HWC Coffee x W Venture Partners Joint Venture Signing Ceremony
HWC Coffee x W Venture Partners Joint Venture Signing Ceremony
Food and beverages sector especially the coffee sub sector has attracted a slew of deals thanks to change in consumer behavior to collecting experiences from collecting things. Merely two months since the overseas push began, Taiwanese specialty coffee brand HWC Coffee has sealed a deal with Brunei investors to jointly create a specialty coffee empire in Southeast Asia!
In April, HWC Coffee opened the first overseas specialty coffee brand store in Malaysia, as part of its mission to serve customers the world's best freshly roasted coffees at affordable price. Since opening, the company’s award winning HWC 91-Points Specialty Coffee Bean (Classic Nine Roasted Coffee Beans) has received overwhelming response from customers, allowing it to make inroads into the highly competitive market. In view with this, Brunei’s W Venture Partners, a subsidiary of Seng Hoe Huat Group, agreed to invest RM3 million to fund HWC Coffee to expand business domestically and subsequently introduce the brand to Brunei in the fourth quarter of this year.
Established in 1984, Seng Hoe Huat was one of the diversified groups in Brunei, with a business portfolio encompassing automotive, health appliances and hospitality industry. HWC Coffee, which owns over 70 retail shops in Taiwan, signed a collaboration agreement with Subplace this year, to kick-start its overseas expansion starting from Malaysia that serves farm-to-cup specialty coffee.
With the maiden investment, HWC Coffee opened two more brand stores at Sunway Putra Mall and Sunway Velocity Mall in May. respectively, bringing the smell of freshly roasted coffee to other parts of the capital city.
In conjunction with the latest opening, Palaterium Chief Executive Zenda Ng signed the investment and collaboration agreement with W Venture Partners Managing Director Mr Wong Kim Guan to formalise both parties’ strategic partnership ahead. Subplace Founder Hoe Kian Choon, CEO Mak Wai Hoong,Taiwan HWC Founder Penny Lim ,Marketing Consultants Sam Mak, Palaterium Sdn Bhd COO Penny Chan, Marketing Manager Edmund Lai also attended the signing ceremony.
“The rise in disposable income and pursuit of quality life has resulted in people being more willing to spend on high quality coffee. With HWC Coffee’s success story within a short span of time coupled with rising popularity of specialty coffee, I am very confident our collaboration will be a success,” said Wong Kim Guan.
“We look forward to the future of the company and laid out plans for the future growth including enhancing in-store experience and introducing more delicious products to customers,” he added.
Second brand store is located at LG-31A of Sunway Putra Mall and has opened its door since May 14, while the third brand store is located at Sunway Velocity Mall (B-47C ,B1 floor) . Both kiosks will open daily from 10 am to 10 pm.
Currently, the best-selling beverages include Americano, more than 10 types of caffe latte prepared in golden ratio as well as the signature drink and top-selling beverage in Taiwan -- Brown Sugar Bubble Caffe Latte. Brown Sugar Bubble Caffe Latte is a beverage that combines bubble milk tea with café latte that tingle everyone’s taste buds.
To enhance your experience, the company’s signature dish Nasi Hey! – a fusion cuisine that combines Malaysia’s nasi lemak and Taiwanese rice-ball. The dish features charcoal made rice infused with ginger accompanied by sambal, shredded chicken, deep-fried dough sticks, sausages and eggs, and has successfully stimulated customers’ taste buds.
With a price point starting at RM9, HWC Coffee aims to deliver affordable coffee despite its premium positioning.
“Brunei counterpart’s collaboration and investment is undoubtedly marked a brand-new milestone for HWC Coffee, and will accelerate our expansion plan across Southeast Asia. With the gradual opening of the economy, HWC Coffee will speed up local market expansion and target to expand its business footprint to neighboring countries by the end of this year. We also have plans to offer more variety of food and beverages in the future,” Zenda Ng said.
The company’s award winning HWC 91-Points Specialty Coffee Bean has been the favorite of many coffee lovers, Ng said, adding beverages brewed by the coffee beans have recorded a high repurchase rate. “We are thrilled by the
response and quality affirmation by our consumers. Some customers also expressed their intention to buy our coffee beans to brew at home,” she said.
By adopting the technological innovation, HWC Coffee not only cooperates with Subplace to introduce the subscription model, the company also develops its online sales channels, as part of its goal to build a complete omni-channel, providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. Moving forward, the company will integrate technology into its kiosks, that will cover order placing. It will also launch and sell its own merchandise, which can be bought from the physical stores, online stores and exporting to other countries, to increase brand exposure worldwide.
In response to the public demand, HWC Coffee officially announced that starting from June 1, the public will be able to buy the award winning HWC 91-Points Specialty Coffee Bean via all e-commerce channels and kiosks. The retail price is set at RM65 (227g) while RM105 (454g).
Over the past 2 months, HWC Coffee has set up three specialty coffee brand stores at 1Utama, Sunway Putra Mall and Sunway Velocity. In July, the company intends to open two more brand stores at Aeon Maluri and Avenue K followed by Subang SS15, Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Sunway Pyramid, Setia Prima IOI City Mall, Pavilion Bukit Bintang that are slated to open between August and October.
“Over the past two years, Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted key industries, including the services sector. While we are unable to predict when the industry will return to normal for now, we are taking steps to counter every challenge, including adopting a contactless business model and strict hygiene standards.”