Clark: Young at heart

Sung Hak Baik is a name in Europe that is known only to those familiar with the forklift sector. But in South Korea, it is associated with a genuine corporate legend. The 70 year-old owner of the forklift manufacturer Clark, has every reason to look back with pride in 2009. This is because Baik's South Korean conglomerate Young An, which took over Clark in 2003, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Elegant, and yet modestly dressed. With a winning friendliness. And always ready to discuss the latest developments in materials handling technology in fluent English with interested parties, customers and partners of Clark Europe GmbH. This is how Sung Hak Baik came across at the Clark stand of the 2008 logistics trade fair CeMAT in Hanover. Yet only a handful of his business contacts are aware of Sung Hak Baik's meteoric rise to become chairman of an international corporation.

From orphan to business founder

It sounds like something out of the American dream: born amid the chaos of war-torn Manchuria in 1939, Sung Hak Baik grew up as an orphan in poverty-stricken circumstances. As early as his 20s, Baik, who picked up the basics of English talking to American GIs in the Korean War, staked high in 1959. He founded the family company Young An with modest start-up capital – core competence: hat production.

2007 turnover: 1.5 billion US dollars

Although producing just 70 hats at the beginning, Young An currently manufactures and sells several hundred million hats each year under the auspices of the company founder and chairman Sung Hak Baik – 50 years after founding the business. And what’s more: the company, based in the South Korean town of Buchan, has continuously grown and expanded to become a globally active conglomerate. Despite the considerable size attained, the charm of the family company is still there – the sons having been fully integrated in the family business. The total sales of Young An in 2007: 1.5 billion US dollars.

Key to success: 11,600 employees

The Young An Hat Company, Daewoo Bus Corporation, mobile phone manufacturer Alcomm Dabo as well as, since 2003, the traditional forklift company Clark are some of the companies belonging to Young An. Established fully in line with South Korean tradition as a company with a diversified portfolio, Young An 2007 employs around 11,600 staff in 16 countries. About 10,000 employees work in Asia, with around 1,500 in America and a further 100 in Europe – an upward trend. Mobility is what counts.

The traditional hat segment with its ten production facilities, represented in around 79 countries with more than 41,000 resellers, contributed around 18 percent of the total turnover in 2007 with 118 million US dollars. The commercial vehicles business division had the lion’s share of this: the Daewoo Bus Corporation with a turnover of 817 million US dollars (55 percent) combined with the fork lift truck branch Clark with 467 million US dollars (31 percent). Daewoo Bus manufactures in nine factories and is represented in 45 countries worldwide with 45 dealers.

A family affair

Yet more extensive is the global network of the Young An subsidiary Clark Material Handling Co. Products are manufactured in Korea (10,000-12,000 units per year), China (10,000-15,000 units per year) and the USA (1,000 - 2,500 units per year), shortly also Germany and Brazil. The research and development departments are located in Korea, China, the USA und Germany; the market is supplied via seven central sales companies such as Clark Europe GmbH and the co-operating dealers, around 400 worldwide.

Sung Hak Baik is impressed with the traditional brand Clark: “As the inventor of the fork lift truck, Clark has made a significant contribution towards the industrial development of the last century,” states Baik, who was convinced he had made the right business decision when taking over Clark in January 2003: “I believe you can do good business with a company that appears ailing at first glance. Especially Clark has outstanding machinery, an excellent reputation in the market, good conditions and first-class services.” The upturn in the last few years confirm Baik’s appraisal of the promising world brand Clark. The growth rates in the double-digit percent range achieved in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since the take over by Young An are a real sign of this.

Future security

The belief in the brand Clark with more than 1,000 employees worldwide, on the basis of which Baik intends to achieve a world market share of 7,5 percent by 2010, was confirmed by an American study of the sector at the end of 2008: the US trade journal Modern Materials Handling questioned 1,300 experts on the subject of customer satisfaction in the market for fork lift trucks. The first place in the category price-to-performance ratio went to Clark. The high value which the parent company ascribes to Clark can also be fully quantified: Young An is investing eight-figure sums in research and development. “We’re extremely happy about having gained a backing of such integrity, reliability and, above all, long-term orientation with Young An and its legendary entrepreneur Sung Hak Baik,” states Egon Strehl as managing director of Clark Europe GmbH (Mülheim and der Ruhr). “That means absolute future security for Clark's employees and customers alike.”

Real social responsibility

Sung Hak Baik makes no secret of the fact that “every part of the Young An group of companies acts independently, having to the respond to internal and external competition.” The battle for market shares is actually only one aspect of the Young An commitment. In fact, considerable volumes of the profit generated flow into social facilities. The Young An group of companies finances schools, colleges, churches, nurseries, hospitals, children’s homes and language centres in Costa Rica, China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and, of course, Korea. Social responsibility with an emphasis on promoting education has been one of the corporation’s declared ethical objectives since its foundation. The social commitment – demonstrated by charity work in the field of welfare and education – is underscored by something truly unique and new: Young An operates the first TV station for elderly and handicapped or disabled people in Korea. The channel lives up to its name: Hope Welfare TV.

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