Eastern promise delivers on a global scale

A student's idea transformed into a vibrant international business supplying e-commerce companies from China

Alan Coughlan: Founder and CEO Lansil Global

Alan Coughlan would not disagree that his career arc has taken him a long way from his native Cobh and his college years at Cork Institute of Technology.

Moving to China in 2011 to complete a masters in international business in Shanghai, his intention was to eventually return to Ireland. 

But, in an example of ‘the best laid plans of mice and men….’ fate unexpectedly intervened in the form of a business opportunity that changed the Corkman’s whole career path.

Visiting a local bicycle factory and observing the manufacturing process, he found himself ordering a consignment of bicycles, to which he subsequently added phone chargers and batteries for resale back home.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t sell as quickly as I had hoped so didn’t make me a lot of money — but that experience was priceless,” he explains of that early light bulb moment.

What it did teach me was that I didn’t have skills to sell online so decided to supply people who could.

It was the beginning of an adventure that would subsequently transform into a vibrant international business supplying e-commerce companies from China on platforms such as Amazon, Shopify and Facebook.

The products include cosmetics, home and garden furniture and accessories, fitness equipment, apparel, jewellery and toys.

“When I set up Lansil Global, I didn’t have a formal business plan, investors or mentorship,” he recalls of the halcyon early days, learning through trial and error.

“Nor did I know anyone doing business in China or even know someone who had travelled to China.”

The company is now at approx €34m per year, and with no restrictive ceiling to its future possibilities.

“I would like to get to €100m per year but there’s a lot to do to get there, but nothing that isn’t insurmountable,” he adds.

The company is currently implementing tech to simplify its workflow, allowing for faster and more efficient growth.

“Over the past three years, we’ve doubled in size each year and that growth has been relatively seamless. 

I’m great believer in taking risks, but calculated ones.

Alan informs that opening another base on the US East Coast is top of the current company agenda, with plans for Europe still very much in the early stages.

“The focus has been on serving our clients globally. We’ve seen business rocket in the past 18 months — 70% of our volume deliveries go to the US.

“Europe and the UK are becoming bigger markets for us so it makes sense to establish a base there. However, even though I’m a huge fan of doing business in Ireland, it is not a big market for my business.”

He does add that his growing interest in investing in e-commerce brands and mentoring start-ups may be something down the line in Ireland. 

Exiting lockdown

As much of the world cautiously exits lockdown, Lansil Global is poised to continue its upward turnover graph.

“We were lucky in some respects because we only had to shut for a month back in January 2020 when Covid first began in China — since then, we’ve been back to normal.”

The main impact was accessing freight, with global delivery times from China becoming much longer during Covid. 

Given that Lansil Global use a number of commercial passenger aircraft to transport its goods, the total stoppage of international flights brought huge logistical challenges.

“Between April and June 2020, delivery times from China went from 10 days to 45 days, serious delays, but our customer support stepped up and we got through it.”

Fortunately, Alan had opened the US warehouse just before lockdown, a timely benefit that lightened the clogged supply chain by shipping 6,000 orders a day.

“In fact, we had our most successful year last year doubling sales growth on the previous year, and increasing the China workforce from 55 to 70,” he says.

Learning the language

Learning the language was a challenge, and one that yielded benefits, Alan recalls.

“At the beginning it helped me a lot. My spoken Chinese is poor but my understanding is good. When I was visiting factories at the beginning, I didn’t tell them I understood Chinese, and they would discuss price in front of me not realising.

"When it came to negotiations, I used that to my advantage and got better deals."

He sealed his first ever deal at a Chinese restaurant, successfully selling power banks to a company through his broken Chinese, and clearing a profit of almost €500.

I think understanding the Chinese culture is more important than the language and has certainly been more beneficial to me in business.

The old mantra that ‘Irish find Irish overseas’ didn’t happen for Alan: “If I had sought supports setting up the business I would probably have been connected to other Irish businesses.

"In fact, most of the people that ask where I’m from don’t know where Ireland is or they think we’re part of the UK.”

He made a conscious decision at the outset that if Lansil Global was to work, it had to focus on service and nothing else, learning from mistakes and moving forward.

He underlines the importance of communications and reinforcing the role of good customer service.

"We were in touch with our customers right throughout Covid, regularly updating them on what was happening with manufacturing and logics,” Alan says.

Growth plans

Having lived in China full-time for four years and marking it down as “an amazing experience”, he now spends more time in the UK where his fiancée works in the NHS. He travels forward and back very regularly, including to the US.

His plans are to establish global offices and more warehouses. 

“To compete on delivery times with the likes of Amazon, we have to expand into different countries so I’ll probably live in airports and hotels for the next five years,” he smiles ruefully.

As a true Corkman, his heart is never too far from Shandon’s bells: “I love Cork, it’ll always be home for me and I really enjoy when I get to go back. It’s great to see the city expand with lots of exciting companies setting up office there.”

He warns, however, that Ireland needs to up its game in terms of logistics. “People who buy online now expect next day delivery, which isn’t really available in Cork or Ireland. But I think over time this could improve.”