I recently came across an article ("HongKong Inc" Jan 1991) detailing the first 90 year history of the Sincere Company. If anyone can add anything to the post-1990 timeline, feel free to comment.
1900 - Founded by Ma Ying-piu and first store opened (Jan 8th) in Hong Kong at 172 Queen's Road Central - linked to 123 Wellington Street at the rear. A typhoon in August of 1900 ruins the building so the firm moved the stock to a premises on Wing On Street and suspended trade.
1904 - Business resumes at the QRC site following the building's complete renovation. The renovation took 12 months but was delayed several years due to Govt building regulations.
1909 - Incorporated on Feb 27th allowing business to expand to 215-221 Des Voeux Road Central linked with 111 Connaught Road Central at the rear, making it the largest dept store in the territory.
Edit: Following David's observations on this image, and Klaus's findings here, it is obvious the store had already moved to this address by 1908, and possibly even by 1907.
1912 - first mainland store opens in Guangzhou (June 12th)
1913 - company constructs 6-storey, 12 unit building at 173-179 Des Voeux Road Central (linked to 1-4 Wing Wo Street and 86-89 Connaught Road)
1914 - works starts on Shanghai store and East Asia (Dong Ya) Hotel on Nanking Road. Company also opens Oriental Hotel in Guangzhou.
1915 - Guangzhou Sincere registered in HK, two more stores open in Guangzhou. SIncere Insurance and Investment founded July 12th.
1916 - HK Sincere Investment boosted to $2m
1917 - New building opens at 173 Des Voeux Road Central (Jan 8th). Shanghai store opens Oct 20th. Overseas stores open in Singapore and Kobe (closed 1923 and 1920, respectively). The HK store rooftop was turned into a club offering tea and meals to customers.
1919 - Sincere in HK, Shanghai and GZ registered under one name in HK and HQ established at HK grand store. Kowloon branch opens at 346-354 Shanghai Street (closed in 1936) and Nanning (Guangxi) (closed 1922).
1922 - Sincere Life Assurance opens in HK on Nov 21st. Purchasing office opens in London at No.2 White Hart Street, Paternoster Sq EC4 (closed in 1936). Cosmetics factory opens in HK (address unknown).
1926 - Sincere Cosmetics Company Ltd founded on May 13th.
1933 - Sincere Banking and Trust Co Ltd founded (closed 1936)
1935 - Oriental Hotel and Sincere branch open in Macau (closed 1953).
1941 - when the Japanese invaded, some 300 people took refuge on the first floor of the store and were looked after by several staff members, led by "security guards" Ma Wan-sheung, Lee Po-kwan and Lee Hing-yiu, who organised food, repairs, first aid, firefighting etc. Despite this the 300 were close to starving when a deal was done with defending British officials to exchange heaters for the frontline soldiers for 50 sacks of rice.
The refugees were evacuated when it became possible that the building might be used as a military base. The security guards and staff remained on site to protect the store from looting.
1942 - March 1st. The store was allowed to reopen by the Japanese military Govt between 10-4pm with restrictions on what could be displayed/sold. Sincere was able to continue trading until the end of the war.
1954 - Sincere Shanghai closes down (largely due to a ban on foreign goods by Communist Govt).
1961 - Sincere purchased 17 buildings on a plot along Argyle Street and demolished them to make way for their proposed new Kowloon store. Work started in June.
1963 - Kowloon branch of Dept store opens at 83 Argyle Street on Oct 30th. The store occupied the lower three floors of the new 17-storey Sincere House. The development instigated a major renovation of the whole area, turning it into a commercial/shopping area.
1965 - demolition of Grand Store initiated.
1968 - phase 1 of new 27-storey Sincere building at 173 Queen's Road Central opens on July 10th.
1971 - Phase 2 of new Sincere Building opens on Dec 9th.
1973 - 173 QRC redevelopment officially completed on July 16th. Lower 5 floors and basement house the new Dept store, all other floors rented out and form basis of Sincere's real estate portfolio.
1975 - 75th anniversary on Jan 8th
1982 - Sincere Properties founded in Australia and company purchases 8-storey commercial building in north Sydney.
1983 - Sincere Enterprises established in San Francisco for import/export. New Kowloon branch opens at 75 Argyle Street on Dec 19th next door to existing store at #83.
1985 - Rights issue raises $66m to open a new store in Taipei, a fast food business in California and further real estate investments in Australia.
1986 - Taipei store operation commences on July 16th.
1990 - 90th anniversary.
Additional (Source: Wiki)
1993 - Sincere returned to mainland China, opening a shopping centre at 479 East Nanjing Road in Shanghai.
Photos of this organisation:
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Background
Ma Ying-piu (born 1862 - Shaqong, Zhongshang County, Guangdong) went to Australia in 1882 (aged 20) and worked in a tin mine. Using money saved, he founded Wing Sang Company with Choy Hing to trade in native Chinese products.
Wing Sang also employed members of the Kwok family (Gockbiu and Gocklock) who went on to found Wing On, Sincere's long-standing competitor.
In 1894, Ma moved to HK and founded "Wing Cheong Tai", an import/export business. He envisioned a "fixed-price" store and began to raise capital for it with the help of fellow Australian returnees James Choy Hing, Ma Wing-chan, Gockbiu, Au Bun, Szeto Pak-cheung and Ma Joe-young. Jan Con-sang (from the US), Lam Man-keung, Lee Yuet-lam, Wong Kwong-cheong and Wong Choi-chiu also assisted.
Following the opening of the store, Ma Ying-piu was made GM with Lee Yuet-lam as his associate.
The store was notable for several reasons: it was the first store to offer fixed, marked prices, have female service staff and closed on Sundays so that employees could attend church or attend Christian preaching meetings. The female service staff caused quite a problem with the store being overwhelmed by people wanting to take a look at them - leading to a call for help to the Govt to help police the store. The problem remained though and led to the majority of the shareholders urging Ma to change the policy of female service staff. How times have changed!