Roger Chan, 34, co-founded Hong Kong's first artisanal chocolate company Vero in 2004. Its high-end treats are still available at a boutique in Landmark in Central, while the chocolate workshop that opened four years ago at Fenwick Pier closed this summer. A new flagship store is opening next year.
I'm happy to see home-grown producers and smaller companies. Hong Kong, fortunately, is a place where people are innovative, if there is an opportunity they will try and take it, but we have a long way to go. I mean, if you go around the markets in London or Sydney, they are alive with different options.
There is a commercial element to everything here. Rents are so high that it dictates what the entrepreneur or the company can do. That's why, across the board, food and beverage is run by big groups now. They don't have that same entrepreneurialism, that sole proprietor feeling.
Not at all. We have such a beautiful successor. I find Fenwick Pier a unique location. It's like a diamond in the rough. Luckily, it passed to the right hands, someone with integrity who's following their passion.