Tanhoy is special

Tanhoy is a very unusual kind of Chinese company, uniquely placed to offer its customers the service they need. So what is it that makes Tanhoy so different?

Companies in China

In China, there are three main types of company, state-controlled, private enterprise and joint-ventures with overseas partners.

	State corporations are usually large and have considerable resources, but they can also be inflexible, both in finance and in management, and it is hard for them to be efficient, because they have to carry a lot of expensive social responsibilities.
	Private companies are often poorly funded. Many are started, with great optimism, but most will fall by the wayside. There is the risk therefore that such a company may not be there for the long-term to provide a stable supply source.
	Overseas joint-venture companies are better funded, but there are often disputes between the local and the foreign partners, and there may be conflicts of interest between the foreign partner and the overseas clients.

A new kind of company

A group of us had been running the Dalian office of HFED (a state corporation) since the start of the 1990's, producing and selling a range of botanical materials, but by 1997 we were becoming more and more frustrated by the limitations being placed on us. We felt that we were working with one hand tied behind our backs, which wasn't good for our customers and certainly wasn't good for HFED. There had to be a better way. We talked it over with our management and, between us, we came up with a completely new approach, which is Tanhoy.

We founded Tanhoy in 1998 as a private company, but with HFED as a major shareholder. In this way, we were able to keep the same team together, with their long experience of the business, and to shake off the constraints and frustrations of state management, but still to have HFED behind us with their powerful resources when needed. In this way we have been able to combine the financial strength and stability of the state sector with the flexibility, local control and imagination of the private sector in a way which allows us to offer you, our customers, the best possible service for Chinese botanical products.

Our management team have a share of the company and so are fully motivated towards its success, which we believe can best be achieved by building long-term relationships with our customers, anticipating and responding to their needs. If we can help you to be successful, this will make us successful - this is the Tanhoy philosophy.

Resources and production

Tanhoy has good facilities for production, and in fact is the producer of all of the material shown in our product list - by cutting out the middlemen, we can offer you the best prices, and we can closely control the quality. We draw our raw material from all over North East China, which is rich in botanical resources, and we deal direct with the producers, be they farmers, or collectors from the wild. We have over 35 man-years experience in this work, and so we have developed an extensive network of contacts and partners. The material is brought to our factories located in Jilin and North Liaoning (close to the main production areas), which we own jointly with the local management. In this way, according to the Tanhoy philosophy, they have a financial share in the success of their work and so are enthusiastic and dedicated, resulting in higher quality and more efficient production.

With the backing of our major shareholder, HFED, we are also strong financially, which allows us to collect our raw materials all through the harvest season, without the cash flow problems suffered by many local companies. This means that, where there is competition, we often get first choice, and hence the best quality and value. Similarly, at the other end of the chain, these resources allow us to offer flexibility of payment terms to our regular customers which can make all the difference in a tight market.