Photo: Vice President Lin-Jia-fang
In the past two years, Taiwanese companies
have returned, but the bearings, known as the “heart of machine
tools,” still choose to stay there because the supply chain is all in the
mainland. Among them, the 30-year-old JOTA Bearing has mainly targeted the
domestic market in the past. Vice President Lin Jia-fang boldly introduced
e-commerce at the beginning of her takeover three years ago and launched an export
layout, attracting international companies to cooperate. With the fermentation
of “advanced deployment,” JOTA opened up a blue ocean, achieved
record revenue of more than US$ 20 million, and performed outstandingly among
small and medium-sized enterprises, which also allowed Taiwan’s industrial
strength to be seen.
“As long as things can spin,like
electric fans, small motors, etc., bearings will be used.” Lin Jia-fang
pointed out that although bearings are traditionally produced, they have a wide
range of applications and are indispensable key components in machinery. The
prospects are not bleak. In the industrial chain, there are still six to seven
manufacturing processes, and all the raw materials are supplied by mainland
manufacturers. Therefore, 80% of the world’s bearing manufacturers are located
on the mainland. Considering the cost and efficiency of import and export, the
decision to keep the factory in the local area has become an exception in this
wave of backflow of Taiwanese business people.
Although the manufacturing and other
projects are the same as in the past, Lin Jia-fang’s succession has injected
new vitality into JOTA. With a Canadian marketing background, she took the
company to start export sales, established a dedicated department, and
introduced the concept of e-commerce. Although both departments were considered
money-burning units at the time, she firmly believed that only in this way
could there be opportunities for revenue growth.
After biting his teeth through the dilemma
of the export department’s first-year turnover of less than US$20,000, Lin
Jia-fang’s layout has gradually fermented. In the past, the proportion of
domestic sales revenue was as high as 95%. So far, the export sales have
increased to 45% and the mainland 30%, Domestic sales in Taiwan are about 25%.
She frankly said that the gross profit margin of export sales is not high.
However, with the expansion of scale and large enough amount, it will
contribute to the company’s total gross profit.
The introduction of e-commerce is a
significant contributor to increasing the proportion of foreign sales revenue.
Lin Jia-fang pointed out that due to the epidemic, it is impossible to go
abroad to participate in exhibitions and develop customers in 2020. Fortunately,
“advance deployment” in the field of e-commerce. During this period,
all development customers come from e-commerce, and at least one to two new
ones are introduced every week. On average, customers will have orders worth
about 10,000 US dollars every two months, and one big customer will appear
every six months, with a transaction rate of more than 90%. Recently, a
well-known Italian food machinery group is discussing cooperation on new
bearing product development projects.
The traditional manufacturing industry is
in the hands of Lin Jia-fang, and she has found a new foothold on the
e-commerce platform. She pointed out that it is challenging to gain customer
trust on the Internet. In addition to product quality as the primary threshold,
the presentation of other customers’ recommendations and web page introductions
is more critical. Many manufacturers have come through online recommendations,
including a large wholesaler that specializes in bearings in Turkey. The first
order was a large amount of US$50,000.
source : https://ctee.com.tw/people/interview/429047.html