For MOS House Group’s Fiona Tsui, one person’s slip paved the way to a shining retail opportunity. While spending her days on tiles, she also prioritises giving back…
Tell us about your upbringing.
I come from a relatively small family. It was just my parents, my elder brother and myself. Then my brother emigrated to the US, so it was mainly me, my dad and my mum in Hong Kong. As a kid, my dad always pushed me to do things like music and ballet, even though I wasn’t really into these activities. My parents would end up bribing me by saying “if you practise for three hours, you can get ice cream afterwards”. Since I absolutely adored ice cream, I’d suffer through the hours of playing to get my reward!
As a child, did recall having any particular career aspirations?
When I was really young, I wanted to become a writer. At the time, my father was friends with famous local novelist Louis Cha Leung-yung [also known by his pen name, Jin Yong], so I think that’s how I got inspired. I dabbled in story-writing for a while, but ultimately gave it up because it was too difficult.
How did your career unfold?
I had begun helping my parents with their tailoring business as a teenager, and continued to do so after graduating. Then, after I got married, my husband and I had the opportunity to invest in what would eventually become MOS House Group. The idea originally came from one of our friends, who convinced us to invest in the project. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, this person gave up on the entire initiative without ever starting, leaving us in something of a lurch.
Since we had already sunk money into the business, we thought: why not give it a go ourselves? So, we both switched gears and careers and focused solely on this instead. It was a huge change for both of us, as we didn’t have any prior experience in the industry, but we made it work somehow, and we’re still going strong two decades later.
Today, you are Executive Director at MOS House Group. How as the company grown over 20 years?
We started off as an overseas-manufactured tile retailer for the city, but today we serve as the seller for more than 20 brands. Our bread-and-butter is importing porcelain, ceramic and mosaic tiles from exclusive luxury brands in European countries like Italy and Spain, but our product portfolio also includes kitchen finishes as well as bathroom fixtures and fittings such as bathtubs, basins, mirrors and so forth.
What were the major challenges you faced getting your business off the ground?
In the beginning, pretty much everything was a brand-new experience, but I think it was these bumps in the road that really taught me a lot. For example, every year there are several major houseware fairs in Italian cities such as Milan and Bologna, where international retailers fly in to inspect and order products for the coming year.
As a buyer, you not only need to know the reigning trends, but you also have to separate the products that would appeal more to European clients from those that will resonate with an Asian audience like our own customer base. In the early days, I sometimes chose items that didn’t really fit Hong Kong tastes at that time, so they would remain in our storehouse unsold. Thankfully, evolving trends meant that a few years later, those very products suddenly became hits and flew off the shelves.
Do you have any exciting projects on the horizon that you can share with us?
With the ongoing pandemic, we’ve not been able to grow in quite the way we hoped over the past couple of years, but we’re optimistic that once things look up, we can revive our plans to expand. We’re hoping to spread our footprint in the mainland – we already have offices in Shanghai and Guangdong, for example, but we’d like to enter newer cities as well. Also, from a product perspective, we’re looking to increase our portfolio with new houseware items from markets such as Japan so that we can add to the breadth of offerings available to our discerning customers.
Aside from MOS House Group, do you have any other business interests or passions?
To be honest, our company is my sole business focus at the moment. Having said that, I do devote a lot of my time to giving back to the needy. I’m not talking about the glamorous side of charity work, such as fundraising galas. I actually like to roll up my sleeves and get involved in causes I feel really help disadvantaged people. Of course, with the ongoing pandemic, this has often meant collecting and distributing masks and providing rapid testing kits to elderly folks who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them. Before Covid though, I was involved in initiatives such as beach clean-ups and other environmental programmes as well.
“I’m not talking about [doing] the glamorous side of charity work… I actually like to roll up my sleeves and get involved in causes I feel really help disadvantaged people”
How do you like to relax and unwind when you have free time?
I’m a total foodie, so I like to check out new Michelin-starred restaurants to sample their dishes. But more than food, though, I love to travel. I’ve been to over 100 countries so far, and I think it’s just such an amazing way to broaden your horizons. My favourite trips are to South America, because the culture, people and sights are so far removed from Hong Kong. The fact that these places are so geographically remote and require such lengthy travel plans means you value your time there so much more. My most memorable experience abroad to date is probably visiting the famous salt flats of Bolivia [the Salar de Uyuni] – it was just such an awe-inspiring, amazing sight to behold…
Who is your favourite celebrity?
I would say Audrey Hepburn. She was so classy, so elegant, and I absolutely adored her films such as Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Beyond that, though, I’ve always admired her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She was so passionate about travelling all over the world to raise awareness of the plights of everyone from the sick and the elderly to impoverished children. What an amazing, singular woman!
If you could meet any person, past or present, who would it be?
That would have to be Coco Chanel. She’s an absolute legend, and I’d love to know what inspired her, what made her tick and how she overcame the challenges in her life. As you may be able to tell, I’m focusing on strong women here… while there are many men I admire, I feel like women really don’t get enough attention for all the amazing things they achieve even now, so we should celebrate the female trailblazers who pushed boundaries and shattered glass ceilings over the past century.
Finally, if you won a US$10 million lottery tomorrow, what would be your first big-ticket purchase?
Honestly, I’d give a significant amount of the winnings to charity. I firmly believe in giving back – I’d want to pass on my good fortune to those who need it more than me.
Thank you.
(Interview by: Tenzing Thondup; Photographer: Jack Law; Art Direction and Styling: Jhoshwa Ledesma; Videographer: Andy Wan Hair and Make up: Heti Tsang; Venue: Molteni&C)
