| Sports |
Perseverance pays off
for Suzannah
By LINDA SATARO
Being a mother of three and a
successful businesswoman can be quite challenging.
There's business matters to attend to, children's school and
personal needs to provide and work pressure to manage and handle
in order to remain competitive.
While business has previously been regarded a man's domain, more
and more PNG women are stepping out, trying their hand in the
business arena, managing quite well and becoming successful.
Suzannah Davis-Ling from Milne Bay and Western province, the
Managing Director of PNG Tailoring Ltd is one such woman.
PNG Tailoring Ltd is a company Suzannah and her late husband
Grahame Ling started in 2000 out of their passion for clothing.
PNG Tailoring Ltd's core business has been manufacturing of
corporate apparel, industrial wear, security wear, school
uniforms, casual wear, hospitality and medical wear.
The company also provides corporate design concepts incorporating
company logos on fabrics, embroidery service, screen printing, and
alterations.
Ms Davis-Ling also initiated the supply of quality promotional
items for corporate launches, product branding and corporate
outings.
Ms Davis-Ling said starting from scratch was not easy.
"We employed 10 staff initially to help with sewing and employed a
non citizen Mr Naushad Badurdeen, Sri Lankan, who is a tailor,
master cutter and designer by trade."
They knew that his expertise and experience would be instrumental
to the newly formed company.
Being new in clothing manufacturing industry, they had to assert
themselves to market their products to potential customers.
This was a new area that they were breaking into as they now had
to manufacture clothing as opposed to selling ready made clothing,
which they used to do.
The couple previously owned and managed three retail clothing
outlets from 1996 till 2000 when they decided to sell them.
But with the confidence to meet customers needs they decided to
give it a go.
"Sometimes I ended up sleeping at 2-3 am in the morning because I
had to pack for our customers in Manus, Bougainville, New Ireland
and East New Britain", she said.
Their customer base increased to include corporate customers like
International Education Agency (IEA), MVIL, Protect Security,
British American Tobacco (BAT) Westpac Bank PNG Limited, SP
Brewery and Air Niugini.
But just when business was starting to get off the ground tragedy
struck in 2003, when her husband passed away.
Ms Davis-Ling was left with the business and three sons to take
care of.
As devastating as it was Ms Davis-Ling accepted her situation and
took up the challenge to manage and control the company's assets
and liabilities and strive to achieve what her late husband and
she had set out to achieve.
She assured her customers that despite their loss, business would
continue as normal as she initiated marketing strategies to
achieve the company's objectives always emphasizing to her
employees the importance to maintain the quality and service of
products to meet their customers demands.
In 2005 Ms Davis-Ling extended the company's Gordon's factory
which now employs up to 35 staff.
Her efforts and hard work paid off early this year when she heard
her Company had won the International Star For Quality Award (ISAQ)
from Business International Directions (BID), a worldwide
organization dedicated to the promotion of quality culture of
companies around the world.
The award presented to her was based on customers' satisfaction,
leadership, technology, best practice and business results among
others.
Ms Davis-Ling traveled to Paris, France where she received the
award on March 26 at the Awards Convention. The event was attended
by business worldwide, the Diplomatic Corp and the media.
"Paris sets the trend for the fashion industry, and to be in the
clothing business and to receive this International Award in a
country that influences the clothing industry is indeed an honor
and an experience", she said.
PNG Tailoring Ltd continues to supply the local PNG market and
Solomon Islands with quality products and is currently working on
projects to supply neighboring off-shore markets.
Ms Davis-Ling said her business would not have come this far had
it not been for the commitment and loyalty of her employees and
the support from valued customers whom she thanked.
She assured her clients and customers of quality products and
services as the company expands its horizons.
 
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