A young entrepreneur from the Caribbean turned a job loss into an opportunity with Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee and is now setting his sights higher. Hua Yang reports.

Hong Kong is a city of immigrants and some of them have brought a taste of home here: ranging from California iced tea to Korean barbecue and Japanese sushi.

Hilmann Reinier, a Hong Kong-based startup, has added Jamaican coffee and beer to that list, and imports its products directly from the Caribbean nation.

Company founder and CEO Jim Coke first arrived in Hong Kong for a job in the financial planning sector in April 2010. When he was let go in January 2012, he decided to start his own business.

The idea of importing coffee from Jamaica was accidental for Coke. "My father was a Jamaican farmer. One day I was asked by a friend who planned to open a cafe to get some Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee for her," Coke said.

Coke got in touch with his father and, a few days later, he got some coffee samples direct from Jamaica. To his surprise, the coffee was well received in his own social circle in Hong Kong.

Spotting an opportunity to revitalize the coffee market in town, Coke sought to specialize in bringing in high-quality coffee from his homeland, like Jamaica Blue Mountain.

However, starting a business was not easy for Coke. He was forced to sell one of his two properties in the UK to make ends meet. "There will be setbacks and challenges. The important thing is that I did not want to give up," he said.

By playing the mainland market card, Coke managed to secure a distribution agreement with a supplier in Jamaica without much effort. "When I told them I was going to enter the market on the mainland in the future, they got excited," he explained. "The mainland is one of the largest markets in the world. Tapping this market has always been my goal for my business."

After some research, Coke found that only three of the top 100 hotels in Hong Kong were offering Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, and none of them were getting that from authorized sellers.

Coke thought hotels could be a good start and cold-called more than 100 in Hong Kong. However, as an expat with no contacts, he ran into a dead end. None of these hotels responded positively.

When he learned that a friend recently joined a group-buying platform in Hong Kong, he started to wonder whether it was possible to put his products on such platforms. Group-buying offers products and services at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers make the purchase.

After his talk with his friend, Coke decided to give these platforms a try. Coke contacted Groupon and successfully landed a deal with them.

Groupon was willing to pay Coke 50 percent upfront when an online promotion closed.

Coke sold Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee that originally cost around HK$400 per four-ounce bag at HK$150 each on Groupon and could still keep a moderate margin.

Full of beans

"The business model with Groupon helped me finance my company. I used the money from Groupon to pay my supplier and then they shipped products for distribution to the buyers," Coke said.

Following his success with Groupon, Coke wanted to go a step further. Instead of only buying roasted Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee beans, Coke started to buy green coffee beans, or raw coffee beans, direct from Jamaica and roast them in-house in Hong Kong.

"I wanted to take control of the whole process so that I could ensure the quality of my products," he said.

The startup launched its own coffee brand "Lily Kerridge" in January 2013. Coke also got a license from the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica that allows him to import Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee into 67 countries and economies including Hong Kong and the mainland.

Coke noted that being a coffee manufacturer could help him reduce tariffs when he exports his goods into the mainland. Coke had eye on the mainland market since the very beginning. "Entering the mainland has always been my next move. I talked to several persons on the mainland to figure this out," he told China Daily.

Coke claims to be one of the only two authorized licensees for Jamaica Blue Mountain in Hong Kong, and the other does not even retail its products.

"Consumers in Hong Kong can actually find quite a lot of companies selling or making Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. But they are not authorized," Coke complained.

Strength to strength

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is a globally protected certification mark, meaning only coffee certified by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica can be labeled as such.

Any company that imports Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee should get a license from the board.

Later Coke got a chance to pitch his coffee to ParknShop, Hong Kong's largest supermarket chain, and secured a distribution agreement with it.

After expanding his coffee offering, he tried to contact brewer and beverage producer Desnoes & Geddes to bring in another Jamaican product, Red Stripe beer, to Hong Kong.

Red Stripe beer, first produced in Jamaica in 1938, was previously distributed in Hong Kong for a short time.

Following negotiations, Coke signed an agreement with Desnoes & Geddes to distribute their products in Hong Kong and Red Stripe found its place on ParknShop shelves in December 2013 under a long-term contract.

Coke told China Daily that they just finished a meeting with City'Super in January and are about to sign a deal with them.

The startup now distributes products ranging from Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, Indonesian Kopi Luwak, Hawaiian Kona coffee, Red Stripe Beer and Dragon Stout to Malta drink, Indian Tea Sticks, and so on.

Coke revealed that the company is also in the process of listing their bond on the Vienna Stock Exchange and the move is expected to be finalized later this year.

Contact the writer at amandahua@chinadailyhk.com

Hilmann Reinier, a Hong Kong-based startup, has branched out into importing a wide range of beverages from around the world. Edmond Tang / China Daily

(HK Edition 02/17/2015 page9)