Denise The Wine Shop To Expand To China, Thailand

Denise The Wine Shop, Malaysia's very own wine chain and reputedly the largest in South-East Asia, will soon expand its horizons to China and Thailand, said founder David Lim.

The company, which currently has 19 stores in Malaysia, set foot in Singapore slightly more than a year ago as part of its overseas expansion and managed to open 17 outlets in just 14 months, he said.

Following this intoxicating success, he now wants to look at franchising in the China market but will invest up to RM3 million to open his own stores in Thailand.

"China and Thailand are definitely in our radar right now. We are doing studies and as long as the economic conditions are good, we'll go there this year itself.

"In Thailand, we may only go for three solid spots this year itself; we've identified two locations in Bangkok and one in Phuket," he told Bernama in an interview.

Lim began dabbling in the wine business after the Asian financial crisis in 1998 despite experiencing a few ups and downs in other businesses earlier. It was a right decision as Malaysians drink about RM100 million worth of wines annually.

Despite admitting that he knew very little about wine until he met his wife, he persevered and opened his first Denise The Wine Shop in SS2 Petaling Jaya in 2001.

"Perseverance is essential in any business," Lim said, adding that he chose 'Denise' as it was the French name for the Greek goddess of wines, Dionysus.

Asked on his formula for success, he said quality control was of utmost importance.

"This way we gain the customers' trust and they have complete confidence in the fact that, whenever they purchase a bottle of wine, they are assured of nothing less than the very best," he explained.

The second crucial success factor was the quality of employees who must have the passion and right attitude for the business, he said.

Besides having a "hands-on" attitude, he said, bosses should also treat employees the way they would like to be treated.

Lim said half of the Denise stores in Malaysia were owned by individuals through exclusive distributorship and the rest were owned by his company.

"We are not in a mad rush in Malaysia anymore. Sabah is probably the only last frontier we're looking at locally. But we will still work towards working out concession agreements with supermarkets like Jusco," he said.

At present, Denise has a concession store each in Jusco Taman Maluri (Kuala Lumpur), Jusco Bukit Tinggi (Klang) and Jusco Tebrau City (Johor).

"For Malaysia this year, we will focus on refurbishing our own stores, (there will be) no more openings. It will be more on strengthening the existing stores," he said.

Asked on its operations in Singapore, Lim said the first two years were the initial investment period where he would try to establish the brand for long-term profits.

He said the venture into Singapore was supported by Swiss investors, who had invested close to RM34 million on the whole project.

On its previous plan to market wine in mass rapid transit stations there, he said this did not go through as the consumer demographics were deemed not suitable.

Denise currently markets about 600 labels from all over the world and intends to increase to 1,000 labels within the next three months.

The ever-optimistic Lim firmly holds the belief that every Asian dining table will eventually serve wine at least once every other day.

"Currently ladies are the driving force for wines in Malaysia ... but we hope to expand that scope soon," he said.