CLEAN SWEEP - From a home-based business in 1965, Mei Darl Li Duster Co has grown to a multi-million dollar business - with simple dusters still the sole revenue sourceC Lin had tried his hand at a number of jobs - from day labourer to fruit seller. And he'd found them all frustrating. So in 1965, he turned his attention to inventing - and developed a common household tool: a duster. He shredded common items like plastic bags and twine and attached them to a wooden handle. "I thought it would be cheaper to manufacture than the traditional feather duster," Lin says. Later he learned that the static electricity generated by polypropylene fibres made for an excellent "dust buster". And so he founded Mei Darl Li Duster Co, the world's first, and later the largest, producer of synthetic dusters.
To help in his pursuit, he recruited his wife and three other neighbours in their home town of Chang-hua, Taiwan. Together, they began shredding and gluing plastic materials by hand. "Our product was very crude," Lin admits, "and we could produce just 100 per day". His company carried on in this fashion for nearly 10 years before Lin discovered machine automation.
It was not until later that Lin could afford to purchase his own machinery and produce his own plastic thread from polypropylene beads and handles from plastic material.
"At the beginning, local shops began selling our duster because it was cheaper than the feather duster," Lin says. In 1979, he placed an ad in a trade publication, drawing calls from trading companies in Taipei, and his first export order, from Saudi Arabia.
The company's export sales have increased steadily every year since. Mei Darl Li now sells to customers as far away as India, South Africa, Iceland, Japan, Korea, and the US. The company generates almost all of its sales through ads in trade publications - on which it spends nearly US$60,000 each year.
In 1997, Li promoted his duster in a television "infomercial" - and sales soared. The factory's workforce tripled to keep up with demand and revenue jumped to US$3.6 million. After the infomercial ran its course, though, sales slumped by 40% and the factory now employs just 35 people.
"I have always tried to keep our prices constant and our profit margin stable at 25%," Lin says. Looking back upon his fortunes and the company which he created, Lin sites "hard work" as the reason for his success.