When three friends from Calgary opened Craft Beer Market in 2011, they never dreamed they'd see themselves in China, but a brewing appetite in Shanghai is calling Craft to its door.
The craft beer restaurant/pub chain – which features a long list of BC beers at its locations in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton – is looking to open up five new locations in five years in China.
The company is hoping to capitalize on the growing thirst for beer in China, resulting from a younger demographic craving exposure to Western culture and looking for a premium product.
Craft breweries have doubled in the past two years in Shanghai, the world’s largest city, and China is poised to become the world’s largest beer market by 2017.
“It’s exciting to have access to great craft beer brands from all over the world and we believe the Chinese market will embrace Canadian craft beer,” says Craft Beer Market co-owner P.J. L’Heureux.
Craft is partnering with First Growth Holdings, a Shanghai company with connections to Vancouver, to break into the Chinese market.
Currently, Craft Beer Market maintains a lengthy roster of local products, meaning a substantially larger audience for BC favourites, much of which the Chinese public have not yet seen.
However, BC craft beers are not altogether new to the Asian market. In 2013, Russell Brewing of Surrey opened a brewery and restaurant in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. Phillips Brewing of Victoria has been exporting to Japan since 2012, and Mission Springs Brewing Company has a serious stake in South Korea.
Expanding into new markets like China may be the answer to the bursting Vancouver craft beer scene, one that is potentially at risk of saturation.
L’Heureux says Craft's philosophy has always been "building a culture and a family". With this new venture, it appears they've just gained 24 million brothers and sisters.
