Wine maker looks to be toast of Hong Kong in 1997
Tangshan Cao Xueqin Enterprise Group has joined the rush of Chinese enterprises seeking to grab a piece of the 1997 pie - using the handover of Hong Kong as a gimmick to promote its products.
The white wine maker says it will send six lorries carrying 1,997 pots of specially made '1997 celebration wine' to the territory by June 1997.
The gift has been acknowledged by the state, with official mouthpiece Xinhua (the New China News Agency) hailing it as 'a hearty congratulation sent by the mother country to Hong Kong'.
The lorries will set off from Fengrun county in Tangshan and pass through Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou, reaching Hong Kong before July 1.
The first pot will be auctioned for charity, with a minimum opening bid of 500,000 yuan. The rest of the 1,997 pots, each about 10 jin , equivalent to half a kilogram, will be distributed free to major hotels in Hong Kong.
The newly established winery says it is fortunate to have landed such a promotional coup. The handover is seen as a golden opportunity for Chinese firms to promote themselves and competition to get in on the act is fierce.
In December, Beijing cancelled all 1997 trademarks, saying the handover must not be used for profit.
Cao Xueqin's '1997 celebration wine' has been recognised by the Chinese General Association of Light Industries.
It means free advertising for the group and will enhance the status of Cao Xueqin wine, still a relatively new name in China's cutthroat white wine market.
Advertising department director Liu Xinghe said makers of maotai spirits had the same idea but had been beaten to it by Cao Xueqin. 'We were the first one to propose it.' The '1997 celebration wine' was restricted to one winery only as it represented the state, he said. The market share of Cao Xueqin Enterprise Group remained small as the Chinese white wine market was a 'ruthless battlefield', Mr Liu said.
'Every city has at least two or three brands of white wine. There are thousands of white wine makers in China and it is too difficult to increase one's market share.' Cao Xueqin Enterprise Group, originally a small white wine maker run by Fengrun county government, only started to expand two years ago when factory director Sun Haohua , also the vice-head of the county government, joined the enterprise, Mr Liu said.
The first thing the group did was to change the name of its product. Originally named after the Geng River, which runs beside the winery it was renamed after famous novelist Cao Xueqin, author of the Chinese classic The Dream of the Red Chamber.
The product has strong ties with the Cao name. The family of Cao Xueqin held high office in the Qing dynasty and were also renowned for their wine-making prowess. The Cao Xueqin Enterprise Group's old winery stood in part of the old Cao family house, and the wine, made from a form of sorghum, is produced using the Cao family's recipe.
The wine had been well received after changing its name more than two years ago, Mr Liu said. 'Our market share in Tangshan is 100 per cent now.' However, other markets such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Shenyang remain small.
It is too early to say how the '1997 celebration wine' will help Cao Xueqin Enterprise Group, but its pricing shows it still lags far behind the heavyweight maotai spirits.
Maotai retails at 380 yuan per bottle while Cao Xueqin wine is 45 yuan.
