But the 76-year-old Dane had a plan up his sleeve to make sure nobody forgot about the opening, and more importantly the vision that he has built the company upon since he founded ECCO in 1963. A cake was rolled out and he called all present to gather around to listen to his speech. He spoke in Danish and Michael Sorensen, Managing Director of ECCO Asia Limited, interpreted for those present. After giving the executive a playful reprimand for interpreting his carefully chosen words too quickly, he switched to English to tell his story.

"He likes to make everyone feel as if they are part of one big family, and we all feel as if we are part of the ECCO family," said Karsten Borch, Vice Chairman, ECCO Sko A/S, who travelled to Hong Kong from London with the management during the week-long visit to Asia. "It kind of surprised everyone that the founder would travel so far and give his undivided attention to the re-opening of an ECCO outlet in Hong Kong," said Carmen Ng, of ECCO Shoes Hong Kong Limited, who helped co-ordinate the party.

Whether his first or 100th shop, Mr Toosbuy gives each opening his full attention, and in return expects nothing less from each of his employees, whether they are senior managers plotting the company's future course, or salesgirls attending to customers in stores.

Today, more than 10 million pairs of ECCO shoes are sold in 46 countries annually. But the world's seventh largest maker of casual shoes grew from much humbler beginnings. In 1963, in the small town of Bredebro, Denmark, Karl Toosbuy sold his house and car to buy a stake in a new production facility established in the town by furniture and clothing start-ups. His vision: to create a footwear company that produces shoes "so comfortable that you forget you are wearing them," he says.

His footwear came as a welcome relief from the heavy, hard leather shoes that were then the norm in Denmark, and the release of the "Soft II" in 1973 basically made ECCO a household name in Denmark and catapulted the company into the international market.

"The Soft range is still our best selling model, even after all these years," says Mr Borch. "We even have women who come into our stores, go straight for and buy a pair without even trying them on, because they have been wearing them for years."

To ensure the highest quality and comfort, the company controls every stage of the production process and owns its own tanneries and factories. In an address to the annual meeting of the International Council of Tanners in Bergen, Norway, in 1988, Mr Toosbuy said his suppliers were not providing the leathers or service which ECCO required, and that the tanners did not understand the technical requirements used in shoe making. Therefore, he had no choice but to start his own tanning operations.

To compete with the low-cost shoe production centers such as Taiwan, Korea and Brazil in the 1980s, ECCO had to farm out some stitching operations to some low-cost countries, while investing in labour-saving technology. With production plants dotted around the globe controlling everything from the tanning of the leather and sewing the shoes, Mr Toosbuy says quality is now assured.

After being in the business for 40 years, Mr Toosbuy says he has no plans to slow down, and is excited about the success that new product lines are producing. The company's line of golf shoes, for example, have been voted as the most comfortable and stylish of their kind in the U.S. for two years in a row. He has similarly high expectations for the new children's line of footwear that the company now produces.

With the establishment of its direct subsidiary ECCO Asia Limited, headquartered in Hong Kong, ECCO launched an historic offensive in the Far East last year, which saw its exports to Asia increased by 80 percent. The company has set a target to sell 2 million pairs of shoes a year in Asia by the year 2005, and with plans to leave the ECCO footprint in China, Mr Toosbuy expects he will be back in the region opening more outlets soon.