Company Information
The business that began behind the closed doors of a rented flat on Stanley Street in Central has over the past seven decades blossomed into one of Hong Kong's leading business conglomerates. The then H.G Kailey & Co embarked on its trading enterprise in 1931, principally in the importation of overseas quality hair products and cosmetics which would years later become a huge success story of this last century.
Armed with a flair for business, Kailey founder Seaward Woo ensured his was not just an ordinary trading enterprise. As the trend for permed hair became increasingly fashionable in the 1930, Woo revolutionized the industry by introducing the early wave machine to Hong Kong and forged a partnership with American hair products manufacturer Helene Curtis that would withstand the test of time for decades to come. Kailey enjoyed immense success from the machine's importation and eventually gained sole distributive rights for all Helene Curtis equipment and products.
Striving on the spirit of entrepreneurship, the turning point came in the 1940 when Kailey took hair equipment one step further, making available the importation of machineless pads impregnated with curling chemicals, which meant women no longer had to sit in hair salons for hours on end.
Post World War II ignited a booming consumer market in Hong Kong, and Kailey took the opportunity to expand its importation product range from Helene Curtis Spray Net to Egg Shampoo and Suave Hairdressing for direct sales to consumers through retail channels. Kailey, by this time, had gained Helen Curtis' sole distributorship rights to the region, establishing branch offices in Malaysia and Singapore.
The Kailey operation took a new twist in its history in the 1950s, diversifying its business to including the exportation of apparel including gloves, knitwear, wigs as well as electrical appliances, hardware products, and also investments in the property, real estate ownership and development sector.
