Shriro - News Letter

May, 1999

Shanghai New Office

On the 10th May David Wilson was very leased to officiate at the official opening of the new Shanghai office of our subsidiary, Peninsula Engineering.

Albert Ng, the Peninsula General Manager, Simon Fan, the General Sales Manager for North China, and William Li, Shriro's man,in China, assist him.

Messrs. Maetani and Yoshizawa of Nichiyu. Yusoki also attended the opening.

The office is housed in a free standing building with 3000 square feet of space on two floors.

The lower floor will be used as a showroom and spare parts depot The upper floor will be occupied by the Shanghai personnel of Peninsula.

Additionally the building houses the Shanghai personnel of Shriro itself.

David Wilson stated that the opening of these expanded facilities demonstrated the commitment of Peninsula to the development of its business in China.

Deafened by a cacophony of sound from the accompanying firecrackers he was able to complete the ribbon cutting.

top

See's Change

We are very proud to announce the acquisition by Shriro of a 75% majority holding in V.Lee (HK) Limited.

This newly formed company is the sole licensee in Hong Kong for See's Candies, the world famous brand of American chocolates.

Founded in 1920 and, since 1971, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc, See's Famous Old Time Candies is today one of Americas best loved businesses.

It has been described by Warren Buffett as " a true wonder " offering a matchless product with " people who have been devoted to the proposition that no one will ever match our service either "

One of these people is our partner Vivien Lee who for many years in Hong Kong has been devoted to the development of the happy Sees habit here.

Under her care See's has been established as the premium chocolate of choice in Hong Kong and the name See's has become a synonym for quality products and service .

Currently we have three retail outlets at important locations in Hong Kong and we hope to open further stores in the near future.

Vivien Lee said " As one of the leading chocolate shops in this region we are very excited as we anticipate the bright future opportunities. We are confident that even with the current economic downturn, See's Famous Old Time Candies will continue to meet the changing demands in Hong Kong. "

For Shriro this partnership continues our policy of investing in quality people and products for quality results.

top

SHRIRO REVIEW

The Chairman of our Group, Mark Shriro, has been in Australia and Asia in the past few weeks reviewing a number of our businesses here.

He noted the difficult economic conditions in which a number of our important businesses have operated in during 1998 but was pleased to observe that in most of our markets we were emerging as a stronger company.

He particularly noted that since his last visit to Hong Kong we had added three new businesses - Shriro Graphics, V.Lee and HEI.

All three of these companies typified our commitment to the acquisition of strong brands, which occupied leading positions in their various markets together with highly qualified people to make them a success.

He said that our satisfactory results in the first four months of this year indicated that our markets were recovering and if this continued we would have a good 1999.

top