Innovation and leadership in the silicone market

Mr. Young-Ho Ji, CEO of Easy&Home, shares with International Plastics News for Asia (IRNA) the company’s innovative silicone products and how they trail blaze above their competitors with regards to design and innovation.

IRNA: Easy & Home has focused on the kitchenware and home/healthcare sectors. What are your products, and how do they emerge as pioneer in the field of silicone-based materials?
 

Mr. Ji: Our current market line includes a wide range of 100% silicone household products, from scrubbers for kitchen and body use, to kitchen wraps and plastic ware. These scrubbers are convenient, user-friendly and most importantly, eco-friendly with its patented reusability and ease in cleaning. We take pride in our silicone scrubbers that are subjected to stringent tests for fatigue, stress, microwave and dishwasher use while exceeding the FDA standards.

Cornering the EU market, especially Germany and the UK, is our silicone multiwrap  a versatile stretchable resealable lid for microwave and food storage use. Sales for this product are posting outstanding growth, with potential in line with upcoming food and beverage trends not only in the UK but also in our growing Asian markets. Our research & development team is constantly improving our special silicone compound, keeping in mind the safety and health of our customers while maintaining our commitment to environmental protection and conservation.

Aside from our silicone products, we also manufacture and distribute plastic and stainless steel kitchenware and household products. We also offer room deodorants in form of air-scrubbing rocks that combines function with art and decor.

Mr. Young-Ho Ji, CEO, Easy&Home

IRNA: You mention the EU as your biggest market, which from among these countries are your biggest customers? What are your expansion plans?

Mr. Ji: Our export margins account for 80% of our company’s yearly sales. For 2015, we saw over $2 million in export sales. Germany has been our largest single market worldwide for some time now. UK is a close second and our market is continually growing in that area. We’ve also seen sales growth and potential with France.

As with any export and manufacturing company, we have always had our eye on breaking into the US market. We have tested the waters by partnering with home TV shopping networks to advertise and distribute our products. So far, the results have been promising. Easy&Home is also investing heavily in breaking ground in the Southeast Asian region, targeting the heavily populated countries such as Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, with a projected $10 million growth in export sales.

IRNA: Where is your production facility located and what’s its capacity?  

Mr. Ji: In South Korea, Easy & Home maintains 10 factories located mainly in Incheon Technology Park and in the surrounding Gyeonggido provincial cities. These include our manufacturing, bagging and packaging facilities. Our Incheon plant received KS Q ISO 9000 certification and has been awarded the Incheon Potential Export Company certification. We also received the KSI ISO 14001 for all our Korean factories. We have consistently maintained these certifications for two years now.

We also have outsourced the bulk of our manufacturing to our partners in China. We have 20 manufacturing plants in this partnership, all also having and maintaining their ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 certifications. To keep our products’ stringent standard and quality, we have specifically selected reliable and service-oriented manufacturing plants to produce and handle bulk orders. Each of these factories employs about 100 to 120 personnel and staff. The Qingdao office oversees our China operations while our Korea office houses the R&D and management personnel.

Each of our factories has a daily capacity of 1,000 units or a monthly capacity of 100,000 units of each product item. For bulk orders, we can assure two to three container loads (100,000 to 200,000 pieces) for each of our product line (50-100 products). We promise our customers the speed, efficiency and guaranteed delivery of bulk orders without sacrificing the quality and reliability of every Easy&Home product.

IRNA: Being a pioneer has its rewards and challenges. What are the priorities of Easy&Home in terms of technological advancement and product improvement?

Mr. Ji: Korea is now emerging as one of the frontrunners in silicone research and development. Thus said, our R&D experts have been working round the clock to constantly improve on our silicone materials. We locally source most of our materials, with some imports from the US. Our patented premium silicone material is a blend of materials specially developed to be stable, non-reactive and highly-adaptable to various use and purposes such as our kitchenware and health products.

Our machinery, such as the pressing, injection, baking, printing and mixing equipment, are sourced mainly from China. These we use to manufacture, assemble and produce our product lines using two kinds of silicone material. Th e polyethylene and  thermoplastic polyamide plastic products, which we combine with our silicone material or as stand-alone products, are also sourced locally as far as material procurement for production is concerned.

The company has a strong R&D team that develops products meeting ever-growing market demand.

Our efforts in R&D and exports have not gone unnoticed as we have been included in the Korea e-Power 300 Companies for the second year in a row. The Korea e-Power 300 Companies is an elite group of companies designated as frontrunners in terms of company growth, export potential and development in South Korea. Our inclusion in this exclusive circle has made us double our efforts in churning out innovative products that addresses the needs of an ever-growing silicone home/healthcare market. We stand by what Thomas Alva Edison once said “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration”.

IRNA: What are the company’s plans for new products and product expansion capacity?

Mr. Ji: The advent of smart home products is gaining ground especially in technologically advanced markets such as Korea and Japan. Easy&Home has joined in the race to provide smart home products that cater to users everyday needs with the introduction of the Smart iAngel baby healthcare device. This device tethers the infant’s health monitoring system to the parents’ mobile devices. Temperature, feeding, diaper management and health data recording is combined in a nifty device to help parents provide around-the-clock monitoring of their babies. We have just introduced the Smart iAngel in the local market and it’s now gaining ground with tech-savvy Korean moms.

With this bright outlook, we are in the process of developing smart kitchenware such as bowls that automatically register the weight, temperature, calories and other pertinent information on any ingredients placed in it. We see these smart capabilities for pots and pans as well. Imagine a spatula that can tell you if the liquid is hot or cold? Salty or sweet? A cooker that shuts off by itself when it senses the food is cooked perfectly. The possibilities are endless. We are in the final R&D stages for our smart products and expect, as early as June of this year, to launch them in the market.

Easy&Home (J&C Global Co. Ltd.)
Address; 242, Namdong-daero, Namdong-gu, Incheon, South Korea, 405-807
Tel: +82 32 873 0238
Fax: +82 32 873 0230
E-mail: yhji2001@gmail.com
Website: www.easynhome.com