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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN Foundation in Natural and Built Environment (FNBE) February Intake 2014 A Comparative Analysis of 2 Businesses of Similar Industry in Different Geographical Locations English 2 | ELG30605 Group Members: Tang Juyi / 0317741 Wong Carol / 0317735 Rozanna Farahibram / 0317967 Samaa Tariq Abdulsattar Abdulaziz Ismaeeel / 0316353 | FEB INTAKE 2014 | ELG30605 | 01

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Page 1: English tea business latest

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

Foundation in Natural and Built Environment (FNBE)

February Intake 2014

A Comparative Analysis of 2 Businesses of Similar Industry in Different Geographical Locations

English 2 | ELG30605

Group Members: Tang Juyi / 0317741 Wong Carol / 0317735 Rozanna Farahibram / 0317967 Samaa Tariq Abdulsattar Abdulaziz Ismaeeel / 0316353

Ang Wei Yi / 0317885

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CONTENTSNo. Title Page No.

1 Key Summary 3

2 History of the Trade 6

3 Brief Description of Swee Tin Tea Merchant 7

4 Brief Description of Chwan Deng Tea Art 8

5 Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits 9

6 Recommendation 15

7 Bibliography 16

8 Appendices 17

9 Reference 29

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Key Summary

1. Location

Our task was to study two businesses in any part of the Malaysian Peninsular,

and Klang Valley. We chose to do a research on the tea business located in two different areas,

which are Ipoh and Klang Valley.

2. The Group

For this research report, we have to form a group of five members and choose a business to do a

research on. Our group members consist of Tang Juyi, Wong Carol, Rozanna Farah Ibram, Samaa

Tariq Abdulsattar Abdulaziz Ismaeel, and Ang Wei Yi.

3. The Topic

The two businesses that we have decided to do a comparison on are Swee Tin Tea Merchant and

Chwan Deng Tea Art. Both are tea businesses which have been running for over 15 years.

However, they differ in terms of business management and target audience, however, aside from

their differences they have similarities in the type of products they sell.

4. Research Questions

- When was the business founded?

- Who are the key founders?

- What prompted the founders to start this business?

- What are your main products?

- Who are your customers?

- What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

- How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

- Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments?

- Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?

- Is the business constantly facing strong competition from other competitors? What strategies have

they used to compete with you?

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- How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialised field of knowledge

do you need to run this business?

- Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

- How do you compete with your competitors i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert

customers away from your competitors?

- How often do you release a new product (this assumes the business sells differentiated products)?

- Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors?

5. Methodology

5.1 The Interview

Before we visited their shop to interview them, we contacted the person in charge to get their

permission from the owner of the tea shop. Firstly, we introduced ourselves and briefly explained

the reasons we were interviewing them. After that, we began our interview by questioning them

with the listed questions. During the interview, we recorded and listed down every single important

detail and information. Finally we took pictures of the shop, products and the owner at the end of

the interview session.

5.2 References

All research and interview results to show our understanding of the business was recorded. In

addition, some researches were done through online sources and printed materials. Based on the

data obtained from the interview sessions, comparison between the two businesses was made.

5.3 Meetings

On the first meeting we discussed on what kind of business to do our interview and agreed with

Chinese tea shops. We then chose to do the interview in Ipoh and Klang. Throughout the research,

we had small meetings amongst ourselves so that we were able to understand the businesses’ flow

more clearly. Lastly, we delegated our tasks, so that everyone is contributing in the assignment.

History of the Trade

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Chinese tea is a simple beverage, and one that has long been central to the lives of millions

of people, originally from South-East Asia, and now virtually worldwide. Chinese tea is said to aid

in meditation and self-reflection, induce tranquility and even inspire imaginations.

China, the homeland of tea, is the leading producer and consumer. The origin of tea is lost

among history and legends. What can be roughly confirmed is that tea originated in the southwest

of China. The discovery and usage of tea there has a history of about four or five thousand years.

According to history, tea started in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty.

Chinese tea started to break free from its region of origin and has been transported to most parts

of the world. Japanese monks took tea seeds, the techniques of tea making, and tea utensils back to

Japan, which led to the appearance of the Japanese tea ceremony. At the end of the sixteenth

century, the Dutch brought word to Europe that there was a kind of magic leaf in the east, from

which tasty drinks could be made, and this was the first time that Europeans heard of tea. In 1610,

the East India Company was the first to sell tea to Europe, after which the habit of drinking tea took

root. In 1636, tea entered France and two years later it entered Russia, whereas Britain, a nation

famous for its tea drinking, did not have tea until 1650.

Chinese tea drinking culture was brought along by the Chinese people to Malaysia in the olden

days. Driven by the revival of tea drinking culture, the 21st century foresees an upsurge of Chinese

tea consumption. This enables a steady growth of the commodity. Malaysia serves as an ideal tea

stowing and trading point because of the import duty-free policy and strategic geological

conditions. Besides that, Malaysia with a multi-racial society plays a vital role in promoting tea

trading on a global basis.

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Brief Description of Swee Tin Tea Merchant

NAME : Swee Tin Tea Merchant Trading Sdn. Bhd

CURRENT LOCATION: No. 18, Persiaran Bijih Timah, 30000 Ipoh, Perak

Swee Tin Tea Merchant Trading Sdn. Bhd has been incorporated in Malaysia for over 65

years. The business does not have any branch. However, it does have one warehouse in First

Garden, Ipoh where the packaging process of the tea takes place. They hired one worker in the retail

shop and fifteen workers in the warehouse.

The business was founded by Lee Yi Zhen in 1942. His father was a tea businessman in China

but his business failed. Lee Yi Zhen came to Malaysia during the glory period of tin mining in Ipoh

and started over the business set up by his father. Lee named his shop as Swee Tin in order to

commemorate his father. The business started as a small stall and sold only Chinese tea. Later on,

he noticed the locals preferred ‘teh tarik’ over Chinese tea and decided to sell black tea as well.

Nowadays, the company is devoted to tea by importing finest teas, blending, processing, and

packing to marketing and distributing. Chinese tea, black tea, red tea, green tea, fermented tea and

non-fermented tea are sold and the main brands are Lion Tea and Fuk Luk Sau Tea. They import tea

from China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and wholesaler in the same field. Recently, Lee Kah Onn, the

third generation of the founder takes over the business and modernized the business. Computer

generated systems are gradually incorporated into the business. Regularly, they receive around 30

orders per day. Most of the customers are ‘kopitiam’ or ‘mamak’ stall ’s owner and majority of the

customers are Malay.

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Brief Description of Chwan Deng Tea Art

NAME : Chwan Deng Tea Art

CURRENT LOCATION : No. 2098, Jalan Meru, 41050 Klang, Selangor D.E.

NUMBER OF BRANCHES : None

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 2

Chwan Deng Tea Art was first founded in year 1999. It is a family operated business. The

key founders of the business are two sisters, Tan Hoe Sim and Tan Hoe Ling. They originated from

Subang, however at that time, Subang was not a developed area, and hence the sisters chose to

attend a high school in Klang. The sisters started to develop interest in Chinese tea since tea

drinking culture was popular in Klang. After they graduated from high school, they bought over an

existing small tea company which was not very successful. They started selling Chinese tea leaves

in Klang Parade. The venue had limited space that they had problems with storage. Recently, in

2013, the sisters decided to move to a bigger venue as their business started to expand and more

stocks required a larger space. Operation of the shop became more efficient as they have enough

space to put their stocks properly.

Pu-erh tea leaves, a kind of fermented black tea produced in Yunnan province, China, makes

up 80% of their sales and is the main product sold in Chwan Deng. The second popular item is the

Oolong tea leaves, which is produced through a unique process of withering and oxidation. The

estimated customers per month are about 300. The customers are mainly Chinese; however they

have Indian customers who enjoy Chinese tea as well. Although their target audiences are people

from age 30 and above, there are still youngsters who purchase tea leaves from them. This is

because more people are aware that Chinese tea brings lots of benefits to health.

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Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits

Number of Competitors in Respective Areas

Klang Ipoh

Qiu Xiang Tea Merchant Purple Cane Tea House

YL Tea Art Garden STG Tea House Café

Purple Cane Tea House Thaitee Tea

Yuan Yuan Tea House Tork Shou Heong

Cheong Hing Bar

Koong Woh Tong

Lao Ba Cha Tea House

Fong Lye Tea House

Water Drop Tea House

Kuyichai Chinese Cultural & Tea House

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Top Competitors Biography

1. Top Competitors for Chwan Deng Tea Art, Klang

1.1 Purple Cane Tea House

Established in 1987 by founder Lim Hock Lam. The company distributes, and re-packages teas that

are imported from China and Taiwan. The company has twenty-four branches spread out across

Malaysia. Furthermore, the company provides education to the mass on the arts of Chinese tea, as

well as raising campaigns to increase the awareness of the beneficial qualities of consuming tea.

1.2 Qiu Xiang Tea

The company has 4 branches in Malaysia.

1.3 Jit Ri Enterprise

Established in the year 2005. The company fulfills demands for both Chinese and Taiwanese tea.

The Chinese teas selections are: Pu-erh tea, Liu Bao tea, Guan Yin, Huang Jin Gui, Dan Chong, Da

Hong Pao, Shui Xian, Tie Luo Han, Scented tea, and Green tea. The selections of Taiwanese teas

are Dong-Ding Oolong tea and Alisan High Mountain tea. In addition, the business also includes

selling tea art accessories.

2. Top Competitors for Swee Tin Tea Merchant, Ipoh

2.1 Purple Cane Tea House

Established in 1987, by founder Lee Yi Zhen, the company distributes and repackages tea from

China and Taiwan. The company has 24 branches across Malaysia. Furthermore the company

provides education to the mass on the art of Chinese tea as well as campaigns to increase awareness

on the benefits of tea.

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2.2 Thaitee Tea

Established in 1990, Malaysia’s premier distributor of high-quality tea leaves. Won several awards

in both domestic and international competitions in China. Signature award-winning tea includes

Bergamot, Tie Guan Yin and Shui Xian teas. The tea master Zheng Qing Chi regulates the import

and export of the Young Chun branch responsible with maintaining the excellence of the brand.

2.3 Tork Shou Heong Tea Merchant

Established in 1946, by Lee Thong Kay. Started a small scale tea business now selling tea from all

over the world such as China and Japan. The original “Tork Shou Heong Chinese Tea” is a well-

known tea appreciated by many fans today.

Obstacles Faced When Starting the Chinese Tea Business Today

In 1999 Chinese tea was not as popular as it is now; therefore, to penetrate the market was a

difficult task to do. However, in 2007, Taiwan started importing different flavoured teas from

China. Albeit, to widen their market and increase sales; Taiwan promoted the health benefits of

Chinese tea across the continent, and all over the world. According to statistics, the increase

awareness of health benefits of Chinese tea had resulted in a 7.04% annual market increase between

the years of 2004 and 2009. The demand for tea increased dramatically which was mainly due to the

tea development strategy, this including: implementing modern techniques to better extract tea, as

well as researches done into discovering more benefits of tea consumption. It is a good investment

idea since it has helped discover that bubble tea is popular amongst the young buyers, and is

currently spreading worldwide. It does not apply to any specific demographic as tea comes in many

forms that can be enjoyed by all. On the other hand, starting from scratch isn’t as easy as it seems;

starting a business afresh requires a high capital. The investment put into the business will be spent

on: venue rental, stocks, imported tea, packaging, labor, and marketing. A lot of money that will be

spent on the business is used for marketing so that people are aware of its existence. Moreover, not

everyone can just start a tea business, it is crucial that the shop has a tea master that is skilled and

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familiarized with the history of tea, characters, properties, science, and trends of tea leaves. The

staffs should at least know how to handle and package the tea leaves properly as well as how to

prepare and serve the tea.

Nature of Market

Both tea shops are categorized under perfect competition. ‘Perfect Competition’ is a market

structure which meet the following standards: all firms sell an identical product, have no control on

the market price of the products, have a relatively small market share, buyers have clear information

about the products sold and prices charged and, the industry has freedom of entry and exit. Due to

the many competitors in both areas, the shops are forced to set the prices according to the market

price. The market shares are small as the sales for Swee Tin, Ipoh is MYR 41,000 per month while

Chwan Deng Tea, Klang receives around MYR 30,000 per month. The tea industry produces about

18 billion dollars of revenue annually. The total market shares for both shops results in a minor

percentage in comparison to the tea industry annual revenue. In the long run, the shops gain only

normal profit.

Swee Tin Tea Merchant and Chwan Deng Tea Art Comparison Summary

Swee Tin Tea Merchant was established in 1942, by its founder Lee Kok Kong. The reason

the business set up was in memory of the owner’s father, whose original business unfortunately

failed back in China. The customers that buy from Swee Tin Tea are predominantly Malay, the

minority being Chinese, and they also sell their products to Chinese Kopitiam in Ipoh. The

strategies used by competitors to compete with Swee Tin Tea are in the following area which

concern quality, familiarity, modernism, packaging, and technology. For example, they had stated

that other businesses sell higher quality of leaves, sell brands that are well-known and ensures a

sense of safety when bought by customers, they are up-to-date with technological advances – some

competitors have a wide market due to online ordering, aesthetically attractive packaging (which

also reflect and markets business). As the employees had stated – it is quite difficult to enter the tea

market, as it depends on the level of experience the business (owner & employees) has, a lot of

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capital is required and in return the level of income may not meet expectation, and due to the

business’ location being in Ipoh (where coffee is valued highly) it show that in the area there is a

preference before tea. On the other hand, Chwan Deng Tea Art was established in 1999, the founder

being –unknown-. The business was bought and is currently run by a family, the two main owners

of the shop are sisters Tan Hoe Ling, Tan Hoe Sim. The ethnic backgrounds of the customers that

buy from Chwan Deng Tea Art are predominantly Chinese and the minority being Indian. The

strategies used by competitors to compete with Chwan Deng Tea Art are in the following areas

which concern opening up many branches, technology, providing services, and winning awards.

Chwan Deng Tea Art’s competitor, Purple Cane, has many branches across Malaysia and does not

have a limited market due easy to access to their website and order the items available. Moreover,

other competitors provide services other than products, such as, education on the art of Chinese tea,

and distributing award-winning tea leaves. In comparison, what we can differentiate from Swee Tin

Tea, Ipoh and Chwan Deng Tea Art, Klang is that Swee Tin Tea has more experience due to the

year of establishment (1942) – 57 years prior to the establishment of Chwan Deng Tea Art which

suggests that Swee Tin Tea has greater experience due to the business running for many years. The

location of business also affects the number of sales made, for example, Chwan Deng Tea Art is

located in Klang. Klang is an area in which Indians predominantly live; therefore, some of the tea

flavors available (such as Jasmine tea) are popular amongst the Indian-Malaysian buyers. On the

other hand, the set up location of Swee Tin Tea is in Ipoh - according to the culture in Ipoh – many

people favour coffee over drinking tea. Therefore, the amount of sales made may not be similar to

the amount of sales that Chwan Deng Tea Art due to the area the business is located in, and the taste

preference the people in the surrounding environment have. The area in which both Businesses can

relate is that they both do not have any branches, they do not provide services to their customers,

nor do they have a website to widen their market audience.

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Summary of Comparison Traits

Swee Tin Tea Merchant Chwan Deng Tea Art

Key founder Lee Yi Zhen Tan Hoe Sim

Tan Hoe Ling

Location Ipoh Klang

Products sold Lion tea

Fuk Luk Sau tea

Pu-erh tea

Oolong tea

Products Imported from China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka China, Taiwan

Customers Predominantly Malay and the minority being Chinese

Chinese kopitiams in Ipoh

Predominantly Chinese and and the minority being Indian

Number of branches — —

Number of competitors Four Eleven

Strategies applied to keep steady flow of customers

Pricing and promotions- the price is set lower- coupons are distributed to

customers- special promotions during

the holiday seasons (e.g. ‘buy 3 free 1’ deal)

Quality of tea leaves- mainly order tea leaves of

the best quality and brand- keep up with the latest

technology of storing and tea extracting

Management of tea leaves- up-to-date with the latest

advancements in tea and technology

- understand customers’ needs and offer a wide variety of tea supplies

Close contact with customers- notify loyal or regular

customers whenever new products arrives

Festive season gift sets- provide special sets of products

with attractive packaging

How often new products are released?

Every month Twice a month

Is pricing affected by competitors?

Yes Yes

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Swee Tin Tea Merchant Chwan Deng Tea Art

The price is set lower than the competitors

Set she price according to the market

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Recommendations

Swee Tin Tea Merchant

Some of the problems that Swee Tin Tea Merchant are location and lack of advertisements.

The first way to improve their problems that regards location is to study their audience. For

example, as stated before the people in Ipoh have a preference for coffee over tea. Therefore, they

could import coffee products or even use local beans to gain more customers. Secondly, Swee Tin

Tea could easily gain a lot of customers as its establishment year was in the 40’s, therefore, what

this suggests is that it is a reliable business and a trustworthy one as it has been running for many

years. However, people will not be aware of the business, its products or services if there is a lack

in selling strategy. Swee Teen Tin could easily improve their marketing by changing their

packaging, having an official website to widen their market, and to provide services such as

educating their customers on the history of tea.

Chwan Deng Tea Art

Chwan Deng Tea Art has similar problems. Majority of their products are favored by

Chinese-Malaysians, however, from what we found out is that the location in which it is set is

where the Indian-Malaysians predominantly live. Moreover, to gain more customers that could

import more Jasmine tea products as it is a popular flavor amongst the Indian-Malaysians.

Secondly, Chwan Deng Tea Art does not have any branches; therefore, it is difficult to gain

recognition with a business that is set up in one specific area only. Their number of customers will

always be limited due to them having no branches in Malaysia. Thirdly, Chwa Deng Tea could

easily provide their customers with services aside from tea products, they not only sell Tea utensils

but they have books on the different uses of tea leaves. That could easily be used to educate the

customers on what tea leaf would come in useful to them.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ling,W. (2001). Chinese tea culture: The origin of tea drinking. Malaysia: Pelanduk.

Tong,L. (2012). Chinese tea. New York: Cambridge university press.

Yun,L. (2009). Tao of chinese tea: A cultural and practical guide. China. Shanghai donnelley.

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APPENDICES

Swee Tin, Ipoh

Information of the Interviewee

NAME : Lee Mei Mei JOB POSITION : Sales Assistant OFFICE NUMBER : 05-2540943

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Chwan Deng Tea Art, Klang

Information of the Interviewee

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NAME : Chong Sze Yen JOB POSITION : Sales Assistant OFFICE NUMBER : 03-33440949

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Minutes of the Meeting| FEB INTAKE 2014 | ELG30605 | 022

DATE 1st November 2014

TIME 10am-3pm

VENUE Swee Tin Tea Merchant

ACTIVITY Interview (Ipoh)

DATE 11th November 2014

TIME 3pm-5.30pm

VENUE Chwan Deng Tea Art

ACTIVITY Interview (Klang)

NAMES OF GROUP MEMBERS TUTORIAL GROUP

Rozanna Farah Friday 8am-10am

Samaa Ismaeel

Tang Ju Yi Friday 8am-10am

Wong Carol Friday 8am-10am

Ang Wei Yi Wednesday 10am-12pm

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DATE 29th November 2014

TIME 10am-2pm

VENUE Block E3.09

ACTIVITY Watch interview video clip Do report

DATE 30th November 2014

TIME 10am-2pm

VENUE Block E3.09

ACTIVITY Make presentation slide

DATE 2nd December 2014

TIME 3pm-5.30pm

VENUE Block E3.08

ACTIVITY Rehearsal for presentation

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Interview Questions (Ipoh):

1. When was the business founded?

The business was founded in 1942.

2. Who are the key founders?

Lee Yi Zhen is the founder of Swee Tin Tea Merchant.

3. What prompted the founders to start this business?

The founder’s father was a tea business man in China but faced business failure. He wanted to start

over again the business that was set up in China by his father. He continued to use the ‘Swee Tin’

which was used by his father’s shop in China.

4. What are your main products?

Our main products are Chinese tea, Lion tea and Fuk Luk Sau.

5. Who are your customers?

Our customers are predominantly Malay and the minority being Chinese. We sell our products to

the Chinese kopijiams in Ipoh too.

6. What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

We gain less profit compared to last time.

7. How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

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No branches. However, there is a factory at first garden, Ipoh.

8. Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments?

The founder who was from China started up the business with a small stall. At first, they focused on

selling Chinese tea. After he moved to Malaysia, he started to sell Teh Tarik tea leaves as the locals

prefer this flavour.

9. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?

Our top 3 competitors are Thaitee Tea, Tork Shou Heong Tea Merchant and Purple Cane Tea

House.

10. Is the business constantly facing strong competition from other competitors? What strategies

have they used to compete with you?

We constantly face strong competition from them because they sell high quality tea leaves and they

provide better packagings. Besides that, they even have their own official website to promote their

products.

11. How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialised field of knowledge

do you need to run this business?

To run this business, we need to acquired the knowledge of mixing tea leaves

12. Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

It is not that easy to start the business because the cost required to start the business is high as we

need to purchase stocks, van for transportation, packagings such as boxes and rental fees.

13. How do you compete with your competitors i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert

customers away from your competitors?

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Although this market is highly competitive, what makes us unique is the experience we gained over

years.

14. How often do you release a new product (this assumes the business sells differentiated

products)?

We will keep our new products updated in a month.

15. Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors?

Yes. We need to set lower price than our competitors.

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Interview Questions (Klang):

1. When was the business founded?

Chwan Deng Tea Art was founded in 1999. It is a family run business which has been running for

over 15 years.

2. Who are the key founders?

Chwan Deng Tea Art’s key founders are the sisters, Tan Hoe Ling and Tan Hoe Sim. They bought

an existing tea business which was already generating cash flow and profits and took over it.

3. What prompted the founders to start this business?

They were from Subang, however at that time, Subang was not a developed area, hence the sisters

chose to attend a high school in Klang. The sisters started to develop interest in Chinese tea since

the tea drinking culture in Klang is so popular. After they graduated from high school, they bought

over an existing small tea company which was not very successful.

4. What are your main products?

80% of Chwan Deng Tea Art’s main products are Pu-erh tea which is produced in the Yunnan

district in the southwestern part of China. Oolong tea is another traditional Chinese tea, originating

in Southern China’s Fujian province which only constitute 20% of the products.

5. Who are your customers?

Our customers are mainly the Chinese people. We have had a few Indian customers too. Our target

audience is people at the age of 30 and above. However, recently, there are a lot of young people

who want to purchase Chinese tea from us.

6. What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

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About RM 30000 per month.

7. How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

We do not own any branches for this business. Starting a new branch will cost a lot because we

need to spend more on rent and operations.

8. Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments?

Recently, in year 2013, the sisters decided to move to a bigger shop as their business started to

expand and more stocks require more space. Things started to go smoothly as they have more space

to locate their stocks properly.

9. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?

The number of competitors in the Chinese tea market is increasing dramatically in the Klang Valley

area. Our top 3 competitors are Qui Xiang Tea Merchant, Taitee Tea Merchant, and Jit Ri

Enterprise.

10. Is the business constantly facing strong competition from other competitors? What strategies

have they used to compete with you?

Competition will be tough because there are local brands everywhere and many of them are long

established with a significant market share. For Taitee Tea Merchant, they are Malaysia’s premier

distributor of high- quality tea leaves. They are constantly making refinements and improvements to

satisfy the market demand for high-quality teas under the careful management and supervision of

their tea master. They have not just established themselves as Malaysia’s market leader and expert

in Oolong tea; they are influencing current and future trends in tea culture.

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11. How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialised field of knowledge

do you need to run this business?

To run this business, we need to know about the market price, types of tea leaves, benefits of tea

leaves to health and how to brew different kinds of tea leaves.

12. Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

It is hard to enter this market because Chinese tea is not well known in Malaysia since 1999.

However, in 2003, it became more popular when the tea leaves are brought to Taiwan from China.

Taiwanese start to promote the tea leaves to people all over the world including Malaysia.

13. How do you compete with your competitors i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert

customers away from your competitors?

We can clearly see that the Chinese tea market is highly competitive in Klang Valley area.

However, with our innovative approach to marketing, I think we can compete with them.

14. How often do you release a new product (this assumes the business sells differentiated

products)?

Our products will be updated twice in a month. As for the new product, we will scheme against

Chinese tea supplies to get different types of Chinese flavoured tea according to the seasons.

15. Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors?

Yes. Therefore, we usually try to set prices according to the market price.

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REFERENCE

1. Global Manufactural(2008) Swee Tin Tea Merchant Sdn Bhd. Retrieved from

http://www.gmdu.net/corp-734216.html

2. About to Thaiteetea.com. (2013, January 1). Retrieved December 2, 2014, from

http://www.thaiteetea.com/en/about.html

3. About us - Purple Cane eShop. (2014, January 1). Retrieved November 25, 2014, from

http://www.purplecane.my/en/content/4-about-us

4. Welcome to Tork Shou Heong. (2010, January 1). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from

http://www.torkshouheong.com.my/index.php

5. China's Tea: Trends and Growth 2012-2013. (2013, December 10). Retrieved November 22,

2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/…/chinas-tea-trends-and-growth-20…

6. Perfect Competition Definition | Investopedia. (2014, January 1). Retrieved November 21, 2014,

from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/perfectcompetition.asp

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