Textile Magnate Sung Pui-man:An Indonesian Powerhouse 40 Years in the Making

More than 1,000 workers sit in front of sewing machines in Sung Pui-man’s factory, skillfully stitching hems on garments. Muslim women wearing hijabs watch over the looms on another part of the factory floor, keeping a close eye on each step of the weaving process while machines vacuum up stray scraps of cotton. Sung, chairman of PT Ever Shine Tex, is intimately familiar with the scene.

As a member of the first generation of Taiwanese businesspeople to come to Indonesia, Sung saw his own fortunes soar with those of the nation’s economy, and was already well established here when the second wave of Taiwanese businesses began arriving in the 1990s.

Sung’s father, uncle and other relatives came to Taiwan from Fu­jian with his grandfather in 1949. His father and uncle then went on to become business partners, building a family textiles business on Tai­pei’s Di­hua Street.

Taiwan’s 1971 withdrawal from the United Nations destabilized its economy and its politics, both domestic and international, triggering a wave of emigration. Sung’s uncle, Sung ­Liang-hau, relocated to Singapore with Sung and other relatives and began looking for a suitable spot for a new factory. After setting up a temporary factory in Malaysia, they were pointed in the direction of Indonesia by a Japanese customer of the family’s textile business. The recommendation eventually led to the establishment of PT Ever Shine Tex in Indonesia.

Ever Shine’s integrated supply chain has strengthened its position in the Indonesian market and made it one of that nation’s larger textile firms.

Now 60 years old, Sung’s memories of his 1974 arrival in Indonesia with his family remain crystal clear.

Then ruled by President Su­harto, Indonesia was near the end of it its first wave of industrial development. Though there were a few factories scattered around the country, goods were scarce and Sung saw opportunities everywhere.

A stranger in a strange land, he lost money at first. The country hadn’t yet opened itself to foreign investment, compelling the family to borrow the name of a local to obtain the permits necessary to build its factory. While an unfortunate oversight allowed that person to acquire Ever Shine’s assets, the family’s initial investment had been small, limiting their losses and enabling them to start afresh.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea dominated the global textiles and garments supply chain in the 1980s, making it difficult for the Indonesia-based Ever Shine to break into the European and American markets.

Sung says that European and American customers had no confidence in the quality of Indonesian fabrics in those days because the local textiles industry was still so young. Seeking to obtain orders from Nike and become part of its supply chain, Ever Shine sent fabrics and samples to the company repeatedly over a six-month period, but never did receive a response.

Disappointed, Sung set aside his dreams of the European and American markets, and focused instead on building up an international clientele in second-tier markets such as Mexico and Turkey.

After weathering the capital-constrained early stages of his business, Sung began steering the company toward stock-market listing in 1992. The 1990s were an exciting time for Indonesian stocks, and the government was actively encouraging firms to list on the market. Then planning a factory expansion and internationalization, Ever Shine resolved to list on the Indonesian stock market, becoming the first Taiwanese-owned company to do so.

Taiwan’s economy underwent its own structural transformation in the 1990s, prompting many small and medium-sized Taiwanese textile manufacturers to relocate to mainland China, expand rapidly, and engage in cutthroat price competition.

Facing more intense competition, Ever Shine accelerated its upstream and downstream integration and began doing contract manufacturing on behalf of well-known European and American brands, including the likes of Marks & Spencer and Prada, as a means of breaking into higher-end markets.

Ever Shine has grown enormously since making these moves, expanding from 100 employees to more than 1,000, acquiring clients in more than 50 nations, and increasing revenues to more than NT$2 billion per year.

“Indonesia’s political and economic fortunes have ebbed and flowed over the last 40 years, and I’ve been right here through each stage of its social development,” says Sung, who regards the nation as his second home.

Ever Shine’s logo is an eagle soaring above the world. Having weathered innumerable challenges, Sung and the textile empire he’s built are now spreading their wings.