Go beyond innovation and create new opportunities for business future

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 6 February 2023 – 2022 Most Innovative Solutions Award, hosted by BUSINESS INNOVATOR, a business content media platform, was culminated on February 3, 2023 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Hong Kong. More than 60 different awards were presented to commend various innovative services and products in Hong Kong business sector. The award-winning companies from different aspect in Hong Kong sent their representatives to attend the ceremony and shared their strategies and experiences with the guests took part in the ceremony.

Themed “Beyond Creative, Be Innovative”, 2022 Most Innovative Solutions Award

In the high pace business world with rapid charging environment, Most Innovative Solutions Award allows more and more members in the industry to understand the entrepreneurial spirit and representative business solutions of the award-winning companies. Entrepreneurs are no longer waiting for business opportunities now. Instead, they take the initiative, seek changes proactively, and strive to create the opportunities for themselves. 2022 Most Innovative Business Solution Award’s theme – Beyond Creative, Be Innovative – is exactly in line with the flexibility and pursuit of perfection of the character of Hong Kong entrepreneurs. Innovative Business Solution Award would like to give the credit to the enterprises participating in this award.

In the speech at the awards presentation, Mr. Jingo Chan, Marketing Director of BUSINESS INNOVATOR, said, “In 2023, BUSINESS INNOVATOR will launch the InnoClub membership program, hoping to bring the companies which got their honor and reputation in the previous award to joint force together. We will hold a series of online and offline events to create more opportunities, which creates the synergy among various industries. Through different events, the representatives of the award-winning companies can communicate directly. I believe the InnoClub will definitely bring more business opportunities to the company’s business.”

In order to commend the companies participating in the “Most Innovative Solutions Award”, politics and business experts were invited as the honorable guests for the award ceremony, including Mr. Joseph Chan, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Ms. Ada Lin, Division Head, Strategy & Innovation, Business Banking, HSBC, Ms. Yvonne Wong, General Manager of Qianhai International Liaison Services Limited, Mr. Kenny Lui, Chief Marketing Officer of e-banner, Mr. Jimmy Wan, Founding Chairman of Hong Kong Greater China SME Alliance Association, and Dr. Edward Lam, the Chairman of Hong Kong SME Development Federation.

The event was also supported by organizations from different sectors, including The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Hong Kong Economic Journal, e-banner, Qianhai International Liaison Services Limited and Joint PR Consultants Limited.

Winners of the 2022 Most Innovative Solutions Award (In Alphabetical Order)

Hashtag: #2022MostInnovativeSolutionsAward

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BUSINESS INNOVATOR

BUSINESS INNOVATOR is a multi-media platform for business information and marketing, utilizing videos and corporate interviews to introduce the latest developments, trends and new opportunities in various industries. It also provides the latest information on local and international financial affairs, innovation and technology, financial investment, and entrepreneurship. We invite not only well-known business leaders to share their business experience and unique insights but also welcome start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises to share forward-looking entrepreneurial ideas and innovative business models, aiming to provide companies of all sizes with recognition and promotion channels that cover multiple media platforms to help increase its visibility.

BUSINESS INNOVATOR also regularly organizes large-scale events such as award ceremonies for outstanding companies and gatherings of business elites, allowing participants to directly interact with potential customers or partners to explore more business opportunities.

Joshua has over 21 years of logistics experience, with 16 years in cross-border logistics servicing e-commerce marketplaces and mono brands across Asia Pacific including New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. He was most recently Vice President of Regional Sales at Quantium Solutions International (a Singapore Post subsidiary), where he was responsible for regional business across 12 countries in the region. In this role, Joshua developed origin operations in Europe, linehaul agreements and last mile in Singapore and Asia Pacific to allow fast onboarding of retailers into the network. Joshua brings these proven results and experiences to Asendia with an aim to truly service the growing needs of e-commerce retailers and brands looking to expand into North Asia.

“With Joshua on board Asendia, the strategic management team covering Southeast and North Asia is complete,” said Lionel Berthe, Head of Asendia Asia Pacific. “Stuart Foster, Managing Director of Asian Desk, APAC (Asendia Asian Desk), and Senthil Kumar, CEO of Asendia Singapore/South Asia (Asendia Singapore Pte Ltd) have just joined the team in January 2023. The hire of Joshua strengthens Asendia’s commitment to the North-Asia region.”

These senior appointments of Asendia APAC emphasize a clear focus of the company’s strategy to expands its reach to the North Asia market, especially to the Chinese e-commerce market, which was estimated to generate around US$1.5 trillion in revenue in 2022 – the largest revenue share globally and double of the estimated e-commerce revenue of the United States of America in the same year^[1].

Geared towards Expansions into North Asia

Strict pandemic lockdowns and disruptions to global supply-chains have directed increasing consumers flows to online retailers, especially in China where most of the population has now embraced e-commerce^[2]. The combined markets of China, Japan, South Korea and the wider Southeast Asia region has accounted for a majority of the global e-commerce sales. Overall, the region’s B2C E-commerce Gross Merchandise Value is projected to increase from US$3,082.3 billion in 2021 to US$5,306.2 billion by 2026^[3].

Joshua Mclarin, as CEO of Asendia Hong Kong and North Asia, is key to tapping the immense growth opportunities in China and North Asia for brands and retailers around the world. “Each market has their own nuances, challenges and opportunities. Mainland China generated 108bn parcels in 2021. Whilst the market is mature and fiercely competitive, there is significant opportunities given the CAGR is in excess of 30%. With my experience, leadership and entrepreneurial spirit I am looking forward to capitalising on this growth in Hong Kong and North Asia leveraging Asendia’s strong global network, systems and value-added services,” Joshua commented.

Asendia Full Team Onboard

Together with Senthil Kumar, CEO for Singapore and South Asia, and Stuart Foster, Managing Director of Asian Desk, APAC (Asendia Asian Desk), the Asendia strategic management team will be working together in full force to expand and provide the best support to clients at large.

Senthil is a highly experienced leader who brings with him over 15 years of experience in general management, e-commerce and logistics and has held senior leadership positions in DHL E-commerce, Samsung and most recently with Janio Asia. “Although the current market situations are not ideal from a macro-economic perspective – South and Southeast Asia is still very rife with opportunities for e-commerce cross border flows. With China now coming out of the COVID related lockdowns, I believe that Asendia is well placed with the necessary network, technology, and people as our main competitive advantages to tap into synergies across Asia Pacific. I’m excited and honoured to be part of the Asendia APAC management team and look forward to helping our customers optimize their e-commerce logistics supply chains using a consultative approach,” said Senthil.

Stuart has over 19 years of extensive experience in parcel delivery industry. Stuart started his career with UPS before moving to La Poste France where he successfully launched the International Sales department of Colissimo (a subsidiary of La Poste) as the Head of International Sales. “Asendia’s greatest strength is to be able to satisfy all the e-commerce merchant needs. Thanks to the customs solutions in the main European gateways as Liege, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris, with tracked and untracked services we can deliver to all the countries a merchant will need. Our expedited delivery network can offer our customers in China and Hong Kong who can efficiently access the European markets. We are also developing additional solutions to increase volume exchanges between Europe and Asia. Asian consumers are very keen on buying European goods. We want to facilitate the shipping process to empower European sellers on these strategic markets,” said Stuart.

Asendia has been active in Asia Pacific, including North Asia region, since in 2012. The group has subsidiaries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Asendia provides brands, retailers, marketplaces and consolidations logistics and digital solutions access to global markets through extensive and innovative distribution solutions, harnessing their worldwide postal partnerships.

Hashtag: #Asendia

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About Asendia

Asendia is one of the world’s leaders in international e-commerce and mail, delivering packages, parcels and documents to more than 200 destinations across the globe. Combining the experience and expertise of its founding companies, La Poste and Swiss Post, the Asendia Group brings together a wealth of international and local know-how. Asendia’s expertise is broad-reaching encompassing different aspects of e-commerce, from webshop software and marketplace management to international logistics. Asendia is committed to sustainability, offsetting all CO2 emissions worldwide. Since January 2022, Asendia is 100% carbon neutral.

Asendia employs over 1’500 people in Europe, UK, Asia Pacific and the USA – a global network blended with a local presence.

Find out more at www.asendia.hk

The local startup ecosystem will benefit from both corporate and government funding for innovators working to create new and sustainable solutions for the packaging industry.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 6 February 2023 – Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY), a global materials science and branding and information solutions company, will be funding Singapore-based startups for the AD Stretch accelerator program with support from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), the government agency championing enterprise development.

AD Stretch is a non-dilutive startup accelerator program powered by Highline Beta that focuses on solving complex problems for the packaging industry including reducing waste, improving customer experience and enhancing supply chain resilience. The partnership with EnterpriseSG will provide support to help Singapore-based startups scale successfully and run global pilots together with a Fortune 500 packaging and labelling leader.

The partnership with EnterpriseSG was announced at the recent inaugural AD Stretch Demo Day in Singapore, an event showcasing the cutting-edge solutions in the labels and packaging space developed by the nine startups selected for the first cohort of the program, which focused on pilots in Asia Pacific and Latin America. The event was attended by senior representatives from Avery Dennison, EnterpriseSG and Highline Beta, as well as over a hundred members of the local business community and startup ecosystem.

Anil Sharma, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Label and Graphic Materials, Asia Pacific said, “Innovation has always been at the heart of Avery Dennison, and we believe that investing in regional innovation can create global impact. We are also committed to driving collaboration across the ecosystem, and look forward to the support from Enterprise Singapore as we collectively solve some of the most pressing business challenges, while in parallel accelerating the growth of promising innovators and companies.”

Ms Emily Liew, Assistant CEO (Innovation & Enterprise Services) at EnterpriseSG, said, “We are happy to partner with Avery Dennison to create opportunities for early-stage start-ups to jointly develop solutions that can help them to build track record for scaling up, while enabling Avery Dennison to access wide-ranging innovative solutions in Singapore. We want to inspire more of such collaborations between large corporates and Singapore-based start-ups, which are vital to the development of relevant, cutting-edge innovations that have the potential for commercialization and impact.”

Launched in November 2022, the second cohort of AD Stretch is currently accepting applications from across the world with a focus on designing and executing pilots primarily in North America and EMENA (Europe, the Middle East and North Africa). Avery Dennison has worked with globally recognized innovation services firm focusing on corporate-startup collaborations, Highline Beta, to design, launch and run AD Stretch. Together, they developed key challenge areas for AD Stretch Cohort 2 within three main themes – making consumer packaged goods smarter, packaging 2.0, and sustainability.

Learn more about AD Stretch and how to apply at www.adstretch.com.

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APPENDIX

Hashtag: #AveryDennison

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About Avery Dennison

Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE: AVY) is a global materials science company specializing in the design and manufacture of a wide variety of labeling and functional materials. The company’s products, which are used in nearly every major industry, include pressure-sensitive materials for labels and graphic applications; tapes and other bonding solutions for industrial, medical, and retail applications; tags, labels and embellishments for apparel; and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions serving retail apparel and other markets. Headquartered in Glendale, California, the company employs more than 35,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Reported sales in 2021 were $8.4 billion. Learn more at www.averydennison.com.

About Enterprise Singapore

Enterprise Singapore is the Singapore government agency championing enterprise development. It also supports the growth of Singapore as a hub for global trading and startups.

The agency attracts global commodities traders to establish their global or Asian home base in Singapore. Today, Singapore is a leading global trading hub with a complete ecosystem for the energy, agri-commodities and metals & minerals trading clusters. Singapore is also home to many global enterprises, startups and investors that operate in its robust pro-enterprise environment.

Enterprise Singapore builds trust in Singapore’s products and services through quality and standards. Renowned for their dedication to quality and innovation, Singapore companies make ideal business partners.

With Enterprise Singapore’s global network in over 35 locations spanning many developed and emerging markets, it connects businesses with relevant Singapore companies for their business expansion.

Visit www.enterprisesg.gov.sg for more information.

About Highline Beta

Highline Beta is a globally recognized corporate innovation and venture capital firm that focuses on corporate-startup collaborations. We work with ambitious corporate innovators to build new business models inside and outside their organization that unlock new areas of growth. We do this by framing their business challenges, recruiting and selecting startups, designing collaborations, and finding a strategic fit with startups that make sense for their business.

Visit www.highlinebeta.com for more information.