Filmmaker established a mask production line in two weeks: Available from March, selling each for $1HKD
BeWater
(20 Feb) A post-80 Hong Konger, Mr Tong started his own Face mask factory in HK. It took him 14 days to establish the business, factory of ‘made in HK’ masks.
He is a filmmaker, and together with a few fellow filmmaker friends, they invested their money in surgical mask manufacturing industry, producing HK made face masks. Under scarce supply of all resources for mask production, Mr Tong strived strenuously to secure resources including raw materials and machinery. His investment amount jumped dramatically from 2 million to 5 million. The process worried him quite a lot. Finally, his factory, the Mask Factory finally was in operation. He honestly admited, that ‘Well, it’s faster to make it myself than towait for the help from government.’ Now there is one production line, and first batch of mask will be sent to frontline medical staff, seniors, and cleaning janitors, etc.
The 7000 sq feet factory, is located in Tuen Mun, and was once a food processing factory. It has two main compartments. Before entering, one must wear foot liner bags. Inside the factory, there is 2500sq feet dust free production area. Before entering the dust free zone, goggles, antistatic working suits, industrial hair caps, and ear caps have to be put on. The ear caps are to reduce auditory damage from ultrasound used during the production. The production line is operated by two technical staff. Once the machine is activated, three layers of fabrics, including waterproof outer layer, middle layer for filtering, and moisture absorbing inner layer, and a metal strap will be merged together. The layers will be welded and trimmed accordingly by ultrasound. Lastly ear loops will be attached to the sides. The whole process takes less than a second. However, now the production line is still in testing phrase, and the machine once malfunctioned during our site visit reporting. Under normal operation, it produces 80 to 100 face masks every minute, and daily production could reach 70K masks, and if it operates 24 hours a day, it produces 100k masks in a day.
The process seems rather easy, but not so for Mr Tong, who started it from nothing. Earlier, Mr Tong mentioned that he purchased materials from around the world, paying multiple of the original costs, for raw materials and machine. Since 3 Feb, he has made plan for this business, and then took action making bulk purchases, and until 16 Feb, he began testing the production line. Within this two weeks, he has overcome so many hurdles.
Me Tong told us, he paid 5 times higher to buy the machine from India, “original price was only 100K, but at last I bought it for 1M”. Meanwhile, he started his search for raw materials and factory.
The machine was scheduled to arrive at HK on 12 Feb via a direct flight, but it missed the flight, ‘ I wasunder so much pressure and could barely sleep for those nights. I was so worried, that I was cheated and the down payment of few hundred thousand dollars would be all gone.’ Although the schedule was delayed for one day, Mr Tong felt like a thousand year passed. ‘Fine, no more direct flight, I will use connecting flight instead. I was monitoring the status, the machine landed in one place, and then there was another delay during the transfer since the machine is gigantic. It got onto the plane, and then, bloody hell,I started worrying about aviation accident. ‘
‘There was no political support behind this, it was all our own money, earned from making films.’
The machine finally arrived in HK, and the raw materials arrived one day after. Mr Tong, in spite of all the difficulties, found a dust free factory, and the factory owner was even willing to pass along the space for usage before Mr Tong actually paid the deposit. However, he realised the lift, was too small for the machine, so he could not install the machine right away. Then he had to look for a craneinstead, and tried to move the machine from the outside of the building. He recalled that the factory was located above the 10th floor, maybe even higher.
“Luckily the Crane operator was helpful and supportive, and deployed the most powerful craneto ensure safety. He assured me of the safe delivery, “I use this crane to lift a few hundred tons of materials, no worries!”
So everything is ready, except the staff. So there was an online recruitment. Mr Hu, head of the factory, was responsible for hiring, and became targeted by netizens. Netizens doubted about their background and source of capital. And then since Mr Hu’s son released photos of the factory online, the factory was thought to be Mr Ricky Wong’s, founder of HKTVmall, machinery. Mr Tong clarifies himself, “Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions? Us? Definitely not!. Actually, we didn’t expose our capital source last time, because we have not succeeded. We are not willing to tell, because we don’t want the public to think we are merely seeking attention, saying that “Filmmakers making face mask?”. Since we were not certain if this could be done, so we kept it low profile. Otherwise, if we did not succeeded, everybody would know. So we wish to establish everything first, make sure it works, and then tell people, not the opposite. He further said, “We are not backed by any party, or any organisation. It was all from our own money.”
The mask factory, with daily production of 70K masks. Not intended to take advantage of the crisis. He said, the machine costs 1.2M, and other materials cost 1.5M. With rent and staff cost, the investment will exceed 5M in total. Mr Tong expects that, the mask will be sold for HKD$1 each at its cheapest, and two other versions with better filtering ability and higher cost, will also be produced, which will be soldat HKD$1.5 and HKD$2 each respectively. All masks will be sold online. Whether selling for HKD$1 will lead to a loss, Mr Tong responded, “If we sell the mask for HKD$1 each, we could recover the cost of the materials, but not the rents and other operating costs. If we sell for HKD$1.5, there might be a chance that we can breakeven and earn some surplus.” It is so difficult to buy a mask nowadays, when being asked if he thinks making and selling face masks now is an act of taking advantage out of the other’s suffering, he bluntly said “We are not taking advantage and making money when others are suffering, we have planned that the first batch of product will be donated to those in need, including medical staff, senior citizens, and janitors.We will gather some volunteers to dispatch the masks. The existing materials we have can produce at most 15M masks. He has already invited quality certification company, to test the masks, and the report will be ready in 14 to 20 days. After the quality certification is ready, the masks will be available on the market in early March.
Source: Apple Daily