Jonathan Cartu

1 Photo

by Raphael Seghin
on Friday, November 11, 2011 12:00 AM

Could you tell us a little bit about why Duvel has been so successful in the last couple of years in Shanghai?

We have a really great team of guys, and the success has come from a group effort, hitting the streets a lot, and being good to our customers, I think that's the most important. There are a lot of options out there in the market, a lot of imported beers. So you have to do certain things to make yourself stand out, but what counts the most is your customer service. You know one of the things a few of our customers told me when we were just starting was that their biggest problem was going out of stock. If you look at some of these imported product guys, they have everything you ever thought of. Well, they have it on paper anyways. It was there, and it might come again in four months, nobody knows. So we made consistency in supply our number one priority. We never made a big marketing effort, we try to operate as tight as possible here, but one thing we really made sure of is, if we are going to make any sort of marketing, let's put that marketing money and effort toward ensuring we got our beer, even if we gotta fly it in on a plane. I mean, it should be the essential thing any company provides the customers. The product, there on time when it's needed. When the customers go to the venue, and say hey, "where's Vedett?" And they say "out of stock", customers don't blame the supplier, they blame the person in front of them. We don't want to put our customers in that position.

Any other aspects where you think Duvel is leading by example?

Continuing what was said earlier, we just try to give the best to our customers. Besides the quality of service, we want everything we provide to be of the best quality. We import our towers, draught machines, glasses, everything. Another thing is that many suppliers will squabble with each other and refuse to allow others to use their machines or C02. We've tried to bypass that. One example is the multiple tap towers we provide. We don't mind other suppliers having their beer on our taps, because we want to make it easier for our customer, and in the end that's who we're working for. Fewer machines and taps mean more space for the venue.
Also, sometimes you have the feeling that China is the land of middle-man, but we work directly for our parent company in Belgium. We don't like to have any distributors getting between us and our customers. When we need something we can go directly to the source, and if the customer has any problems with anything they can communicate directly with the brewery.
Our GM Vincent Smets pushed me to be very hands on from the beginning. At that time we were doing everything ourselves, making the runs, doing deliveries, and serving beers personally at events. Last year I had to jokingly threaten him with violence to stop pouring beers at events and the guy's like half a foot taller than me! I thought, some people in China might regard that as a sign of a ‘small company' if the GM is pouring beer. But he enjoys it, we both do. It's important for a company to know its product. We started very small, step by step, but we wanted to get a good grasp of each one of these steps, not get ahead of ourselves, to let our product and our service speak for itself.

Are there any characteristics you look for when you seek out a new client?

It's important for us to make sure the venues we choose will be able to sell the beer. If it's hard to get a new customer, it's almost impossible to get one back after you've lost it. We have a certain target. We try to know our market. We sit down with the venue and we try to decide to which one of our products would fit them best. Vedett and La Chouffe are younger, hipper beers. Duvel and Maredsous are stronger, more refined, more mature.

Any interesting stories of doing business here in China?

I think you have to do your background research on the Chinese market and try not to make any assumptions. We made several mistakes when we first entered the market, and one example is with Vedett Extra White. People accustomed to Belgian beers are aware of the yeast that builds up in the bottle, its natural. But when we introduced it here, our Chinese customers were calling in complaining. They were accusing us of selling an unhygienic product. We had to put pictures on the bottle and the cap, explaining to people to shake the bottle a bit, and explain to them that the yeast on the bottom is the best part!

What are some of the plans for the future of Duvel in China?

Shanghai is no longer our biggest market. We've had quite a success around China and are already operating in a limited capacity in all regions. We've also hit a nail with Hunan and Sichuan restaurants, which tend to be more upscale and are quite popular across the country. They're fond of our beers; it helps alleviate the spice. We are working on expanding our presence, moving away from expat-orientated markets towards truly local ones.