Soon demand outpaced supply and in the late 1950s, Yung Yau and his engineers invented machines and mechanical processes which dramatically increased production of fans from 20 fans per day to several hundred per day. The firm’s original plant was located at Lin Fa Kung Temple Street West in Causeway Bay and initially production was largely manual. In 1955, Shell became the first exporter of ceiling fans from Hong Kong. As Shell’s fans were priced at half of the imported ones, they sold well domestically. His first business involved trading goods such as rice and he began importing electric fans after the War, a luxury item at the time which only the wealthy families could afford.ĭespite his limited education, Yung was an inventor in the mode of Thomas Edison, and sensing a business opportunity, he started Shell to make electric fans under the SMC brand. A native of Shun Tak (Shunde) in Guangdong province, Yung came to HK at the age of 15. Yung Yau at a shareholder meeting of Shell Electric (Source: Apple Daily) The owners of the three firms had served as chairmen or directors of the HK & Kowloon Electric Trade Association (港九電業總會,founded in 1945) and were major players in the development of electrical appliances industry in HK. Then there is Bernard Chiu, whose Duracraft was one of the leading brands of electric fans (and other appliances) in the US in the early 1990s before being acquired by Honeywell.īut HK’s entry in the global electric fan market started way back in the 1950s, with three pioneers – Shell, Din Wai and Wing Tat – whose SMC, DEMC and TAT fans put Hong Kong on the map as Hong Kong’s exports of electric fans grew from HK$2.4 million in 1959 to HK$657 million in 1980. The property and investments billionaire Joseph Lau made his first fortune selling ceiling fans to the US and the Middle East with his Union Ngok Kee and Evergo in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which earned him the nickname of “Electric Fan Lau” in the early years. York Lo: SMC, DEMC and TAT – Pioneers of the Hong Kong Electric Fan IndustryĮntrepreneurs from Hong Kong have long played an important role in the electric fan industry globally.
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