ROLAND STEPHENS

24 years from now, Simon Lichtenberg, settled down in China with the set belief of building a company. After operating in timber trading in Malaysia, he set up his first firm with his US $30 000 that a friend lent him in 1993. unluckily, his initial trade efforts did not work out at first. After attempting to trade in many various products, he earned his first salary from sale of African timber to Chinese Plywood manufacturers. Lichtenberg, in his early twenties, was about resign and made up his mind get away from China forever when he associated with the Danish furniture firm BoConcept, to start marketing its products in China. For Lichtenberg that was a take-off of his successful activity as an entrepreneur.
Simon Lichtenberg established his company, the Trayton Group, in Shanghai in 1995. initially with Lichtenberg owning the license from BoConcept, his firm marketed only BoConcept-imported furniture all over Shanghai’s furniture markets and shopping centers. Trayton Group’s first-year sales were enormously profitable, with profits topping US $3.6 million. And that was mainly because of the modern and avant-garde models of BoConcept’s furniture which quickly appealed to a great number of young urban middle-class families who just started to acquire or rent houses.
With US $6 million sales income in 1997, Simon Lichtenberg created his own furniture workshops. At that time, he also started market his products in other Chinese provinces such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Dalian. nowadays, Lichtenberg’s Trayton Group has a business axis on modeling, labelling, manufacturing and retail of upholstery furniture and lifestyle commodities. With its headquarters in Shanghai, the Group makes upholstery goods in China and sells goods to all over the world including the Chinese market. Trayton has 2 workshops in Shanghai and Zhejiang and it brings around US $100 million in sales and employs approximately 2 000 persons. In 2010, the company introduced the Danish fine quality jewelry brand Georg Jensen in China.

at the same time, Lichtenberg also faced some legal difficulties, precisely regarding fake and nonpayment cases. Since 1997, Lichtenberg committed himself into in a lengthy and difficult judicial fight against the expansion of BoConcept counterfeit merchandises , which he triumphed at last. In 2005, Zhenjing Leather Factory sued Trayton Group for the non-payment of goods. After finding the low level of quality of Zhenjing’s leather, Trayton stopped the charges and gave back the products. Thus, Trayton Group had some of its assets frozen for a moment.
Today, Simon Lichtenberg is a venerable public figure in China. In 2006, he got the Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award. He presides over the Shanghai Minhang Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, and the Fudan University Alumni Association for International Students, he is a member of the Young President Association and a board member of the Danish Chamber of trade in China. Lichtenberg is as well an dynamic member of the Teachers association named “Tvind”.





Simon Lichtenberg, Simon Lichtenberg, Simon Lichtenberg