庸人自擾之

本來無一物，何處惹塵埃。世間上，凡人總是喜歡為自己製造不必要的煩惱和恐懼，利豐(494)的生意變化便是一個活生生的例子。

過度的憂慮、是非不分、以及抱著唯恐天下不亂的心態，最後裡頭亦對自己沒有任何益處的。

能夠明白「上天有好生之德」、「危即機也」等真諦，並且持「王道」行事的朋友，自然能夠做到事事順境。

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Li & Fung Benefits as Wealthy "Hit Hard" by Recession
(Bloomberg; 10 Feb 09)

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Li & Fung Ltd., the biggest supplier of toys and clothing to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., is gaining "tremendous market share" as the recession boosts sales of cheaper products, company President Bruce Rockowitz said.

"This time the rich are getting hit pretty hard," he said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. "In every other recession, high-end luxury did really well."

Li & Fung has gained 14.5 percent this year, beating the 4.8 percent loss of Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index, as U.S. President Barack Obama responds to the economic and financial crises. Plunging home values and the worst unemployment in almost 16 years have hurt consumers and companies in the U.S., where the Hong Kong-based trading company makes more than two-thirds of its sales.

"The Obama stimulus package is a good step toward the right direction," Rockowitz said.

Li & Fung shares climbed 2.6 percent to HK$15.18 at 10:15 a.m. in Hong Kong trading today, while the benchmark declined 0.5 percent. Over the past year, the company's stock has dropped 44 percent, matching the 42 percent slide of the index.

While Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, reported January sales that exceeded its projection, it said it will stop giving a monthly forecast because of the difficulty in predicting consumer behavior.


'Prices People Want'
"We are gaining tremendous market share because we're creating products at the prices that people want," Rockowitz said. "Anything that's sort of luxury is frowned upon right now. You see luxury really come down and everybody is trading down. What’s trading well are price-sensitive goods" such as those sold in Wal-Mart and Target stores, he added.

"All the high-end retailers are generally pretty bad right now," he said. "We are watching the situation very closely."

While some of the Hong Kong trader's clients have gone bankrupt, they constitute a small percentage of the total, Rockowitz said. "If you add up all the bankruptcies together, we have seven to eight bankruptcies last year out of 1,200 customers. We got impacted by a very small amount financially -- about US$10 million altogether including the US$5 million from KB Toys."

Li & Fung client KB Toys Inc., an 86-year-old retailer, filed for bankruptcy in December.