RAE fUNg At Sw fINE ARtS SEptEmBER 2018 BCBusiness 33
ne warm night in downtown Hong
Kong, I'm sipping a Japanese session
IPA with the head of the local Vancou-
ver Canucks fan club. Thomas Lau
owns this joint: Coedo Taproom, a
stylish resto-bar on a back street in
the bustling Causeway Bay district.
Lau, president of NextStep
Gourmet Group, gripes about the city's high
rents, long lineups, cramped living quarters,
volatile weather and tra‡c congestion. But the
bespectacled Vancouver expat, who plans to take
his young family home for summer vacation to
escape the tropical heat, clearly enjoys being an
entrepreneur here.
"In terms of doing business, there's nowhere
like Hong Kong," Lau says. "It's a very free mar-
ket with a lot of opportunities." Today alone, he
had half a dozen meetings: "There's always some
random person who just comes out of nowhere,
and you never know if your next big
M&A will
come from a guy you just met."
For Lau and many others, the ties between
Hong Kong and B.C. run deep. Some British
Columbians have built thriving businesses here,
while others are tapping its market from home.
Although China's spectacular rise (see p.38) has
diminished its economic importance in favour
of bigger mainland cities such as Shanghai and
nearby Shenzhen, Hong Kong remains a vibrant
international centre. For smaller B.C. companies
with designs on Asia, the special administrative
region
(SAR) of some 7.4 million residents can be
a good entry point. It helps that the Hong Kong
and B.C. governments are both trying to forge
stronger links between the two places.
Born in Hong Kong, Lau moved to B.C. with his
family in 1992. After attending high school in Van-
couver, he earned a BA in humanities from UVic.
In 2004 he returned to Hong Kong, co-founding
NextStep three years later. Master franchisee for
New York Fries in Hong Kong, Macau and main-
land China, the company also owns three Hong
Kong craft beer bars. NextStep's third division
is Thirsty Brothers, a craft beer and spirits dis-
tributor whose brands include B.C.'s Postmark
Brewing, Steamworks Brewing Co. and Whistler
Brewing Co. Every six weeks or so it brings in a
shipping container of beer from Canada, which
accounts for 25 to 30 percent of its imports.
Anyone looking to follow in his footsteps
won't £nd it easy, Lau cautions. "It's de£nitely
getting more di‡cult, but at the same time, in the
Asian market as a whole, Hong Kong is very inter-
nationalized," he says. "And it changes so fast."
For example, Lau didn't sell craft beer until
£ve or six years ago. Now it's a major force in
the Hong Kong food and beverage industry, he
east
near
Hong Kong may be an
ocean away, but its many
B.C. connections make
it an intriguing prospect
for small businesses with
Asian ambitions
by NICK ROCKEL
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special
report
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