. We are sourcing better decoration suppliers from other provinces, and despite domestic transportation sometimes affecting the lead time and final cost, the result is stable decoration quality from qualified facilities.

We work with a number of professional agents to find new employees from other provinces in China, and we offer a good wage for our employees to make sure they are happy and that they stay with us.

The US dollar has weakened recently, and although it's not something that I'm happy about, it is certainly good for the company as we can benefit from the currency exhange; fitting customer budgets without raising prices.

Although we do have some challenges, we are meeting them and things are going very well.

Are there any new products you can discuss?

We usually develop products in conjuction with customers. At SPC we investigate the market and ensure that we are current with new technologies, information and the latest decoration techniques. The result is then presented to our customers and made into reality.

As a general rule we don't do much on stock product designs, mostly because stock packaging doesn't fit with specific projects and proves to be a waste of resources. We concentrate on specific products for specific customers.

Will you be at any shows this year?

We will indeed. We are very active in our exhibition attendance. Companies expect to see us at events around the world and our attendance makes it easier to maintain our good relationships with customers and develop relationships with future customers.

In 2017 you will see us at:

• Cosmoprof Bologna
• Beautyworld Middle East Dubai
• Makeup in Paris
• Cosmoprof North America in Las Vegas
• Makeup in New York
• Cosmoprof Asia in Hong Kong