Hotel and Restaurant Tableware

Kennex (Hong Kong ) Ltd were founded in 1993 and are still in business today thus their history as a trader and marketing company of tableware (ceramics mostly but also glass and enamelware) cover a similar period of history as the article. We spoke to K.M.Lam about the company development and how it adapted to the changing industry. ‘We started business in 1993 and there was just four of us including myself though I had experience when younger of working in frit manufacture in Taiwan and a vitreous enamel plant in Nigeria. It was not unusual at all in the beginning for us to be doing the ware inspection, kneeling on the floor doing quality control. We now have about 300 employees in several countries. At the start we were a simple Hong Kong trading company but as foreign companies had no experience dealing with China and we had language skills, contacts and cultural awareness, plus some ceramics experience we had a great advantage. China factories expanded production or new fac

Back in April 2013 the European Union adopted the Anti Dumping Duty Rates on Chinese ceramic tableware and fully implemented them – though there had been much ‘anger’ from the retail industry. The belief was, quite rightly in many respects, that China was effectively umping ware, below cost in the European Union to the detriment of European Union manufacturers. The maneuvering over the Anti Dumping Duty had been going on for some months and what the impact of this duty would be on the Chinese tableware industry was of great interest and worthy of an Asian Ceramics article. But since then it is apparent that there is a bigger story that needs to be told not just about duty rates. To understand what will happen to the Asian tableware market we need to understand what the situation was and what factors are changing the tableware industry situation not just in China, but in Asia and the world. Where will tableware be in the future, what will the trends be and who will be the winners an