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October 1, 2011
AROUND THE
WORLD
By Jo Beckendorff
HONG KONG—It was in the 1950s when Jack S. Yuen, living in New York, met Daisy, a young woman from Hong Kong who was studying in Canada. They fell in love, moved to Hong Kong, married, and raised five children. They became involved with a company making shoe box-sized transistor radios. But Japanese giants Sony, Panasonic and others began to dominate the international high-fidelity sound business, forcing the couple to rethink their business model. That led to the launch of their company, Dayton Industrial, in 1972. “The first product we made were timers for refrigerators we exported to Australia,” recalled Jack, laughing. “Those Aussies love their cold beers,” he quipped. But soon they found a customer in the bicycle industry—Canada’s Procycle Group, which imported Peugeot bikes at the time. “The first bicycle product we produced was a stationary bicycle meter for Procycle and Schwinn. Later we began making wired bike computers and then wireless computers,” Yuen recalled. Later, while working with Vetta, Dayton added several U.S. customers and in 1986 picked up its first European clients. Most of them still remain its customers,
said Paul Anthony, the couple’s son and a director at the company. Today, Dayton Industrial is the world’s leading OE manufacturer and OE designer of portable micro-electronic products including heart-rate monitors, so-called ABC watches (altimeter, barometer and compass), navigation devices including GPS products, sensors for power meters as well as parts for smart phones. It’s also a company that few retailers are aware of. It doesn’t even have a website. “Our business is based on nothing but word-of-mouth. People interested in the portable micro-electronic product world will find us sooner or later. As an OEM and ODM [original design manufacturer] producer we keep a low profile,” said Paul Anthony. It’s also a company with no desire to develop its own brand-name products. “We decided early on to be an OEM producer. Developing your own brand takes a lot of investment capital,” he added. Jack, at age 82, and Daisy, who says she is close to 80, said Dayton manufactures most of the leading portable microelectronic products sold in the bicycle, sports and outdoor industries. Dayton employs about 1,000 people, servicing more than 60 customers, encompassing a variety of premium brands sold at retail in many countries. And de-
Photo by Jo Beckendorff
Yuen family holds major stake in portable electronics
Dayton Industrial director Paul Anthony Yuen, Dayton Group managing director Jack S. Yuen and director Daisy T. Yuen
spite their age, both Jack and Daisy remain involved in the business. “Jack is a workaholic. As a mechanical engineer he loves to be at the lab. He still reviews everything before it leaves the factory,” Daisy said during a visit at the company’s Hong Kong headquarters. Jack spends the week—Monday through Friday—at Dayton’s factories in Shenzhen, plating and at plastic injection molding facilities. As for Daisy, her schedule is hectic as well. “I work out of our headquarters on Mondays and Fridays. From Tuesday to Thursday I work at our Chinese factories,” she said. Daisy is proud of the company and
shows off several premium brand products Dayton makes. But she quickly asked that no names be mentioned. “The world of portable micro-electronics is small, and we deliver to several direct competitors. They know about each other, but don’t want to be mentioned in context with us,” she added. Dayton remains a family affair, with four of the five Yuen children active in the company. “We have different personalities but we respect each other. We work very well together. It works because we respect our staff, our customers and us. That’s what our parents taught us,” Paul Anthony said.
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HEWN FROM TRADITION Wooden shipbuilder Sueshiro Sano brings family heritage of Japanese craftsmanship to his emerging business creating custom lightweight mahogany bikes. By lo Beckendorff
KOTO-SHI, JAPAN-Many Japanese think Sueshiro Sano is crazy. He's the ninth generation of a family that for more than 200 years has built traditional Japanese wooden sailing ships. What raises eyebrows is that Sano also bends, carves, grinds and polishes custommade road bikes from mahoganywhat he calls "the real stuff ¾ The process is so difficult and time consuming that Sano can make only four lightweight wooden bikes per year, which he sells at a very pricey 2 million yen each (about $25,300). Money isn't the driving force behind his filigree-crafted one-man show, Sano said. ´It¡straditional Japanese craftsmanship. As a carpenter and designer I want to present [my work] to a wider audience:' Because of his woodworking skills, Sano said he can build bikes that can be ridden and at a weight that's comparable to what most suppliers deliver to the market.
His company, Sano Magic, located southeast of Tokyo, is on the shore Japan's historic home for traditional wooden shipbuilders-Tokyo Bay. Today, there's little left of the shipbuilding industry that once was famous for building oceangoing wooden sailing ships. What's left of Japan's woodworking industry remains in the area, and from SanR¡s workshop the familiar sounds of grinding and polishing can be heard. Sano was 14 when he began learning his woodworking skills from his father, Ichiro Sano, who was a master craftsman and considered one of Japan's national treasures. Ichiro may have been one of the last old time Japanese craftsmen who knew the secrets of building traditional wooden sailing ships and he passed that knowledge on to Sueshiro. For Sano, finding a market outside Japan for his wooden boats was difficult, so to learn the intricacies of Western markets he went to the Netherlands.
´Toget an idea about Western PDUNHWV ,I asked for a job at one of the world's finest custom-made yacht builders, Royal Huisman in Holland. I learned a lot over the two years I was there;' he said. ´But in 2007, due to the worldwide financial crisis, the business slowed down dramatically;' said Sano while pouring cold tea into two glasses. Back home, Sano was sitting on some of the finest Honduran mahogany in the world. ´Todayyou can't buy wood like that. I had bought it many years ago
and kept it stored here, some of it for 20 years. I was ready to do something with it ¾ said Sano, now 54. It was his childhood love for bicycles that gave him the idea to build bikes. ´Ithought the boat business was going through a temporary crisis, so I wanted to improve my techniques on another product. But the boat business didn't recover and I began to really enjoy building road bikes:' But why mahogany? ´Shipbuilders appreciate this tropical wood due to its
long-term sustainability and resistance against biotic factors. Any other wood reacts directly to external influences like rain. Mahogany is a real exception ¾ he explained. ´But I also wanted to build bikes that you just don't hang on the wall, but that you could ride:' Sano recently finished bike No. 15. ´Allin all, I¡vebuilt 17 bikes but I've kept two for myself and for presentations:¡ he said. His first Campagnolo Super Recordequipped mahogany bike, built in 2007, weighed 9 kilogra ms (19.8 pounds)
without pedals. Since then he has trimmed them down to about 7.7 kilograms, just over 17 pounds, by hollowing out some frame tubes, the seatpost and wooden handlebar. It takes about three months to build one bicycle. ´, make three 700c and a 20-inch road bike per year. I can't do more ¾ he said.
Besides lhe frame. he also makes wheels, valve caps and cable-end ferrules out of mahogany. 7he 20-inch model uses wooden aero-shaped spokes and wooden hubs. Some of the spokes are also hollow. ´Next step is to build those
kinds of spokes for 700c wheels. I¡mstill working on weight reduction ¾ he said. Before selling a bike, Sano test rides each for at least 300 kilometers. At 2 million yen each, crash testing isn't an option. ´7Kere is always some fine-tuning to do. I want everything to run smoothly when I deliver it to a customer ¾
His bikes are generally promoted by word-of-mouth and production is booked out until 2014, with three customers lined up for 20 15. All are willing to wait. Sano may also bring his craftsman-
ship to next year's North Am erican Handmade Bicycle Show, and he has twice shared a booth at Eurobike with another company. What happens when Sano retires? Right now he has no successor. His two daughters have other things in mind besides building wooden ships and bikes. He could be the last Sano to earn a living as a traditional carpenter and designer. For more information on Sano Magic, go to http://sanomagic.world. coocan.jp/englis hindex.html. BRAI N