The world has not remained the same as it was before. It has been changing constantly, and people have been adjusting their lifestyles in accordance with that. While people used to remain physically active, the increased automation and dependence on machines have drastically reduced their physical activity. To compensate for this, people have resorted to various practices like hitting the gym, practising yoga, swimming, and playing games.
All these alternative activities have surely increased the demand for fitness equipment. However, finding the best product on the market is not an easy task. But thanks to companies like Topko, distributors, retailers, and end-consumers can now easily access the best quality yoga and fitness equipment.
Steven Fu, CEO of Topko Product Group Ltd., was with the CEO Views team, sharing details about their entrepreneurial journey.
Inception
Steven Fu started practising yoga when he was at university. According to him, regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness, increases body awareness, relieves stress patterns, and relaxes the mind. Thus, the benefits of yoga gave him the spirit to start the business. He planned to manufacture yoga products and sell them to wholesalers and retailers at an affordable price, so more and more people in the world can enjoy the benefits that yoga will bring.
As their business has grown, the customer scope has expanded. They now want to add fitness products, clothing, and outdoor/sports equipment to their line of products.To meet the needs of these customers, they started new production lines. On the other hand, they are cooperating with inland manufacturing facilities so that they are capable of supplying thousands of products for customers, and all of them can be customized with their customers’ brands and packaging. And these products include some of the most innovative products in the industry. This made him start manufacturing products on a large scale.
The journey of building the company
While speaking about their entrepreneurial journey, Steven describes how technologies are developing and changing the world’s diversion towards new trends. Companies that would like to survive in this competitive world should adapt to the new technologies in tandem. Topko is not only in products, but also in marketing and company management.
The fitness industry is going smart and multi-functional. The innovative products include smart yoga mats, fitness mirrors, and multi-functional fitness equipment.
They have very balanced teams, and their strategies keep them in the race. On the manufacturing side, they increased the number of workers and funds for new products and innovative ideas. They are launching new products using the most advanced technologies. Meanwhile, they are seeking eco-friendly materials to make their products recyclable and sustainable. Customers in the industry value their efforts in product development. Customers who bought from them and resold them had a larger share and a higher margin in the market.
Serving customers
B2B business has been Topko’s major mode of business. Their customers usually create their own brands of products with them, which they sell to retail stores or sell on their online store. They know that their brand means a lot to them and it is their responsibility to produce high-quality products for them. They have manufacturing experts and a well-experienced quality system, which play a key role in achieving the goal of delivering high-quality products to their customers. Their QC team monitors the production as per the guidelines from time to time. They also offer a free inspection report to their customers to check the quality of mass production before delivery. Although most of their customers are in foreign countries, they can check the quality through videos, photos, and reports at any time.
Technological trends
The fitness industry is going smart and multi-functional. The innovative products include smart yoga mats, fitness mirrors, and multi-functional fitness equipment. More and more products have modern designs, and they are now connected to the app. People can check the exercise results on the app, get training lessons, and have competitions with their friends. With this trend in mind, they are inviting international designers to join the development process. More and more products are designed with stylish looks and smart functions. The smart device can calculate the numbers of their exercise, transfer the data to the app and give guidance to end customers.
Innovation
They have a product design team that senses the latest trends, some people are experts in sales who know their customers’ needs, and some are manufacturing experts. They also invite international designers to join the development process. Their international designers always come up with several designs with this trend in mind. Then their manufacturing team will evaluate and make modifications to make the design suitable for production. After the initial design model comes out, their sales send it to customers for feedback. Once customers gave positive feedback, they invested in the molding, and a new type of innovative fitness equipment finally came out.
Topko’s head office is located in Shanghai, the economic and financial centre of China. Topko’s factories are the leading ones in the industry, they are BSCI audited and ISO9001 certified. The goods produced are sold in major retail stores all over the world. Since they started, they have served thousands of business customers and enjoy high reputations in the industry.
