vaford story

In 1968, Vaford’s headquarters were a modest 200sqft office in Hong Kong, and although Conway was the creative driving force, he shared the office and his life with a loyal partner who worked just as hard to get things off the ground and make the company a success. While Conway was pitching on the next project, his devoted wife, Mrs. Julia Wong, was taking care of the financial side of things. Her keen eye for property investments and dedication to the company helped the business grow to a team of over 40 people in the early 1980s. Business was booming in Hong Kong, and Vaford began specializing in retail and corporate projects for clients such as Pacific Place, City Plaza, Cartier, Chanel, IBM, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered. At that time, almost 70% of the work was with Fortune 500 companies, and it was not too long before Conway and Julia could move into a more sizable office to expand their business.

After building an enviable reputation in Hong Kong, Conway was keen to establish the company in China. In the 1980’s China was still growing, and Conway saw it as a huge opportunity to expand and grow as the economy started to lift off. Vaford won the contract to deliver the fit-out works for the Union Building in Shanghai, and at 28 stories high, it was by far the tallest building in China. It was heralded as a great achievement by the great and the good in China, and was regarded as the pinnacle of innovative construction at that time. The Union Building proved to be the start of a construction boom, and was used as a springboard for even bigger and better things to come.

Things were going well for Vaford, and the company was going from strength to strength. In 1998, the economic crash sent ripples of doom and gloom throughout the global construction industry, but Vaford diversified and rode the storm by taking on several more specialized retail projects such as the Far Eastern Plaza in Taipei. The bust coincided with the boom in Macau, and from 2005 onwards, Vaford got a firm foothold in the new gambling capital of Asia with ambitious and exciting projects such as the Venetian and the MGM.

Attention to detail was again at the heart of every Vaford project, as clients were scrambling to build things bigger, better, and more opulent than anyone else. Pushing boundaries, and experimenting with different materials and building methods is in the DNA of Vaford, and Macau was the perfect place for the company to show the world what it can do.

Family Values

Vaford Group has always prided itself on being a family business, and this is reflected in the close-nit working environment nurtured by Conway and Julia from the very start. Indeed, family has always been at the heart of the business, and the first to jump on board was their daughter Anna Wong, who joined Vaford in 1988. She started the trading component of the Group by purchasing luxury furniture and ceramics from Florence, Italy, for sale in Hong Kong.

Anna was followed in 1995 by her brother Charles, and under his leadership, the trading business grew into the blooming China market. Most notably, he supplied aluminum composite panels to numerous prestigious projects in China, including the Shanghai Opera House.

During the late 90s, Charles led the general management of the Group along with Conway successfully guiding the company to gain numerous renowned projects, including New World Group’s head office, HATCL Chep Lap Kok, Chep Lap Kok Airport, and Cyberport. He also led the Vaford Group’s business expansion in their China headquarters in Shanghai, and helped to establish the Vaford Properties business.

After graduating from Stanford University in 2002, Conway welcomed his youngest daughter Elizabeth into the fold, taking over the reins of the Vaford building materials companies. She went on to lead the marketing and management of the companies, adding to its portfolio a number of new European and American construction materials, including specialty paint systems, architectural concrete and inventive art/mural systems. Rather than being a distributor for foreign materials, she decided to create brands that reflect Vaford Group’s growth, including EarthPaint and Artec in 2006. Both brands proved to be successful and were widely used in casino developments in Macau – including the Venetian, the Four Seasons Macau, the Parisian, and the MGM Cotai.

Her role grew into the management of the overall Group in 2010, and she helped to secure the prestigious Apple Store projects in China and the current MGM VIP Mansion, which is one of the largest projects undertaken by the Group in its history.

HERE’S TO THE FUTURE