When Tradelink was preparing to launch its Production Notification (PN) and Certificate of Origin (CO) services in the middle of this year, and needed willing volunteers to try out the new software, Perry Garments was one of the first customers to put down its name.

The company also turned out to be the star performer of all the advance users, scooping both the special incentive awards offered by Tradelink for making the most PN and CO transactions in the first phase.

But perhaps that's not too surprising as Perry has long been among the most enthusiastic adopters of Tradelink's e-commerce services.

Stepping into Perry's factory, situated in an industrial building in San Po Kong, you will see a spacious workshop with long rows of sewing machines. With piles of jeans, shirts and children's wear surrounding them, the workers perform their tasks with the highest level of concentration. Accompanied by the "geeking" sound of the sewing machines, they can skillfully finish the whole assembly process in less than a minute.

This is the success story of a traditional clothing company that has moved forward with the times and adopted e-commerce technologies.

Mr Fung Kit, owner of Perry Garments, reminisces: "I was 17 when I first got into the apparel business, and now 27 years have passed. This company was founded 15 years ago and, in retrospect, it was a time when the apparel industry was at its peak. We had to work for more than 12 hours every day to cope with the floods of orders.

"In order to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of our factory, in early 1997 we registered as a user of Tradelink's SilkNet services, allowing us to submit Restrained Textiles Export Licence applications and trade declarations electronically," he says.

"In the beginning, our staff were not accustomed to the electronic services. Fortunately, they became familiar with them quickly and using SilkNet is now a habit for them. As the new electronic methods are so convenient, it would be detrimental to our work if we didn't have SilkNet now."

Mr Fung further explains the benefits of using electronic services: "Compared with previous methods employing paper documentation, electronic services are 1.5 times faster in terms of processing speed. In addition to applying for Textiles Export Licences, our company has to process quite a lot of import and export declarations. Like other apparel companies, we have moved many of our production processes into mainland China. These production units are responsible for making different component parts of garments. After these component parts are produced, they are transferred to Perry here for the assembly process. Workers here will join the different parts together to form a complete garment. Then, these garments are sent back to the mainland factories for scouring, modifications and packaging. Finally, after they are properly packed, the finished garments are shipped back to Hong Kong for inventory. So you can see there is plenty of importing and exporting involved in the whole production process."

Nowadays, Perry processes an average of about 30 Restrained Textiles Export Licence applications and 10 import/export declaration lodgements every day.

In mid-1999, Perry started using electronic processing for Production Notifications. They submit about 20 PNs electronically every day, saving a lot of time. They also use Tradelink's electronic Certificate of Origin (CO) service, which is fast and convenient, and allows them to continue enjoying a member's discount on applications handled through the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. "After we adopted all these different kinds of electronic trading services, the need for manpower in this area was reduced and that enabled us to allocate our human resources in a more flexible way so as to cope with our expanding business." Mr Fung says, "In the past, we needed five employees to go to government departments and trade federations to process trading documents. Now all we have to do is just press a button in the office and all those transactions are done. Therefore, we need only two employees to deal with the delivery of all other business documents. This in turn lowers the cost of production."

In addition, now that the four staff responsible for electronic declaration lodgements and "blue licence" applications can finish their jobs more swiftly, they can take on other documentation tasks, increasing the efficiency of the entire operation.

With a satisfied smile, Mr Fung adds, "Having witnessed the speed and convenience of the SilkNet services, we registered for electronic PN and CO services immediately after Tradelink launched them in the middle of the year. This enabled us to take full advantage of these services as early as possible."

In fact, Perry Garments is just one part of a family business. The Fung family has four more apparel factories situated in the same industrial building which in total covers 40,000 square feet, and employs 420 people. One of the factories was opened very recently.

Mr Fung says it is undeniable that the apparel industry is past its prime, but he believes it is still worthwhile to "stand firm" in this business. His belief is further supported by the fact that Perry's business has grown throughout the year, despite the harsh market situation.

He attributes this growth to Perry's ongoing dedication to production details, quality improvement and enhancement in operational efficiency. Currently, Perry distributes its garments through local trading companies to the United States, Canada and the European market, with 30 per cent of the products being children's wear. The designs of these garments are cute and fashionable, which helps to attract orders from such renowned companies as Disney, Calvin Klein and Marlboro.

Finally, Mr Fung notes: "Looking ahead to the year 2000, I firmly believe that, with the sophisticated expertise of our experienced workers, and the willingness to keep improving our quality and efficiency, we can strengthen or even expand our business in the fiercely competitive apparel market."