Last week, 75 mainland couples and families were invited on a three-day, two-night, all-expenses-paid trip, touring on harbour cruises, visiting personal stylists and indulging in wine-tasting treatments, while staying at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong.
The trip, however, came at a price. These were guests who spent at least 1 million yuan (HK$1.23 million) last year with Chow Tai Fook, and who were later invited to the jeweller's first auction in Hong Kong. The event was part of a brand revamping campaign for Chow Tai Fook.
High-end diamond jewellery and ultrawealthy mainlanders could bring Chow Tai Fook into a new era, at a time when big names like Tiffany and Cartier are making inroads in its home market, and when competition with Hong Kong rivals like Luk Fook and Chow Sang Sang is bitter.
'Our mainland VIPs - especially in first- and second-tier cities - like to buy diamonds,' said Chow Tai Fook executive director Adrian Cheng Chi-kong. He said margins from diamond pieces were around three times higher than for gold products.
In the Grand Hyatt ballroom, the few middle-aged men in polo shirts at each table seemed underdressed compared to most of the other attendees, but they were doing most of the bidding in the auction, which was carried out in Putonghua.
All told, 100 VIP couples were invited to the event, as well as 25 couples chosen from a list of about 55,000 VIPs in Hong Kong.