Malaysia

Texchem Resources founder Fumihiko Konishi's rise to success has a storybook quality to it.

A young Japanese man makes a short visit to Malaysia in the late 1960s, falls in love with the place, comes back as a student, starts his own business and builds it into a successful conglomerate with 36 companies operating throughout Southeast Asia and an annual turnover exceeding $230 million. He even lives in an Italian-style castle near the firm's headquarters in Penang.

"I was part of a group of 300 young people sent on a 58-day cruise sponsored by the Japanese government. It was a fantastic experience for me, at age 23, to be able to freely interact with people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures - and very rare for a young Japanese man at that time," explains Konishi, who still serves as his company's president and CEO.

Dato' Seri Fumihiko Konishi, President and CEO of Texchem Resources.

Of all the places he saw on the trip, none touched him like Malaysia. "When we reached Malaysia, I was impressed by it so much. It was very clean and the sun in this country reminded me of paradise," he recalls. "Furthermore, I found the Malaysian people to be quite warm-hearted, receptive to learning and English speaking. These were all important ingredients for me."

Another important ingredient for Konishi included the relatively advanced infrastructure already put in place by the British and Malaysia's push to continue its development.

In short, Konishi saw nothing but potential in Malaysia. He observed that the agriculture-based economy was shifting toward manufacturing, and realized there was going to be a great need for industrial chemicals, dyestuffs, resins and industrial equipment. That great need presented a great opportunity.

Texchem Resources and Texchem Malaysia were established in 1973 to support fledgling local investments, followed by the creation of an office in Singapore that could tap into the international trading market.

Now, in its 30th anniversary year, Texchem is a well-diversified conglomerate focused on manufacturing, trading and retail and services. Its core competencies include household insecticides, industrial packaging materials and the trading of consumer and industrial materials.

"Our 30th anniversary is a very important event because, to my knowledge, the average life cycle of a Japanese company is 30 years and we're still going strong." Konishi relates with evident pride. "In the past 30 years we have established foundations, acquired all the necessary resources and gained capital like never before. I have been successful in establishing the Texchem empire, which I never thought would happen when I first came here with nothing but a ticket back to Japan."

Over the years, Texchem - and Konishi - have become well known fixtures in both Penang and the rest of Malaysia. Not only as examples of a successful investment in the country, but also as an institution - and a man - who put something back into the community that nurtured them.

"Texchem focuses on three areas: youth, culture, and sports. Management is allowed to spend 3 percent of our profit before taxes for these endeavors," he explains. "We bring operas, concerts and plays to Penang and Kuala Lumpur. Last year we brought in `Madame Butterfly'. We also offer scholarships to students and support sporting events such as international classic and social dance competitions."

On March 31 next year, Konishi will turn 60 and he has unofficially announced plans to retire. Despite this, he is expected to remain active in charting the future success of his company - including continued expansion across the ASEAN region via AFTA (the ASEAN Free Trade Area) and eventually to the rest of the world.

"Texchem is the first and only organization that established an AFTA committee in 1993 to study the whole system and what changes would occur when AFTA is implemented," he says. "AFTA will give us a big strong platform to establish globally. We will become number one in ASEAN countries before going in other parts of the world."

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