By Nicholas Hopper
Aug. 20 – China’s restaurant and food retail market is a difficult one to break into. Competition is fierce and prices are low. Nevertheless, the prospect of getting a share of the most populous market in the world outweighs the associated risks for many foreign restaurant chains.
Guillermo García is one of the entrepreneurs in the process of entering the China market. He recently opened a Shanghai subsidiary of San Gines (圣吉诺), a famous Spanish churro restaurant from Madrid. Selling churros (Spanish fried dough pastries) in China is not an easy thing to do, as most locals are not yet aware of what the product is and tend to associate it with youtiao, a Chinese breakfast snack, which is sold at much lower prices.
About his experience Guillermo notes, “Opening the first San Gines shop in Shanghai has probably been the biggest challenge of my life. To some extent I had to reinvent myself. There were several difficulties to overcome: finding the right location and keeping the balance between adapting the product to please local palates without losing the foreign flair of the concept were probably the toughest to manage. However, the business started off well and the market has given me a positive response.” He goes on to say, “Now the most important thing is to focus and fulfil the potential of this project. To achieve this, it will be crucial to keep in touch with the costumers and properly manage their feedback.”
Guillermo moved to Shanghai in 2007 to spearhead the expansion of Café Los Portales, one of the biggest Mexican coffee producers, into Asia. The job as Los Portales representative, as well as his role in seasonal collaborations with Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant, gave Guillermo crucial insight into the food and beverage (F&B) industry in Shanghai. This experience became an invaluable foundation for when he was eventually approached by San Gines to setup their brand in Shanghai.
San Gines inaugurated their international expansion through a franchise model in Japan with locations in Tokyo and Osaka. Now that its first privately owned Shanghai outlet is operational, it is considering opening its second location in Shanghai before the end of the year. Further expansion plans to Bangkok, Thailand, are in the making. The Asian market seems to be receptive to churros, but the key to success for the company lies in its marketing strategy.
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