Welcome to Jing Daily‘s Weekend Sound Bites: a rundown of what industry influencers were saying about the week’s top stories on the business of luxury and culture in China.#
Jimmy Choo is planning its China expansion. (Soraya Bakhtiar)
— FRIDAY, 8/16 —#
“Many luxury goods are cheaper and better here than in China. For the same global-brand perfume, I would pay about CNY 1,400 (US$230) in China but only about HK$ 1,200 here.”
-Mr. Ji, a technical director at a company that makes vehicles, who was visiting Hong Kong from Nanjing. His family spent RMB20,000 on the trip, over half of which went to shopping. (WSJ)
— THURSDAY, 8/15 —#
"Simply copying will not work. Thorough market analysis and an understanding of the special demands of Chinese customers is needed before big investment is undertaken."
-Wolfgang Georg Arlt, director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute at West Coast University of Applied Sciences in Germany, on how China can develop its cruise industry (Reuters)
“You mean croissant-doughnut.”
-Yves Matthey, executive pastry chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, on his latest pastry creation. (Scene Asia)
— WEDNESDAY, 8/14 —#
“As far as I know, NDRC monitors pricing for various industries as part of its normal responsibilities and there has been no specific anti-monopoly investigation targeting the auto industry.”
-Luo Lei, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, on recent news that the association was investigating foreign automakers for price-fixing. (Bloomberg)
— TUESDAY, 8/13 —#
“Some people have to come in here and really show China that there are other models, and those people have to be fairly altruistic because when we started, this wasn’t a very lucrative type of project.”
-Brian Linden, operator of the boutique Linden Centre hotel in Yunnan, on the development of the boutique hotel industry in China. (NYT)
— MONDAY, 8/12 —#
"The timing is good because in essence, as we are privately-owned, we do not have the pressures of the stock market. We can build a brand in China while it is going through a change in the consumption of luxury and clients are open to having something different. It is usually at these times that you are able to establish yourself."
-Jimmy Choo CEO Pierre Denis on tapping the China market. (China Daily)