Hai-O group makes plans to go global By Hoo Ban Khee
BEIJING: The Hai-O group, a major dealer in Chinese wine and healthcare products, has plans to set up a fleet of shops to showcase Chinese and Asean brands in major world cities, its group CEO and managing director Tan Kai Hee said. Negotiations are being held with Chinese and Asean enterpreneurs to make it a multinational project starting first in Asean cities, he said at the sideline of the China-Asean brand Development Forum here last Thursday.
The Hai-O group has over 200 brands and we have the resources to do it, he said, adding that the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing would stir up worldwide interest in everything Chinese. Hai-O, which is a second board listed company, is also talking to an international bank to include a number of top Chinese brands under the group in its beginning from July.
There is also a plan to set up a South-East Asia Pu-Er trading centre in Kuala Lumpur in the next two months to promote the premium tea from the Yunan Province of China. Tan earlier told the forum organised by China-Asean Expo Secretariat that the promotion of Chinese brands should be a national policy to enchance product quality and eradicate inferior as well as fake products.
He noted that of the 500 top brands in the world, only four are Chinese. The crux of the problem is that although many Chinese products are of excellent quality, they are sold at a very low price which cuts into the profit margin, leaving little money for brand promotion. Hai-O, set up 30 years ago in Kuala Lumpur, currently has 40 chain stores and 18 franchised stores in Malaysia.
Earlier, Dr Zhang Lee of Peking University, said brand promotion in China is a long haul as many enterprise are still confused between sales and marketing. He said most of the top brands in the West have been successful because they reflect the culture and strength of the manufacturing country and not so much of quality and pricing.
China, like other developing countries, would need to nurture more talents and rely on more scientific marketing strategies to be successful in promoting its brands, he added. (The Star, 16 April 2006)