IHans Christensen and I sat in the Tapas Bar of The House while
it was being set up for the evening and talked not about food
but about Hans. It had taken us a long time to schedule this
interview because Hans travels constantly. He always knew he
wanted to travel, and his father once jokingly told him that all
of his education would eventually be lost to the road. But it
wasn’t lost; it just changed and blossomed. He grew up on the
family farm in Denmark, and many of his years there were spent
in a large blended family that included siblings, half siblings
and stepsiblings. He refers to them all as brothers and sisters,
and talks about his childhood years with pleasure. He bicycled
to school in good weather, but rode the school bus in the
wintertime. He was accepted into Danish design school when he
completed high school, but decided to take a job at a design
house in London instead.
He really liked London. Young and talented,
he gravitated to many other young and talented people there. He
shared a home with a couple from Sweden and one from New
Zealand. It was a creative household, filled with high-spirited
intellectual debates and differences. Nobody had an abundance of
money, but it didn’t matter. Life was good in this
multi-cultural city, and they all thrived. Hans worked for a
firm that designed and produced theater costumes. He was
assigned to the design production room so learned the business
from the inside out. His firm produced the costumes for Kevin
Costner’s Prince of Thieves. “This is the look”,
the movie costume designer told them, and they produced it for
all of the characters.
After five years in London, he had an offer
to work on a project in Thailand. A hotel chain planned to use
designs from villages in Isaan in their retail shops. Hans’
job was to take those designs and make them marketable to
western tourists. The company went bankrupt two years later, so
the fruits of his labors were never realized. He learned a lot
about working with villagers, though, and would apply that
knowledge to his own company later.
He moved to Kuala Lumpur and went to work as
a buyer for a woman whom he considers a visionary in her
understanding of products and marketing. Hans visited Indonesia
and Thailand every six weeks on buying trips. He developed
reliable sources, and began to make his own designs. He speaks
admiringly of all he learned from her. But a promised
partnership never materialized, so Hans took his knowledge and
experience and moved to Chiang Mai to start his own company. An
old friend wanted to sell his designs in Europe. She formed Rice
Denmark, and he incorporated as Rice Thailand.
The products they design and sell are
produced in the developing world with respect for the people who
produce them. They do not use child labor. They treat their
workers fairly, and do not discriminate in hiring racially or
otherwise. Their website says that they guarantee that they will
always conduct themselves in a socially responsible manner.
Hans took some of his designs to a fair in
Bangkok, and made great retail contacts. Pottery Barn, Neiman
Marcus, Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters soon
featured his products. He had one helper, and they considered
themselves “in this together”. His first big order arrived
from Pottery Barn. 12,000 pairs of chopsticks had to be
designed, manufactured, gift packaged and packed for shipping by
a certain date. A fine would be levied for each day production
ran behind. Hans and his helper woefully underestimated the
packaging and packing time. His father arrived for a visit, and
was put to work. The helper’s wife was recruited. The four of
them worked around the clock, packaging and packing, almost sick
with exhaustion at times. And they made the deadline. You can
still see some of his chopstick designs in the Night Bazaar.
Hans often said that he had been “lucky”.
I think he is an incredibly talented person who was willing to
take risks, and those risks paid off. His business expanded
quickly. Exporting boomed during the 1990s. Then China became a
major competitor, and he decided that he had to change both his
strategy and his market. He gradually went “up market” in
fashions with Ginger, and began to develop the local
retail market. He further developed his designs for homes,
adding cushions and table scarves. He recognizes that the world
is smaller and people travel more. He combines east and west in
his designs, and now employs 24 people who sew. His fashion
designs go to New Zealand, Australia and Europe. He has a
growing local following and will soon open an additional Ginger
outlet.
A few years ago he noticed a beautiful old
house that was vacant and beginning to deteriorate. For a while
he simply looked it over, then began to negotiate with the owner
to use the house as a combination office and retail outlet. The
house, however, begged to become a restaurant but it was
difficult to find a chef. Then one day Khun Bom walked in. He
admired Hans’ collection of cookbooks, and said, “I can cook
that food for you”. After a few trial dishes, Hans agreed that
he could indeed cook that fine food, and The House Restaurant
was born. Chef Bom walked in as we were talking and agreed with
the story. He was far more concerned about the fresh fish of the
day, however.
Hans is happy to report that his brother is
joining the team as a management consultant and coach. He admits
that it’s difficult for him to delegate, but he says he has to
learn to do so. “I do get older, you know”. He wants to
spend more time in Europe with his family. His parents are
growing older. Life is a balancing act, and Hans is doing quite
well at it.
