AsiaLIFE

After spending five years running an NGO, Richard Pullen has moved back to the corporate sector. The reason – dog bones. The long-suffering Brighton fan takes this month’s hot seat.

What was your experience before coming to Cambodia?
I was never an academic type so I left school at the earliest opportunity and joined an apprenticeship in the car industry in England. I spent 12 years working my way up the ladder until I reached my goal of Dealer Principle. Unfortunately sometimes when you reach your dreams they don’t always live up to your expectations, hence the change of scene.  

I understand that setting up the Fair Manufacturing Company represents a new departure for you.

What made you make this move?
I spent five years here running an INGO dealing with mechanical design and support for landmine clearance operations around the world. While I enjoyed this work enormously I wanted to get back to business, as I’m more suited to it.

What products are you manufacturing and which markets are you aiming for?
Our key product is a hand tied chicken, pork and rawhide knotted dog chew bone, which we supply under license to all the major U.S. retail outlets. The product itself might seem small but we will produce over half a million bones a day, using 7 tonnes of chicken and about 30 tonnes of rawhide, all sourced from within Cambodia. In time, we will also hope to make and market our own brands and flavours and promote the ‘Made in Cambodia’ tag globally.

Can you explain the principles behind FMC?
I have always believed that the corporate sector is vital to Cambodia’s development – the more factories, the more jobs created. However, some of the factories here are not the nicest places to work and I wanted to set up FMC as a model company and a benchmark to others. As the name suggests we want to be fair to all, our staff, our customers and also to our shareholders. For the staff we intend to create an excellent working environment, and instead of paying the minimum wage we pay a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. We positively recruit people with disabilities and working with the National Centre of Disabled People (NCDP) we hope to become the biggest single employer of disabled people within Cambodia. To be fair to our customers we are installing international standards in food handling and hygiene and perform regular tests for Salmonella, E. Coli and Melamine – a first in this industry. Also we are fair to our shareholders by proving a social responsible employer can also be profitable.  

Why did you decide to establish FMC in Cambodia and what advantages do you see Cambodia as having for businesses over other regional players?
The product itself is hand tied and therefore very labour intensive. However, it requires only limited energy and nearly all its main ingredients can be procured locally. Therefore it makes for the perfect product as labour costs are comparatively lower here than in other countries, and overheads and material costs are acceptable. In addition, the Cambodian Government is extremely pro-business and has been exceptionally supportive to us from the beginning, which has been greatly appreciated. We are also seeing a lot of other US companies looking to diversify their manufacturing from China to other countries. Therefore I expect to see more international companies coming here within the next year or so, which is excellent news for the struggling manufacturing sector.

I understand that you have just made your first confirmed order. Can you tell us more about this?
Indeed, we have spent the last four months building the facility, getting registered and training our staff. Our first order is relatively small, about four million bones but we intend to increase production month on month for the next 12 months.

Do you see FMC as a company that practices CSR (Corporate Sector Responsibility)?
Not really, I have never really understood CSR as it seems it’s just a way for a company to pay lip service to the consumer and to make itself look good. Whilst some companies have a good CSR policy, most tend to do the bare minimum required. FMC just has a different mindset and hasn’t even informed our buyers of our ethos as we want the business based on quality and performance, not sympathy or compassion.

CV
Richard Pullen
Age: 39
Company: The FAIR Manufacturing Company
Job Title: Managing Director
How long in Cambodia: On-and-off for ten years
Married: As good as
Kids: Esti (2 ½) and Archie (1)