Li & Fung
| Li & Fung Ltd. 利豐
|
|
|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Limited |
| ISIN | BMG5485F1445 |
| founding | 1906 |
| Seat |
 Hong Kong , China
|
| management | William Fung - Business Manager Director Victor Fung - Chairman of the Board |
| Branch | trade |
| Website | www.lifung.com |
Li & Fung Ltd. ( Chinese 利豐 / 利丰 , Pinyin Lì Fēng , Jyutping Lei 6 Fung 1 ) is one of the largest trading houses in the world. The Hong Kong- based group of companies is listed on the local stock exchange in the Hang Seng Commercial & Industrial Index .
Li & Fung specializes in large quantities and time-sensitive goods. A large part of the business is the clothing trade. Hard goods are also traded, for example fashion accessories, furnishings, gift items, handmade goods, toys and sporting goods, merchandising items and travel items.
The company is a cross - manufacturer and cross-border supply chain manager who offers a complete package of value-added services beyond the mere delivery, from product design and development to quality assurance to freight processing and others.
The company was founded in 1906 in Guangzhou (Canton) by Fung Pakliu and Li To-ming as a porcelain and antiques dealer and is now run in the third generation by the brothers William Fung ( managing director ) and Victor Fung ( chairman ) . With an estimated 1.5 billion per US dollar personal fortune they are in the list of billionaires of the Forbes Magazine listed in 2006 ranked 512th
Li & Fung is represented with 66 branches in over 40 production countries. The company purchases 47% of its merchandise in the People's Republic of China . The production sites are concentrated in Asia for cost reasons, whereby Li & Fung itself does not have any production capacities, but places orders with delivery times to contract manufacturers . In order to be closer to the European and American customers and to be able to recognize and satisfy their market needs more quickly, Li & Fung has also expanded into the Mediterranean region, Eastern Europe and Central America in recent years.
Li & Fung Ltd. belongs to the Li & Fung Group , which also includes private retail and distribution companies. With annual sales of around 7 billion US dollars and around 18,000 employees, Li & Fung is one of the largest trading houses in the world and is (in the course of outsourcing or offshoring ), for example, the procurement partner of the sporting goods companies Reebok and Nike , the toy company Toys R Us , and many international department store groups, including the clothing companies Esprit , Abercrombie & Fitch , Debenhams , Next , Limited Brands and Marks & Spencer , as well as the retail groups Walmart , Metro , Sainsbury’s , Carrefour , Ahold and Bed Bath & Beyond . 3.7% of US clothing imports are handled by Li & Fung. Li & Fung organizes the production of all merchandising items in its theme parks for the Walt Disney Group. Even Coca-Cola is at merchandising customer of the company.
In 2006, as part of the consolidation of the KarstadtQuelle Group , Li & Fung were transferred to important import services from the brands Karstadt, Quelle, neckermann.de and other specialty mail order companies belonging to the group, instead of the previous importers based in Germany. A purchase price reduction of 10% and an import volume of over 2 billion euros per year are aimed for. In the future, Li & Fung should enable up to twelve collections a year at KarstadtQuelle . In addition, according to KarstadtQuelle, the required working capital for KarstadtQuelle will be reduced by half a billion euros, since Li & Fung has a longer term of payment towards the suppliers than KarstadtQuelle previously had. The previous purchasing subsidiary KarstadtQuelle International Services AG (KQIS; St. Gallen) and its 1,100 employees were sold to Li & Fung Ltd. for 60 million euros. sold. In particular, Li & Fung will take over the sampling and quality assurance of the contract-made goods on site and will in future handle the payment transactions for KarstadtQuelle's global import business. The designs for the own-brand collections, however, should remain in the hands of KarstadtQuelle through the establishment of its own design center in Asia, as well as the negotiations on terms with the individual suppliers.
The fireworks company Comet in Bremerhaven , which previously belonged to the Diehl Group , has been part of Li & Fung since 2006 .
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Company history of the Li & Fung Group (English)
- Buyers for the world - FOCUS Online, January 3, 2007