28 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2018
doing seven sales calls a day in
Hong Kong. By 2005, supplements
were a majority of TCI’s sales.
Soon Lin was in executive roles,
driving a manufacturing process
crimped by false economies to
third-party plants that didn’t fulfill
orders or had quality gaps. He re-
directed—when slimming capsules
became discolored, Lin would issue
a recall, hang the cost. He soon fig-
ured it was better for TCI to build
its own factories, starting in 2008
and today totaling five—three in
southern Taiwan and two in Shang-
hai. A zero-defect standard on
stuff like bottle sealants to prevent
contamination is a selling point to
Japanese and other clients.
The result is today’s humming
operation, whose $134 million
in latest annual sales boasts 30%
annualized growth over the past
five years. (This has jumped to a
76% pace year-on-year in 2018 so
far.) The biggest slug of that is in
“functional drinks,” primarily a col-
lagen mix for such results as firmer
skin or more limber joints, and
on which several leading Chinese
direct sellers, including Melalueca,
are known to have scored big. The
mainland accounts for three quar-
ters of TCI’s total revenues.
Food supplements, in the form
of tablets, capsules and powder,
make up nearly another 40% of
revenues, and the remainder is in
skin-care products—namely, facial
masks. These are constituted of
liposomes, which aid in the ab-
sorption of a proprietary essence
into skin pores over a 15-minute
application and sell at the likes of
Sephora for several dollars a pop.
Along the way, there were of
course those who doubted Lin’s
product instincts. In 2011 his idea
for using the forsaken peels in what
became the popular Happy Banana
compound (for better disposition
and sleep) drew strong internal
resistance. So the CEO brought
in would-be buyers to settle the
matter. “Some had sought a radical
way to challenge me before they
built faith in me. But over the years,
many have come to realize that I’m
not a capricious person and mostof my ideas are well thought out.
More important, I’m a doer, who
sets an example,” he says.
Founder Yang, 74, a believer in
separating ownership from man-
agement in sustaining businesses,
saw what he wanted in Lin. (Yang
maintains control over a larger
stake than the combined 3.6% by
Lin and Lin’s younger brother, who
runs the Shanghai operation.)
Now TCI, like others in the
nutricyclicals business (includ-
ing food giant Nestlé), is on the
genome quest to give customers
custom-made supplements. By
the Lunar New Year, Lin plans to
deploy robot testing of the RNA
“messengers” from DNA samples
to determine ideal remedies. (In
TCI’s layman’s terms: DNA is like
your overall genetic book, while
RNA shows which page your health
is on. So RNA results can indicate
where one could get sick and thusflag products that could interdict
the ailment. So not everyone may
need the banana peels.)
Even minor breakthroughs can
have big potential market effects.
The IBD model has yielded emul-
sified fish-oil liquids that are
odor less. That matters in a sizable
product category where both very
young and old find it hard to swal-
low capsules that weren’t palatable
if breached. Lin credits the white-
coated thirtysomethings who popu-
late his R&D labs.
Rebecca Chan, head of TCI’s nu-
trigenomic department, says the boss
has allowed her team ample room
to experiment. More important, he
trains researchers to have a market-
ing mindset. “Vincent asks for more
than scientific data from us, which
is basic. He pushes us to deliver
unique selling points for any given
ingredient so that our sales can easily
persuade buyers,” Chan says.
Lin saw market cues for hot sell-
ers, be they collagen-based prod-
ucts or fragrant pomegranate en-
zyme masks—that Chan says caught
her team by surprise. “What I do
best these days is to tap the poten-
tial in young people and make them
believe that anything is possible,”
says Lin, father to three daughters
and a newborn son himself. “We
may not have the best talent, but
we’re a group of fanatics, who focus
on doing one thing right.”
His single-minded goal is a 1%
share of the global food supple-
ments market by 2030, which
would take TCI to near $7 billion
in sales. Asia is a hub for “natural”
boosters and remedies, ensuring
plenty of competition ahead. TCI
sees Nutri Biotech, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Korean cosmetics
maker Cosmax, as a prime rival.
“We’ve excelled in intercepting
the future,” says Lin. “[Product] ef-
ficacy, instead of cost, is what will
enable us to compete for the future
and where our value lies.” FBEST UNDER A BILLION — TCI
FORBES ASIA
“WHAT I DO BEST THESE
DAYS IS TAP THE POTENTIALIN YOUNG PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM
BELIEVE THAT ANYTHING
IS POSSIBLE.”