Renowned local food souvenir chains Choi Heong Yuen and Koi Kei both reported a sales decline this year amid worsening consumption sentiment by Mainland Chinese visitors to the city, a trend that they have tried to counter with more efforts in online sales and an improved product mix. “We actually started to see sales drop from the end of last year. And in the beginning of this year, sales in our stores have dropped some 10 per cent year-on-year; but later the drop widened – and now on a monthly average, we’ve seen some 20 per cent decline,” managing director of Choi Heong Yuen Bakery Alan Wong Yeuk Lai told Business Daily “This is really a year that’s very different from the past.” Choi Heong Yuen Bakery has a total of 13 stores on streets and in casinos in Macau, and is opening another new store in Studio City in Cotai today. The bakery’s main competitor, Koi Kei Bakery, runs 21 stores in Macau. Shared pain The sales slump has also been encountered by Koi Kei, which expects to see sales turnover drop 20 per cent for the whole of 2015, Koi Kei’s owner Leong Chan Kuong told Hong Kong’s Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao Daily. The sales slump has been partly caused by the disappearance of big spenders brought by VIP gaming promoters to the Koi Kei shops in casinos, where their average transaction per head in the shops could reach MOP20,000 (US$2,505), Mr. Leong told the Hong Kong media outlet. “The average transaction at our shops by big spenders is not that much [as MOP20,000] but pretty much lies in the range of some MOP50 to MOP1,000,” said Choi Heong Yuen’s boss Alan Wong. “The bakery business has seen a slowdown as China’s anti-graft drive has effectively curbed shopping by the big spenders, and secondly, worse consumption sentiment against the backdrop of a slowing economy on the Mainland.” Alternative marketing Mr. Wong said Choi Heong Yuen had launched discount campaigns to push sales at the beginning of this year but they had not had much effect. “What we have seen in the market now is some macro-economic factors that we cannot control,” he said. “But what we can do now is to get more actively engaged in online sales and exert more effort to promote our products overseas despite the fact that Macau is still our core market.” Mr. Wong’s competitor, Koi Kei Bakery’s Leong Chan Kuong, said to boost turnover his stores have added the sales of preserved seafood, and items with a higher gross margin – such as chocolate. Despite softened sales seen so far this year, Koi Kei Bakery is still optimistic about the city’s food souvenir retail prospects for next year, Leong said. Koi Kei will open more shops in Hong Kong’s airport and Macau’s casinos starting from the end of this year, the bakery chain owner said.
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