Innovative idea wins top design award (hktdc.com)


	Daka founder Pat Mah found instant success with his One Touch product line developed in Hong Kong

	This award-winning can opener has launched the One Touch range for Hong Kong company Daka Development

Hong Kong design and development company Daka Development has won a prestigious international design award for an innovative kitchen tool it conceived, designed, engineered and marketed in Hong Kong.

The One Touch automatic can opener won the US International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) business and design gold award, which is judged on a product’s innovation, functionality and aesthetic appeal. The award is sponsored by Business Weekly magazine and the Industrial Designer Society of America.

The high-tech can opener cuts through a tin at the touch of a button, without needing the hand pressure required by conventional can openers. It launches the One Touch brand of kitchen tools developed by Daka, a company founded in 1993 with the aim of developing innovative products for the global consumer market.

IPR protection

Daka founder and Executive Chairman Pat Mah said the One Touch brand was developed as an easy to use product line for senior citizens, a growing consumer group due to the ageing population.

Hong Kong provided the ideal development platform as it provides strong intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. The city also offers ease of export to Daka’s markets worldwide, and convenient access to its manufacturing facilities in the Chinese mainland.

"Hong Kong is the main gateway for enforcement of IPR," Mr Mah said. Its value-added contribution made Hong Kong a "cost-plus-plus" centre enabling the company to develop ideas with confidence in its R&D laboratory.

While Daka was "not necessarily looking for instant success", it found it with the One Touch can opener. A second product, an easy to use jar opener, has followed, and Mr Mah said that a series of One Touch products will come to market in the next 12 months.

Hong Kong's Daka Development wins US gold award for design