Nurturing Local Creative Talents and Creating Shared Value

While a lot of businesses are striving to stay afloat and adapt to market changes, LAWSGROUP, a conglomerate with over 45 years of history, has been transforming since 2015, by implementing the “Creating Shared Value” strategy and green initiatives across the Group’s businesses. Bosco Law, Deputy Chairman & CEO of LAWSGROUP and Board of Director of GS1 Hong Kong, acknowledged that in addition to the Group’s motto “Passion for Fashion”, his love for Hong Kong is also a driver for changes. “Part of the reason why the development of Hong Kong brands withers is that local people have not been appreciating local creativity in the past decade, and we need to change that.”

LAWSGROUP’s Love for Hong Kong

LAWSGROUP was founded in Hong Kong with manufacturing plants in Mainland China. Majored in architecture, Bosco leads the Group and initiated expansion of production line along the Belt and Road to Vietnam, Myanmar and Bangladesh, achieving an annual production capacity of more than 208,000,000 pieces of clothing. Bosco has been always supporting local design, fashion and creative industries, and he envisioned D2 Place as Hong Kong’s first commercial complex revitalized from industrial building and converted it into an incubation hub for local designers. He is also the patron sponsor of Fashion Farm Foundation (FFF), an NGO supporting Hong Kong fashion designers to develop their own brands and help introducing their designs to Mainland China and overseas markets. “D2 Place stands for ‘Designers’ Dreams’. We nurture and support local designers to realize their dreams through our Entrepreneurship Model.”

Turning Revitalised Industrial Building into Incubation Hub

The Entrepreneurship Model at D2 Place consists of 6 different stages, in which startups are nurtured and supported progressively from an initial sales experience in the Weekend Markets, pop-up stores, kiosks and shops to managing a developed business across the city and even outreaching the world. Since the launch of the program, over a quarter of entrepreneurs managed to advance progressively into in a kiosk, in which more than 50 brands already successfully expanded their businesses from D2 Place to other local shopping malls.

Apart from signature events like Weekend Markets, D2 Place has been partnering with creative groups from different countries to organize various cultural events, such as French May and Songkran Thai Water Festival. The group also established the “Made in Hong Kong” brand and organised “Top 10 Artisans Award” and Street Carnival to support local creativity. In addition, LAWSGROUP collaborated with Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) Design Gallery, and set up THE BARN Lifestyle Store as a retail and promotional platform for local designers and entrepreneurs. D2 Place holds more than 100 events every year and has benefited more than 10,000 creative parties and designers since its opening.

For their excellence in creating shared value, LAWSGROUP stood out from over one hundred corporates and won the Grand Award at the inaugural Business for Social Good Award organised by Our Hong Kong Foundation.

Promoting Reindustrialisation

Bosco strongly supports the HKSAR Government’s re-industrialization initiative, such as setting up a new fashion hub and form a Hong Kong version of “Dongdaemun/Fashion District” in Sham Shui Po, as proposed by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. He believes they will accelerate the growth of the local fashion and creative industries, bringing traffic and new prospect to the area.

Supply Chain Resilience as the Key to Success

In response to the growing risk and disruption brought by the pandemic. Bosco revealed that some manufacturers are shifting from the efficiency-focused, just-in-time supply chain, to a more responsive and risk-averse supply system. He added the Group has been able to react quickly to the disruptions brought by the outbreak, as the production facilities in multiple locations ensured steady and reliable supplies.

He also observed business consolidations are taking place, where manufacturers with inflexible supply chain are replaced by the competitive ones, which contributed to the growth of the Group’s market share. At the same time, since casual wear accounts for the majority of LAWSGROUP’s product portfolio, the overall sales increased as work-from-home becomes the new normal, and the demand for business attires goes down while casual wear goes up. In addition, the Group has been using automated machines and adopted 5G and smart technology across all plants.

With agile supply chain and a competitive product portfolio, Bosco is confident of the Group's future in achieving sustainable growth in multiple areas despite adversity. He believes the GS1 barcode, smart technology, 5G network, and even blockchain will play a vital role in the global apparel supply chain, which facilitates inventory management, logistics control, automated replenishment and more, enhancing competitive advantages for both suppliers and merchants.

In 2020, the majority stake of Bossini was acquired by Viva China, a company controlled by Li Ning family, in a bid to reposition the brand and expedite its expansion into the Mainland China market leveraging from Li Ning’s expertises and experiences. Bosco believes there is room for developing local fashion brands in Hong Kong by introducing new elements and ideas.

The Global ESG Trends

Long before ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) prevails in Hong Kong, LAWSGROUP has launched a “15-year Sustainability Plan” in 2016 and introduced new technologies, facilities, green ideas and GS1 global standards in building a seamless and sustainable industry ecosystem. The group spearheaded waste and emission reduction in textile manufacturing to match with the target of limiting global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius, paving the way to sustainable fashion.

On the other hand, the group has deployed 5G enterprise solution by China Mobile Hong Kong to realise smart property management. Riding on advanced technologies including cloud, big data analytics, IoT, AI and environment monitoring system, the solution enables real-time analysis of traffic and customer locations, and the capability to customize promotion strategies for boosting sales.

Bosco believes GS1 HK’s Smart Business Operations can help companies do more with less, and will explore applications in terms of crowd control, workplace temperature automation, as well as improved customer engagement and shopping journey in smart retail.

Stay Steady and Open Up to New Opportunities

Bosco believes the future of Hong Kong brands is promising, “Hong Kong has a solid foundation. We just need to keep going, be vigilant, stay passionate and confident. I’m sure we can revive our glory and bring Hong Kong fashion to the international stage.”