Chinese coffee entrepreneur in Macau plans expansion to meet caffeine needs of the bay area
- Charles Shi, a Chinese businessman with overseas interests, recently set up a coffee factory in Macau, aided by a government scheme to lure foreign investment
- The 68-year-old now aims to expand capacity and eventually sell his Café Diliy brand to other cities in the bay area
Chinese businessman Charles Shi is a heavy coffee drinker, typically downing six to eight espressos per day. His big appetite for the caffeinated pick-me-up led him to set up a coffee processing plant in Macau last year.
With the help of the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), which helps foreign investors set up businesses in the enclave, his Charlestrong Coffee Factory started to process organic coffee beans grown in East Timor in May this year.
“I noticed the high quality coffee in [East Timor] when I visited there. I grabbed the opportunities as producers there have not found a market,” said Shi, the chairman of Charlestrong Coffee.
“My coffee is mainly targeted at tourists. It is a unique Macau souvenir.”
Shi, who comes from Heilongjiang’s capital city, Harbin, is looking for another, much larger, industrial space to expand his coffee production capacity.
Existing annual production at his 7,000 square-foot factory is about 300 tonnes, but he wants somewhere of 50,000 to 60,000 sq ft that can handle maximum production of 5,000 tonnes per year using larger roasting machines.
The total investment in the venture would be about 30 million patacas (US$3.76 million), he said.
