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Bottoms up
By Munisha Tumato
Like most who immigrate to Canada, the story of Yanjing is one of hard work and persistence. Unlike most who immigrate to Canada, Yanjing is not so much a person as a beer.
Nowadays you’re almost as likely to see row upon row of green Yanjing bottles in liquor stores as you are to see the more established Chinese beer, Tsingtao.
And this is largely due to the efforts of one Shu Guo, president of Hi-Bridge Consulting Corp., who in the last two and half years has managed to turn a relatively unknown Chinese beer into a familiar bottle on shelves in B.C., Alberta and Manitoba. Ontario liquor stores will begin stocking Yanjing beer in May, says Guo.
Although the light lager only been around since 1980 (compared to the Tsingtao brewery which began as a German-British brewery in 1903) Guo says it’s growing in popularity.
Yanjing – the original name of Beijing – is the single most poplar beer in China’s capital, with approximately 15 million consumers, or 85 per cent of the market share. It controls about 11 per cent of the total beer drinking market in China, says Guo, putting it just slightly behind Tsingtao.
The Yangjing brewery was ranked nine out of the top ten breweries in the world.
Guo attributes the wheat-free beer’s popularity to the quality of its ingredients – mineral water from the mountains of China, premium rice, hops, malt and yeast from Germany. The beer has been dubbed “Chieneken” for it’s similarity to Heineken beer.
If Yanjing isn’t already a household name, it may just be after this summer. As one of he official sponsors of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the number of ads for Yanjing beer might leave you with a hangover – before you’ve even had a sip.
And although beer isn’t usually the best solution for dealing with issues like homesickness, Guo says that her first break in the Canadian market came from the Chinese community who the consultant recalls were happy to see the familiar brand because it reminded them of home.
Before moving to Canada, Guo was an associate professor in China, and worked part time for Motorola. “I taught. I didn’t drink,” laughs Guo who says she still doesn’t drink — except for the occasional Yanjing, which she describes as “clean, refreshing and smooth.”
“When I came to Canada,” recalls Guo, “I tried to do some business consulting but I found it very hard without good English and a connection to the local market.”
Guo began to pursue a PhD so that she would be able to teach university level classes once more. With three masters degrees from China already under her belt — in business administration, business management and education — Guo spent one year getting another masters from UBC in education.
In the end, she gave up on pursuing her PhD and instead, at the suggestion of a friend, got into the liquor import business.
“It was very hard in the beginning,” says Guo who began selling the non-alcoholic Yangjing in grocery stores two and a half years ago, and the alcoholic version just six months ago.
“We built word of mouth,” she says, by taking out ads in the ethnic media and advertising on the Internet. It wasn’t long before Guo started getting phone calls from people requesting Yanjing deliveries by the caseload.
At first, Guo began by selling Yanjing at cold beer and wine stores and Chinese restaurants
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