ASIAN people are an industrious lot. While most Pacific Islanders often find their way into the business world by default or chance, the Indian and Chinese community have the uncanny ability to identify what the market needs, and then they find a way to fulfil it.
When Yanxia Zhu arrived in Fiji from China about 20 years ago, she had no specific idea what she would do. Her initial plan was to establish a retail shop and so she set up Wan Yiy Trading Company on Raojibhai Patel St in Suva.
Her son, Billy Tan, said it was challenging for the then young Chinese woman.
“Back then, the Chinese were migrating to Fiji and my mother was one of them,” he said.
“When she reached Fiji in 1991, she would have been in her 30s, but her main objective was to open up a simple retail shop and upon establishing Wan Yiy Trading Company my mother was the only one looking after the business and people usually knew her as Zhu.
“As years went by, we had observed that the iTaukei community were always looking for tevutevu and vakamau (wedding) items.
“So we decided to specialise in custom-made tevutevu products and things people needed for special celebrations.”
He said their childhood was spent helping their mother in the shop.
“There are three of us in the family and growing up my siblings and I always pitched in whenever we could to help out with our family business. This was before my two siblings migrated.
“We currently do prints and embroidery of names on pillowcases and mosquito nets. We initially sold our products for $10 and $15, but gradually over the years as the cost of living increased, our prices also went up to be in line with the market price.”
Mr Tan said apart from Wan Yiy Trading Company they also opened a restaurant called Yoyo Cafe which was located next to Post Fiji, Suva.
“At our restaurant we mainly sold Chinese dishes, but unfortunately we had to sell the restaurant in 2004 because it was quite hard trying to manage both businesses and we also did not have the manpower.
“After we sold the restaurant all our focus went back to Wan Yiy Trading and we began to grow it in order to make it better than before.”
Nowadays, Mr Tan and his wife Lily Zhu has taken full responsibility in looking after their family business.
“My mum who is in her 80s is still the owner, but I help her run it when she’s not around and despite our shop being small, it’s a good size for our mother because she is able to manage it alone.
“We currently have two staff members, and our business has been thriving on orders from Fijians over the years. Unlike factories, customers don’t necessarily have to come with large quantities in order to get a custom made product, if they want a single product we do that also.
“People may think that the work we do is done outside, but no it is done by us in our small but comfortable shop.”
He said before COVID-19 business was through the roof.
“We never had time to rest before the pandemic because we had orders coming in left, right and centre, but sales began to slow down when we had to go on lock down.
“We’ve been closed for almost half a year, but now that the pandemic is under control, our business is picking up. It’s not as good as it was before, however, I hope that it will become better in the coming years.”
Mr Tan added that he was grateful to his old and new customers for their loyalty.
“Because we have been here for a long time most of the Fijians know us and we would just like to thank the public for their long support over the years and we hope to see more new faces in the coming weeks and months.”
