Roland Guettler has made a success of his exquisitely designed, made-in-China crystal souvenirs

Roland Guettler came here in 1980 as managing director for the Asian operations of Swarovski, the Austrian crystal company.  In 1993, Swarovski centralised its international operations and took control back to Austria. Rather than return to his home land, Mr Guettler decided to set up his own business. He bought fashion company Premiere Collections Ltd in 1994 and switched it to the manufacture of crystal items. 
    
"When it came to a choice of returning to Austria or setting up a business here, I did not hesitate," Mr Guettler said. "Hong Kong is a great place to do business. It is centrally located and easy to reach from anywhere in the world. Communications are first class and the people are efficient and hard-working. It is a fun city and buyers love to come here.

Three years of growth 

A Disney related business with the US company Arribas, has crowned three years of growth for Premiere Collections, which now exports to the US, Europe and Japan. Before that, he says the years between 1997 and 2002 were hard.

"When I started I had contracts to supply trophies and corporate gifts to the Jockey Club and Cathay Pacific, and I did a brisk business making souvenirs for the 1997 handover. But after the handover, when the recession hit, everything declined.

"I had to restructure my whole business and this was when I changed to having my products made in China, instead of Austria.  I found that the optical instrument factories in China had the technology for cutting and polishing.  They were quick to learn and are now more skilful, reliable and certainly much less expensive than the Europeans. I now have all my products hand-crafted in China, but when artist's hand engraving is necessary it is done in Austria.  I do not own my own factory, but contract the work out to several factories in  China.  When I decided to have my products made in China I travelled throughout the mainland, looking for the right expertise. I now work entirely with Chinese manufacturers and this has been the foundation of my success.

Eco-friendly designs

"The business of making beautiful objects out of glass is endlessly fascinating. When various medical authorities pointed out that crystal contains lead which can be poisonous to humans, I began producing glass products without lead. Now, most of my products are made out of what I call 'EcoCRYSTAL' which does not contain lead."

Turnover of his company last year topped HK$15.5 million (US$2 million). With many new customers and orders on hand - so this year looks very good. For various customers he produces figurines, key rings, boxes and brooches, many of them with the familiar figures of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto and Donald Duck - where his customer holds the license. He has an in-house designer but most of his products are made to customers' designs.

Mr Guettler has also found a new way to market his products.  Showing the crystal gifts on a television programme in Tokyo, the Jupiter Shop Channel, he has become quite a well-known television personality in Japan, and gets a steady flow of Japanese orders.

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Premiere Collections Ltd