Forbes Asia - October 2018

26 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2018

A

fter Vincent Lin, an

early supersalesman

for Taiwan’s TCI, was

made its CEO in 2010,

he decided to take

the maker of private-label dietary

supplements up a considerable

notch. He would invest in what

he called “integrated bioscience

design” (IBD) to come up with pro-

prietary ingredients to differentiate

itself across a product line address-

ing everything from sleep promo-

tion and weight loss to countering

depression and skin aging.

TCI would unlock and extract

new substances—such as from

agricultural wastes like longan

shell and banana peel—through its

laboratory work. That IBD is being

carried out by Ph.D.s among a team

of 200 researchers employing biol-

ogy, agronomics, industrial engi-

neering and consumer behavior

studies to attract premium-brand

clients. Since 2013, the effort has

expanded into genomics in one

of the nine labs, with the promise

of tailoring personalized needs to

nutricyclicals.

That last efort is a $6.5 million

multiyear push on top of what is

now an annual $6 million R&D

budget. Lin’s gamble is that this will

keep the 500 corporate customers

in 48 countries wanting to put their

labels on TCI wares without much

haggle room over price. That’s the

basis for a repeat 2018 appearance

for his outfit on Forbes Asia’s Best

Under A Billion companies list—and

the genomics could lead to TCI’s

own retail lines as well.

The company’s trove of novel

formulas underlies its 41% gross

margin, says Donald Lee, an analyst

with JihSun Securities in Taipei.

“Its strength lies in its fast-paced

development of key ingredients, its

capability of manufacturing a com-

prehensive array of dosage forms

and its perfect timing of product

launch, just to name a few,” he says.

Lin, 42, has led the push and as

of mid-2017 took over as chairman

as well from William Yang, who

founded TCI in 1980 as a trading

company in textiles and assorted

other goods. (TCI originally was

Tai Chiang—or “big river”—In-

dustrial.) An ironsmith’s son who

majored in plant pathology and

once sold orchid seedlings, Lin was

a dynamo from the start for Yang’s

foray into preventative potions,

Big Swallow

Founder’s protégé has brought “bioscience design”

to a nutricyclicals maker in Taiwan.

BY JOYCE HUANG

BEST UNDER A BILLION — TCI

FORBES ASIA

William Yang founded TCI in 1980 as a trading

company dealing textiles and other goods.