Executive Summary
Tourism sector is one of the key pillars of the economy of Hong Kong. The city has the highest number of visitors in China. The retail market in Hong Kong has changed due to the increase in number of visitors. Many companies particularly in the hotel industry are striving to keep in pace with the increase of visitors in the main land (Lew, 2003). A property boom during the review period caused an increase in rental costs.
Chained retailers continued to open new outlets within areas where there is tourist footfall. The increase in rental costs enabled retailers to be creative in terms of marketing strategies. Maxim’s Limited is a food and beverage company in Hong Kong that provides catering services to mainland visitors. The company has opened several outlets in China in order to meet the needs of the increasing number of visitors.
Background
Maxim’s Caterer Limited is the largest food and beverage company and restaurant chain in Hong Kong, China. Dr James Tak Wu and his brother S.T.Wu together with other shareholders started the company in 1956. The Hong Kong based company controls a wide range of food and beverage outlets in China and other countries across the globe. The food outlets include fast food shops, bakeries and restaurants.
Besides this, the company offers catering services to industries and commercial businesses as well as schools and hospitals in Hong Kong and other parts of China (Shangqing, 2001). The company collaborates with Starbucks coffee international company in operating Starbucks outlets in Hong Kong and other regions throughout Chinese market.
Dairy International Holdings Limited owns half of the company shares. Initially the company was started as Hong Kong Caterers. It opened its first restaurant and nightclub in the old lane building. In the mid 1960s, the company converted its outlets into upper market coffee shops.
It opened 20 different branches within a period of two years. It opened the first Maxim’s cakes branch in 1966 at ocean terminal together with Maxim’s restaurant to attract mainland visitors (Rowley, 2000).In 1970, the company opened the first restaurant, which was referred to as Jade Garden.
It provided Chinese food and beverages, which had western standards of services. Later on, the company opened other restaurants such as Maxim’s Chinese restaurant, Serenade Chinese and Maxim’s Palace. The company opened the first fast food shop in 1972, which became one of the best fast food shops representatives in Hong Kong. The company was given the right to control Civil Aviation Administration of China food operations (Shangqing, 2001).
In 2000, the company brought Starbucks coffee products in Hong Kong. It collaborated with Starbucks Coffee International Company to establish a coffee concepts limited in Hong Kong. It had opened 30 new branches of Starbucks by the year 2002.
In the same year, Thai Basil one of the branches of Maxim’s Limited was recognized as one of the best international restaurants in the world. In 2004, the company established another restaurant outlet, which led to the development of a new wave of restaurants in Hong Kong. Maxim’s Fast Food started producing ready meals and appetizers, which was sold in supermarkets (Lew, 2003).
The Company provides a variety of catering services, which attracts mainland visitors, particularly the tourists. It provides a variety of products designed for specific festivals such as moon cakes. The number of people travelling to Hong Kong from other countries has increased over the years.
In 2006, over 25 million international visitor arrivals were recorded. There has been a significant increase in mainland Chinese visitor arrivals due to the Individual Visit Scheme (Organization, 2000). The increase in the number of tourists in Hong Kong has caused an increase in hotel occupancy rates.
This has led to Maxim’s caterers limited increasing its restaurants in order to accommodate more visitors. Currently the company is striving to keep pace with the increasing number of vacationers and business travelers. The number of visitors is many, and Hong Kong is ranked as the highest in Asia and sixth in the world in terms of tourism competitiveness.
Products/services quality
There has been a significant increase in the number of visitors from mainland China. The number of tourists visiting Hong Kong was over 36 million in 2010. Most of these visitors are mainland arrivals. Maxim’s Caterer Limited is one of the largest retail companies in Hong Kong. It strives to provide quality catering services and products to its customers in order to survive in the competitive market. Its customers are mainly the mainland visitors from countries across the globe.
The retailing hotel and food industry in Hong Kong is changing in accordance with customer needs. A company, which does not adapt to these changes, may lose popularity and it may be replaced by alternatives more in tune with current customer lifestyle. The retailer should be innovative and be able to cope with changing customer expectations.
The products and services should be available when and where the customer needs them. In the changing environment, the retailer has to market his products and services to attract and satisfy customers (McGoldrick, 2002). In order to meet the market needs Maxim’s caterers limited provides a variety of quality products and services. The company provides a variety of festive products, such as Chinese New Year puddings and preserved meat.
These products are designed to attract the increasing number of tourists. The Company’s products attract tourists mostly from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In 1981, the company opened the first Chiuchow garden hotel, which offered high quality Chiuchow style cuisine in Hong Kong. The moon cakes started from two flavors, which helped in improving its quality. The sugar snowy and cartoon moon cakes were famous in this year.
The company’s moon cake was the first local brand to be granted HK Q-Mark presented Award by the Association of Hong Kong industries. It was accredited with the HACCP certificate, and ISO certified ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 22000:2005.
The company moon cake has been the number one moon cake seller in Hong Kong for thirteen years since 1998. Apart from mooncakes, the Company produces turnip cake (‘loh bak go’) and New Year cake (‘neen go’) with low sugar during Chinese New Year. It also offers glutinous rice dumpling for Tuen Ng Festival as people from Mainland China is getting more health concerned.
Maxim’s Caterers Limited provides quick service restaurants and catering services. Since the inception of its fast food restaurant in 1972, the company has continued providing high quality food (Lew, 2003). The company established Maxim’s MX in 2005, in order to expand the brand offered to customers in the fast food industry.
Currently the Maxim’s MX has opened about 70 branches in Hong Kong. The company has other quick service brands such as Hong Kong day, canteen and Maxim’s food 2.In order for the company to produce quality services it has established sophisticated food processing and quality control policies and procedures (Gilbert, 2003). In addition to this, company has a well-established basic hygiene practice to improve on its hygiene.
Maxim’s Caterers Limited has been recognized as a professional supplier of hotel and catering services in Hong Kong and other countries (McGoldrick, 2002). Due to its quality services and products, the company was selected to provide catering services to Hong Kong International Airport.
Hong Kong hospital management granted the company permission to perform a public, private partnership project on patient‘s catering services in Hong Kong. This enabled the company to provide food and catering services to the patients of New Territories West hospital and Queen Elizabeth II hospital.
The company has continued providing quality services and products, which has enabled it to operate plaza inn and market house bakery in Hong Kong Disneyland. Maxim’s Caterer limited is one of the largest qualities catering companies in Hong Kong. It was the only company in Hong Kong to be honored to participate in Shanghai World Expo in the year 2005.
The company offers a variety of Hong Kong, Asian and western cuisines. The company represented the catering companies in the Chinese culinary zone, showing local food delicacies in Hong Kong. Maxim’s Caterers Limited provides fresh and innovative bakery products, which attract many customers, particularly the tourists.
The company is also committed in providing the best quality bakery products and catering services to customers. Due to the increased number of visitors, the company established bakery plant outlets in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. This helped in bringing the finest bakery products in the Southern part of China. Currently the bakery plant has over 100 branches in China. The company acquired Arome Bakery (HK) Company Limited in 2008, to meet the demands of the increase number of customers.
Today the company operates more than 100 Arome Bakery shops in Hong Kong. In 2000, the company introduced Starbuck coffee to Hong Kong in order to reach more customers. Currently there are more than 100 Starbuck stores in Hong Kong, which attract many visitors.
Maxim’s caterers limited acquired the full control of Starbuck stores in June 2011. The company continues serving several customers mostly foreign customers by elevating the Starbuck experience. In 2006, the company collaborated with Genki Sushi Japan in order to operate Genki Sushi Hong Kong Limited.
This company is a conveyor sushi chain providing a quality, fast and fun dining experience. Genki Sushi limited acquired the right to operate Genki Sushi in Southern China in 2008. In 2010, it opened its first store in Shenzhen, and its main aim was to introduce Japanese dining culture to various parts of China (Tsang, 2001).
The m.a.x concept a Maxim’s group restaurant was developed in 1998, to diversify the portfolio of restaurants. According to this concept, a perfect dining experience involves fabulous food, and attentive service, which are the importance of every m.a.x. concepts restaurants. The company is seeking new concepts in food and beverages to bring to Hong Kong (McGoldrick, 2002). It is also active in mainland china in order to attract more visitors, where it has established appropriate partners in food and beverage industry.
Conclusion
Maxim’s caterer Limited is one of the largest companies in Hong Kong. It provides quality products and services to customers particularly the mainland visitors in China (Perrey, 2004). It offers catering services, food products and beverages as well as an accommodation to its customers.
Hong Kong city benefits from its exposure to international markets and its close relationship with mainland China. This has caused an increase in number of visitors visiting Hong Kong. Tourism sector is one of the important pillars of the economy of Hong Kong. There is a significant increase in visitors arriving in Chinese mainland. Maxim’s has been trying to keep pace with the changing Hong Kong market. The constant change is due to the increase in the number of visitors in Chinese mainland.
Recommendations
The number of visitors visiting Honk Kong is increasing at an alarming rate. Maxim’s caterers limited should keep in pace with this increase. The company should improve on its product and quality services in order to curb the increasing competition from other companies in food and beverage and restaurant industry in Hong Kong (Lewis, 2005). It should produce products particularly food and beverage that suit people from outside China.
The company should also open several outlets in Hong Kong and other parts of China. Maxim’s Caterers Limited should also improve on its promotional strategies in order to attract many visitors in the mainland.
The company should also employ professionals as well as staff who speak fluently Mandarin in its outlets in order to provide professional catering services and quality products (Sullivan, 2002). Hong Kong retailing marketing is changing due to the influx of mainland visitors and the company should design products that suit these visitors.
The company should develop excellent restaurants that will attract more tourists. The company should adopt a detailed segmentation of its local and international products. The Company should also provide menu in a simplified Chinese version. It should also provide evening tea (yum cha) after 10:30pm because Mainland China take dinner around 6pm.
The local outlets and restaurants in Hong Kong normally serves customers from 9pm to 10pm. The company should also provide a special edition of gift or souvenir with Company logo for customers who spend more than HKD500 or more. This will enable these customers to show the gifts to their relatives, when they return to Mainland China, this will increase the reputation of the retailer.
References
Gilbert, D., 2003. Retail marketing management. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Lew, A., 2003. Tourism in China. Binghamton: The Haworth Hospitality Press.
Lewis, R., 2005. The new rules of retail:competing in the world’s toughest marketplace. London: Palgrave Macmilliam.
McGoldrick, P., 2002. Retail marketing. Chicago: Mcgraw Hill Higher Education.
Organization, W. T., 2000. Main tourist destiantions. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
Perrey, J., 2004. Retail Marketing and Branding. New York: Wiley.
Rowley, C., 2000. Managed in Hong kong. New York: Routledge.
Shangqing, S., 2001. Studies of China’s tourism economy. Beijing: People’s Publishing House.
Sullivian, M., 2002. Retail Marketing. New York: Cengage Learning.
Tsang, S. Y.-S., 2001. A modern history of Hong Kong. Routledge: Chicago.