With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1222419
( the informer ) ON THE RADAR SIZE MATTERS ALBERT LAW; SOURCES: WORLD BANK GROUP, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, CANADA CHINA BUSINESS COUNCIL, BC STATSSOSTATS D uring my recent visit to a bustling mall in downtown Shanghai, one small, red-and-white- themed shop stood out, and the items it hawked were pretty twisted. Pretzels may not be a well-known snack in China, but B.C.-based entrepreneur Jack Kao wants to change that, one doughy knot at a time. His company's name is CanTresor Pretzels, a riff on "Canadian treasure." Kao be- lieves the key to his success lies in the Canadian wheat he uses, and he's not shy about letting customers know. CanTresor's posters—featuring maple leaves and golden wheat husks against a blue prairie sky, above the slo- gan "Proudly Canadian"—could be straight out of a Destination Canada marketing campaign. Kao hopes this over-the-top Canadiana will convince Chi- nese consumers to buy food from a land that many have never visited. "Chinese people think things from Canada are good quality," he says from his Vancouver office. "For people to live, for [the] most reliable food, Canada always ranks on the top, so even Chinese who haven't been to Canada see that the quality is good." Kao's business approach is starting to pay off. As of March, there were six CanTresor fran- chises in operation, one in Van- couver and the rest in mainland China, with plans to grow to 50 in 2020. Customers seem to enjoy the plate-sized pretzels, with flavours like sweet almond and maple bacon, which sell for about $4 a pop. Sales have reached six figures since Kao opened his doors last July. His pretzels are part of a rel- atively new trade in consumer goods between B.C. and China that looks beyond Hong Kong to the much bigger mainland market. Kao, who moved to Vancouver from Beijing in 2011, started out exporting hard- wood flooring to his home- land, and he thinks he's well positioned to succeed there. "Because I come from main- land China, I know what the Meal Ticket The coronavirus epidemic has slowed its powerful economy, and relations with Canada remain testy. That won't stop China from becoming an increasingly important destination for B.C. food products by Nicole Bergot-Browning I N T E R NAT IONA L T R A DE APRIL 2020 BCBUSINESS 13 PRETZEL LOGIC Jack Kao, shown at his Vancouver store, is bet- ting on China's appetite for Canadian edibles Why businesses everywhere want a piece of China, the world's second- largest economy LAST YEAR CHINA'S GDP REACHED AN ESTIMATEDEs US$14.14 trillion last year The Chinese economy posted 7.6% average annual expansion for the past decade, though the International Monetary Fund recently downgraded its 2020 outlook to 5.6% China is the world's biggest market for cars, cellphones and seafood. The fastest-growing market for luxury goods, air passengers and nuclear power. Home to the most Internet users and online gamers 100+ CHINESE CITIES HAVE A POPULATION OF MORE THAN 1 MILLION MAINLAND CHINA'S TOP THREE IMPORTS FROM B.C. IN 2019: 1. Pulp and paper $2.24 billion 2. Metallic minerals $1.23 billion 3. Wood products $1.15 billion B.C. food exports to mainland China last year: $450 million, roughly 7% of total activity