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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2003/09/03/2003066365)Converting China to taste of coffee
Though tea is cheap and coffee is expensive in China, it is the latter that is
becoming more popular
DPA
Wednesday, Sep 03, 2003,Page 16
Until a fortnight ago, former hotel worker Jeff Lin Hai Wah had never even
tasted a cup of filtered coffee.
The 23-year-old will soon be serving up tall skinny lattes and other speciality
coffee varieties to customers in his new job at the first branch of Starbucks in
the sprawling city of Guangzhou in southern China.
"I'll be pretty nervous, especially serving coffee to expatriates and tourists
who have been drinking coffee all their lives," he said. "When I grew up, we
only ever had tea in the house. It wasn't until two or three years ago that I
had my first cup of instant coffee."
Seattle-based Starbucks is one of three Western coffee chains opening or
preparing to open shops in the sprawling city of Guangzhou, where for centuries
tea has been the drink of choice.
There are more than 100 of branches of Starbucks in Hong Kong, Beijing and
Shanghai, but now coffee shops are branching out for the first time into China's
less cosmopolitan hinterland, with the southern center of Guangzhou their first
target.
The main rival to Starbucks in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong-Singapore Pacific Coffee
chain, is also seeking a partner to open its first Guangzhou branch.
Ironically, however, an outsider without a foothold in Hong Kong or the mainland
has beaten them by opening Guangzhou's first western-style coffee house.
Canadian chain Blenz -- which has 29 outlets in British Columbia and four in
Japan -- has just opened the doors on an outlet at the base of the high-rise
Citic Plaza shopping and office block.
The outlet is already doing brisk business among office workers with prices
ranging from 9 yuan (about US$1) for a fresh coffee to 28 yuan (US$3.40) for a
grand cafe mocca -- while local cafes nearby charge as little as 1 yuan for a
cup of green tea and 3 yuan for a set lunch.
The coffee shop chains believe the growing affluence in southern China's key
city of Guangzhou will provide the potential to follow in the footsteps of
Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Ernest Luk, vice president of Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific, said, "There will
be other companies that will go into the China market and into Guangzhou but I
see that competition as healthy.
"Guangzhou is, as China as a whole, a tea-drinking country. Coffee culture isn't
very strong. By having multiple competition, we will see the market grow
faster," Luk said.
"Looking at our customers in Shanghai and Beijing, the first people who come to
us are the younger crowd -- younger professional workers who were maybe exposed
to our brand when they were educated overseas."
Starbucks prices will be 10 to 15 percent lower in Guangzhou than in Hong Kong
but still hugely more expensive than other corner cafes and tea shops around the
city.
Angela Chou, marketing manager for Starbucks Hong Kong's joint venture Coffee
Concepts, said she did not believe the relatively high prices would put
customers off. "We see our product as an affordable luxury," she said.
Pacific Coffee's chief operating officer Rob Naylor agreed that Guangzhou was
ready to embrace coffee shops, saying, "We would like to be there and we are
actively looking and talking about it."
Naylor said he believed Guangzhou had enormous potential and said he expected to
see a number of overseas chains move into the city in the months ahead.
"Once it gets going and people understand what coffee culture is, the market
grows rapidly," he said. "It becomes part of peoples' lifestyle choices. Its not
just about coffee. It is about the experience," he said.
"The Guangzhou market is developing so rapidly. Five years ago you could say it
was 50 years behind Hong Kong. Now maybe its 25 years. Who knows where well be
in another year's time?"
Meanwhile, the last-minute training continues for Guangzhou Starbucks recruits,
with trainees watching a subtitled video in which a top Seattle executive extols
trainees to put their passion into making the perfect expresso, telling them,
"You are an artist."
Karen Cheung Po Shan, 28, who was sent from Hong Kong to train the Guangzhou
staff, said employees took little time getting a taste for drinking coffee, even
after a lifetime of drinking tea.
Their expression when they first try it is funny to watch, she said. At first
they complain it is too strong, but they gradually get used to it. Karen and her
bosses at Starbucks are banking on the hope that the tea drinkers of Guangzhou
will react in much the same way.
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Lee / San Diego
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