Shopping giant AdMart last night vowed to strengthen quality control after being warned it might be selling fake Hennessy XO cognac - the second such claim to emerge in as many days. Company president Wilson Chu Bun, speaking a day after hundreds of bottles of fake Bordeaux wine were seized from AdMart warehouses, said buying procedures would be tightened. Lawyers for the sole distributor of Hennessy XO in Hong Kong, Riche Monde, are understood to have written to AdMart last month demanding a halt to sales of liquor bearing a similar label. A source at Jardine Pacific, which is part-owner of Riche Monde, said samples of the AdMart liquor were being analysed. Bottles of Hennessy XO obtained by the Post show that the one sold by AdMart has slightly different lettering and spacing on the label from one bought through Riche Monde. Mr Chu said AdMart stopped selling the liquor on September 24, three days before receiving the lawyers' letter from Riche Monde. The product was sold only over the Mid-Autumn Festival and AdMart never intended to sell it beyond that date, he said. Only 10 bottles were sold during the promotional period and leftover stock was returned to the 'local supplier', who Mr Chu would not name, although he said it was not Riche Monde. Prices of Hennessy XO plunged during the mid-autumn break as rival retailers fought a fierce price war. It now costs $1,375 a bottle in ParknShop, but was widely available for as low as $989 late last month. Mr Chu said he could not comment on the claim that AdMart had sold fake Hennessy XO as the matter was now being handled by company lawyers. But he said he was worried that the allegation came on top of Monday's seizure of 658 bottles of fake Mouton Cadet Bordeaux. 'We have to strengthen our quality-control procedures internally to make sure that liquor or wine that we buy in future are real products,' he said. AdMart rival Wellcome yesterday offered to replace 'questionable' bottles of Mouton Cadet 1995 bought elsewhere, a day after ParknShop did the same. Riche Monde managing director Claes Rydberg said trade customers raised questions about AdMart's product when they saw how cheaply it was being sold. 'We contacted AdMart by letter and said: 'It has come to our attention that you may be selling products that are not authentic Hennessy XO',' Mr Rydberg said. He said AdMart responded immediately, providing a bottle of its product to be tested by Riche Monde. Testing is continuing in France.
