Ta Ya Subsidiary Ta Er Innovation Introduces Proprietary Brand - innerexile Coverage by Lu Huanwen, Economic Daily News
2013/02/23
Ta Ya Electric Wire and Cable (1609) has ventured into industrial design service, as subsidiary Ta Er Innovation held a product launch conference yesterday (the 21st) to announce its proprietary brand - innerexile. According to Ta Er, the company has successfully established distributorship in more than a dozen countries worldwide just less than 3 months after product launch. The subsidiary aims to break even this year and double its revenues to NT$100 million in the following year.
Ta Ya is a veteran cable manufacturer in Taiwan. In the beginning of the previous year, Ta Ya founded two design companies, namely Esoterism and Ta Er, that specialize in consumer mobile and industrial design, respectively. Ta Ya holds approximately 80% shareholding position in each of the two subsidiaries. Ta Er has a share capital of NT$38 million. It launched a new iPhone 5 protective cover last November that achieved strong sales in Japan, and expects to generate NT$30 million ~ NT$50 million in revenues this year.
Price of Ta Ya shares fell NT$0.01 yesterday (the 21st) and closed at NT$7.24.
Ta Ya Chairman Shen Shang-Hung said that the cable industry has not performed well in recent years. The company's venture into the design business has the potential to generate additional income and help inspire innovation and accumulate brand experience that may add value to the company's existing products, thereby enable future growth.
According to Shen Shang-Hungthe cable industry is a B2B industry; with the addition of Ta Er, Ta Ya Group may engage consumers directly and gain experience in the B2C model. Furthermore, design and brand management companies are less capital intensive compared to cable manufacturing that spends hundreds of millions of dollars per year in capital expenditure. The investment is, in fact, quite affordable.
Ta Er President Hu Liming has extensive background in this field of expertise. He was part of the design team for Apple's first generation iPod, which makes him very familiar with Apple products. For this reason, Ta Er began by designing Apple product accessories such as cellphone cover, tablet cover, power bank etc. According to Ta Er, the company has launched only 2 products to date, but has 4 to 5 products scheduled for launch in the first half of this year.
After it was founded in the beginning of the previous year, Ta Er submitted its designs to several exhibitions and competitions around the world, and immediately won GMark (Good Design Award) in Japan and Golden Pin Design Award in Taiwan. Several distributors approached Ta Er pro-actively to discuss distributorship, which was why the product sold quickly in foreign countries immediately after launch. Domestic distributors, on the other hand, were sought by Ta Er itself. According to Ta Er, the company is currently responsible for product design, branding and marketing; the product itself is manufactured locally as well as overseas, and assembled in Taiwan.