For Tuxton China Inc., it’s all about keeping it in the family.
This third-generation family-run business—a top supplier of superior cookware, ovenware, tableware, and hospitality supplies for the food service sector—is dedicated to catering to the demands of food service operations, including hotels and restaurants, by providing high-quality, innovative, and long-lasting goods.
By building enduring relationships with consumers, offering outstanding customer service, and creating excellent products, Tuxton aims to give clients exceptional front and back-of-house solutions that improve their dining operations while guaranteeing the finest cost-performance-value ratio in the sector.
Generations of business
Although Tuxton China Company was founded in 1999, its success has been aided by its lengthy and impressive family background. Its forerunner was established in 1963 by T.Y. Lam as the Chinese Ceramic Arts Import and Export Company, and was renowned. As a result of his outstanding personal reputation, Mr. Lam was able to take over a manufacturing plant and continue growing the firm.
Mr. Lam’s second company, The Lynns Group, was established in 1989 and now produces chinaware for the retail sector.
As the Lynns Group grew, Mr. Lam brought in his children to assist in managing the business and preserving his legacy, eventually establishing offices in the United States, China, and Hong Kong. In addition to its retail manufacturing, Lynns began producing for many well-known food service businesses in the United States, with Tuxton China Inc. established as a result.
The Lam family has now operated Lynns and Tuxton China for a truly impressive three generations. In 2001, William Burden, a former Burden China Co., Inc. owner, was appointed President of Tuxton, which has since grown to become one of the leading suppliers in the food service sector.
Some of the factors in the company’s ongoing success include staying true to its fundamental values—passionate commitment to customer service, superior product quality, high integrity, embrace of innovation, and, last but not least, a cheerful and modest attitude—which have served as a company compass for more than 10 years. Together with Tuxton’s commitment to its staff and clients, these principles have kept the business at the top in its field.
“When we say it’s a family business, it’s very much a family business,” says Vice President of Business Development Stuysonnie Lam, granddaughter of the founder. “It started as a trading company, importing and exporting toothpaste from China, and in the late ’80s, my father brought it to the U.S. and started importing goods from there.”
Manufacturing in the family
Around the same time, Tuxton made the wise decision to invest in its own manufacturing facility, which is run by members of the Lam family, all descendants of the company founder.
“We’ve been proud to build that brand over the last 25 years into one of the premier brands in food service,” Lam says.
As part of the North American Food Service Manufacturers Association, Tuxton is probably one of the last actual ceramics manufacturers in the industry, she adds, as many of the company’s competitors have since moved to sourcing their goods from other manufacturers. As Tuxton actually owns its supply chain, the company can control the production schedule and lead times of the manufacturing facilities, setting it apart from its competitors.
“This means we’re not subject to the factory finding other clients,” says Lam. “The factory makes exclusively for us and our brand. All of the quality controls in place at the factory are to our spec. You’re not going to get anything that’s made for retail or less durable brands coming through the factory and messing up the quality.”
Tuxton has also found that many of its competitors have gone more for trendy items and a retail perspective, which impacts quality as there isn’t enough time to properly stress-test the products. And while every company’s priorities are a bit different, Tuxton is “really focused” on food service. “We’re not really in the retail game,” says Lam. “Our focus is on creating a durable product that will last in a high-volume atmosphere. What you buy today is the same thing that you’re going to get five years from now, and for a restaurant operation, that consistency is really important. We really pride ourselves on being that consistent, quality source.”
Lam is also proud of the company’s commitment to durability and reliability, particularly when customers who give other brands a try return to Tuxton. “That might not be important for a home user who delicately hand-washes their china, but for a high-volume restaurant, if you’re serving hundreds of people a day and china is consistently going through the dishwasher and the bus boys are banging it around, you want something that lasts.”
Using Tuxton products means you won’t have to take time out to reorder or find a different product, because in the long run, Tuxton’s china will outlast whatever else is on the table. Tuxton is well aware that its customers’ ultimate focus should be on managing their food and employee costs. “We don’t want to be another headache on top of that. We just want to make things smooth and easy,” says Lam.
Making it in Mexico
To maintain its high quality and keep customers satisfied, Tuxton is opening a new facility in Mexico to diversify its manufacturing, with an anticipated first production run by the end of April. “We were feeling the political pressures of having a single-country source, so we thought about regional diversification and after many months of analysis, ultimately landed on Mexico,” says Lam. “We’re very excited to have that on its way.”
With plans now two years in the making, the company has done its due diligence, looking at different places in Mexico and settling on a centralized location in Chihuahua state that makes importing into the U.S. easy. “With our current warehouse based in California and selling to the other side of the country, lead times are long and shipping can be costly, so this is also a way for us to address those concerns and make ourselves more competitive across the United States,” Lam explains.
In terms of those lead times, Tuxton has already been doing a good job keeping pace with other companies who must wait for their own suppliers to give them a timeline; this latest development is anticipated to cut Tuxton’s lead times in half.
“We’re really strong in custom items—items with logos, or those specific to an operation,” says Lam. “We’re big in a lot of chains looking for specific product that caters to their particular operation. This will help us service those customers better and faster because we’re cutting out the overseas shipping time.”
Quality comes to cookware
Recent milestones for Tuxton include launching the PRO Cookware line of the business, with a new factory built during the pandemic. While the company’s main business is in the tabletop space of china or ceramic dishes, the cookware venture has been making product for even longer than the ceramics factory, leading to the opening of the new 750,000-square-foot, fully solar powered manufacturing facility about two years ago.
“We’ve always been in the cookware manufacturing space, and we’ve done it for a lot of big brands, so if you’ve purchased an American or European brand in the last 20 years, chances are you already have a piece of our cookware in your house,” she says. “But as a food service brand, we wanted to bring that same manufacturing, with its higher quality at a really good value, into the back of house for our current customers.”
With Tuxton starting to make inroads in that area now, the company is excited that it can showcase the growing breadth of its offering within the industry. “We are proud of being a top tier purveyor of durable, made-for-commercial tableware, but I do want to make sure everybody knows that we’re also there for you in the back of the house, and that’s something new for us in this industry.”
The response so far from everyone who has tested the new product has been effusively positive. But as with everything else in food service, Lam adds, it takes some time for clients to make a change and trust in a new product to help their operation. “We want to make sure people know that we didn’t just go and find a random category to be in.” Tuxton wasn’t trying to get into something that it couldn’t stand behind, she says.
“That’s why we went with cookware for our new category. It’s something that we’ve been making; we understand how to make it, deliver it, and support our customers with it. We understand all the technical specifications, and how to gear that for food service, and we already understand that people in our space love the quality and consistency, the service and delivery requirements that the industry needs,” she says. “We’re always going to be there, with the same product that they can rely on for many years to come.”
