In 1996, Anita Louise Hummel, founder of Mondoro, attended the International Home Furniture Show in High Point, North Carolina, to purchase products for several retail shops in Bangkok, Thailand. She saw many products imported into the U.S. and felt that she could find better sources and produce better products in Asia. Consequently, she developed several products for a U.S. wholesale company. These products were sold at the next High Point show. That company is still one of Mondoro’s major customers.
Realizing the growth potential for the home furnishings industry in Asia, Anita packed up her belongings and moved to Hong Kong in 1997. With just a single customer and a belief that she could develop products in Asia, she set up a small office.
As Mondoro Company Limited started to grow with more customers and more products, Anita felt strongly that she needed to expand her organization. In 2000, she set up an office near some of her key factories in Guangdong Province, China. She hired her first Chinese employee, Sammy Chen. Sammy and Anita worked together to cultivate the China office. This office is now complete with design, development, finishing, testing, and quality control facilities.
In 2003, some of Mondoro’s key customers started to talk about Vietnam and the potential there. Anita, having had previous years experience buying from Vietnam, decided it was time to start production there. Mondoro set up an office in Hanoi in 2003, and later Ho Chi Minh City in 2005. Today, these offices are also equipped with full facilities in design, development, finishing, testing, and quality control.
Also in 2003, Mondoro opened a small U.S. office to help with sales and marketing. In 2007, Mondoro opened a showroom in Sweden to display products specific to the European market.
Also in 2007, Mondoro launched a new division under the Mondoro Corporate umbrella, a charity organization called Mondoro-Charities (www.mondoro-charities.org) which helps children in Asia. Our motto is “Helping Our World One Person at a Time.” For more information on Mondoro Charities, please visit the website.
In 2008, Mondoro launched two new divisions under the Mondoro Corporate umbrella. The first was Mondoro Living (www.mondoroliving.com), a company that sells products directly to the Asian consumer. Having worked in Asia for many years, we recognized that Asia was going to continue to grow and be an important player in the world scene. This would also include retail and online shopping by Asian consumers and designers for designer-quality products.
Now in 2008, Mondoro has launched the Asia-Hand brand (www.asia-hand.com). Mondoro recognized that wholesalers wanted to have Mondoro’s fine quality designs and products without having to design the products themselves. Asia-Hand sells designer products directly to wholesalers and large-volume retailers. The brand, based on the history of Anita Hummel’s family, has five collections: Stockholm, Greencastle, Linnea, Fenchow, and Milwaukee. Each collection comes with a story about the history of the collection. For more information and to view the collections, please visit the web site.
More about Anita Hummel
Anita Hummel was not the first in her family to venture into China. Anita’s grandfather was a missionary in northern China for fourteen years. He spent his life in the study of China and the Chinese language. He was the first chief of the Library of Congress' Asian Division in Washington, D.C. Anita’s uncle was a career diplomat, born in China and fluent in the Chinese language. During his career, he served in the U.S. Department of State, with his final posting as the U.S. ambassador to China (1981 to 1985).
Since graduating from Brigham Young University in 1986, Anita has spent her working career in Asia. At BYU she earned a degree in international studies with an emphasis in Chinese studies. For the first ten years of her career, Anita was a retail and product development specialist for several large companies in Hong Kong and Thailand. It was through these jobs that she gained experience in exporting, sourcing, quality, design, product development, and manufacturing. Building on this experience, it was natural for her to form a company specializing in design, product development, and manufacturing.
