Sands China supports local SME to improve products, service standards

A Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) rooted in the Macau SAR for more than 50 years is continually innovating its products and services with the assistance of Sands China Ltd. to successfully cater to a wider community, along with a higher service standard.
Yiu Wah Plastic Factory Ltd. is one of the few plastic bag manufacturers that has a factory in Macau.
Recently, it has developed itself to produce environment-friendly plastic bag products.
According to Michelle Fung, the second generation at the helm of the company, its cooperation with Sands China has not only facilitated an increase in business volume, but also enabled the company to learn comprehensive and systematic management experience from foreign enterprises, which she considered as a great benefit to the future development of the company.
“The cooperation with large enterprises like Sands China has enhanced the company’s popularity and increased its reliability in the industry,” Fung explained.
“Secondly, through communication and contact with the management of Sands China, we have learned the perfect management mode and daily operational experience of international enterprises, which laid a foundation for cooperation with other large enterprises,” the executive added.
The integrated resort operator has always sought to increase procurement opportunities between the company and local SME suppliers.
For Sands China, it views these suppliers – including “Made-in-Macao” companies, local small, medium and micro suppliers, and Macao young entrepreneurs – as its strategic partners.
In order to meet market demands, the local company has launched the development and production of biodegradable environment-friendly plastic bags, for which a promotion was carried out this year.
Part of Sands China’s global sustainability goal is to reduce its carbon footprint and waste. Therefore, the integrated resort operator initiated the purchase these biodegradable bags.
“Sands China was willing to take the first step to purchase biodegradable environment-friendly plastic bags from us, which we believe has a demonstration effect for other companies,” said Fung.
Fung’s company has been cooperating with Sands China since 2005, mainly providing plastic garbage bags.
“Procurement has increased tenfold [throughout] the decade,” she added.
In the future, the company plans to continually provide quality products and further promote biodegradable environment-friendly products in the local market.
The local SME expects that government departments and enterprises will exert further efforts to jointly promote green and eco-friendly products.
The gaming concessionaire has pledged to continually respond to the environmental protection policy by minimizing the use of plastic bags in the city.
Since gambling enterprises strictly implement standardized management and operations, Sands China noted that it is significant for operators to acquire suppliers that can “adapt to the market and meet the needs of customers, along with a stable and mature development.”
According the Senior Manager of Sands China’s Procurement and Supply Chain, Eric Chan, the cooperation between SMEs and gambling enterprises has enabled the two parties to “absorb valuable experience from each other, improve their own management ability respectively, and expand their business.”
For Chan, Yiu Wah Plastic Factory Ltd. is as a reliable partner and actively invests in resources for the research and development of new environment-friendly products.
“Since the opening of Sands Macao in 2004, the company has participated and actively cooperated in the bidding of plastic bag projects,” Chan explained.
“Upholding a pragmatic and cooperative attitude, the company is able to make quotations in a short time, clearly understands the requirements of large enterprises, and offers competitive prices and services, therefore, a long-term cooperation has been maintained between both parties,” he added.
Since the SME is under its second generation of leadership, and familiar with the operation of the industry while attaching great importance to communication with customers, it regards Sands China as its “close cooperative partner.”
“During the period that Typhoon Hato hit Macau in 2017, the company gave a large number of black plastic bags to the Sands Cares Ambassadors volunteer team for free for garbage collection to clean up the streets,” Chan recalled.
“In addition, during the outbreak of COVID-19 this year, one of Sands China’s hotels was designated for medical observation. As the demand for plastic garbage bags designated for use in guest rooms increased sharply […] the company immediately mobilized its inventory to provide the urgently needed bags in a short time,” the executive added.
Employees of Yiu Wah Plastic Factory Ltd. have also participated in the Sands Procurement Academy – a training initiative that aims to share business knowledge and skills to further the development of local SME suppliers.
The aim of the programme is to help them gain experience and capacity for working with large-scale international corporations like Sands China.
Sands China is continually committed to providing a series of trainings for suppliers to integrate into the operation of the procurement system and is devoted to working with local SME suppliers to help their businesses flourish alongside the company.