After NT$3bn investment loss, Lee refocuses on tea

Taipei Times: In your five decades with Ten Ren, what's your biggest achievement?

Lee Rie-ho (李瑞河): The biggest achievement, I think, is that we have developed chain stores on our own. Unlike the 7-Eleven convenience stores or the McDonald's restaurants here, we have not engaged in any joint ventures to gain foreign know-how. To this day, we still haven't spent a penny on foreign know-how, but we are the only tea chain in both Taiwan and China. Currently we have 113 retail tea stores under the name Ten Ren (天仁), including 63 in Taiwan and 50 overseas. As for China, we started business in 1993 there and have nearly 400 retail outlets there under the name Ten Fu (天福).

The tea-making industry is a traditional business, but we hope to rejuvenate the industry through a combination of innovative products, quality service, modern design and new management concepts. Therefore, I am quite proud to say we are still the only tea company listed on the Taiwan stock exchange. No tea company is listed on the Chinese stock exchange so far.

TT: Ten Ren Group has recovered from its severe business crisis of 12 years ago, when you lost NT$3 billion after expanding into the securities business. How long did it take you to pay off the debt and how did you manage to get your business moving forward again?

Lee: It was not the sort of experience that you want to have. I still remember two of my lawyers advising me to leave the country because they didn't think I could pay the debt. I was accused of violating the Securities Transaction Law (證券交易法), Corporate Law (公司法) and Financial Law (金融法), which collectively could have sent me to prison for between three and seven years.

But I decided to not to leave and I managed to clear up the NT$3 billion debt in two years. Why? Because I knew I needed to have the support of my relatives and friends if I ever wanted to make a comeback.

When I first entered the Chinese market in 1991 and 1992, I knew that this market of more than 1 billion people was full of potential. Unlike some Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, where people grow tea but do not drink it, the Chinese have a very long history in both growing tea and drinking it. With more than 40 years of tea-making experience, I believed I could succeed there, and I have proved it.

TT: You have vowed never to get involved in the securities business again. Do you really mean that? Don't you want to invest in other financial markets, like real estate?

Lee: I absolutely mean it [laughs]. I know myself very well and I dare not invest in stock markets again. Meanwhile, the world of tea is so vast that, from planting it to producing it to packaging it, there is always something I can do to learn and improve. Therefore, I don't think I will have much extra time to get involved in things other than tea.

Financial investments of course involve high earnings, but also involve high risk. Though I have pledged not to get involved in any kind of financial investment for the rest of my life, it is not my business whether my sons will do the same. But I hope they have learned something from their old father's experience.

TT: So far Ten Ren has seized about 12 percent of Taiwan's tea market, while Ten Fu in China has also grown quickly in the recent past, raking in about 300 million yuan (NT$1.23 billion) in sales a year. What's your outlook for the tea business?