Hidden champion
Eternal began its first foray into the international dry-film photoresist market by establishing a US subsidiary. “We wanted to compete against foreign dry-film photoresist technology, and setting up a US subsidiary was the first step. It was a high-risk move, but branching out beyond Taiwan was essential if we were to win market share and get to the top,” says Mao Hui-kuan. With the outlook for the electronics industry becoming ever brighter, demand for dry-film photoresist was growing quickly, and Eternal decided that the time was right for international expansion. Mao was then the head of the electronics materials division and was involved in setting the company’s strategy. In 2003, Eternal’s US subsidiary acquired the Shipley Company’s dry-film photoresist business, including its technology and production lines. The acquisition pushed Eternal’s dry-film photoresist market share to number one in the world, a spot it has retained ever since.
This success didn’t come by chance. Mao says that Eternal’s employees are the company’s most important, if invisible, resource. That became even clearer to him when he began his tenure as company president. “New product development is a difficult process. Optimizing older products is also challenging. Expansions are hard on employees. Frontline workers have to uphold production schedules in order to meet customer demand. And our researchers never stop investigating new materials with the potential for development, while also ensuring that they are environmentally friendly.”
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Eternal. “We’re a chemicals company, so environmentally sustainable development has always been a key concern and focus. But at one time we mistakenly placed our trust in a class-A waste processing facility that ended up polluting Kaohsiung’s water. We spent the next 20 years undertaking reforms, which have included doing our utmost to develop benign, nontoxic and recyclable environmentally friendly materials, and to monitor waste processing even more conscientiously.”
The company also had to contend with the prospect of layoffs when its optical film R&D lost momentum. “We had to shutter a whole factory, and then racked our brains for ideas about how to take care of the factory’s workers. In the end, we didn’t lay anyone off. We reassigned each of the factory’s workers to new jobs based on their individual strengths. Eternal has always been people oriented.”
Asked where the company found the new jobs for the factory’s workers, Mao offers up the key reasons for Eternal’s success: “We have developed new products, researched new technologies, and sought out new markets to provide the company and our employees with stable earnings, and ensure that we all win.”
Technological breakthroughs have enabled this maker of synthetic resins to continually optimize its products and operations, and develop the improved resins that support its products in multiple industries. Eternal brings together the best of traditional manufacturing and innovative technology in a new and complementary whole!
Eternal has developed a Covid-19 rapid test cassette certified by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control.
Eternal shows off the fruits of its development efforts at a construction materials expo in late 2020, introducing new materials in an effort to break into the green construction market. (photo by Kent Chuang)
Eternal has been offering continuing education courses to its employees since its earliest days.
Eternal’s UV-cured coatings are used in packaging for cosmetic and cosmeceutical products, and rank among the top three in the world by market share.
Established in 1990, Eternal’s factory in Kaohsiung’s Dafa Industrial Park was its first precision coating facility. The company’s dry-film photoresist R&D and production are based here.