FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Shawn Petersen helped Wana'ao Eldridge at the espresso bar, located in the new store Blue Hawaii Lifestyle in the new wing of Ala Moana Center.
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Selling health and aloha across the sea
Michael Zhang, owner of the new Blue Hawaii Lifestyle store at Ala Moana Center, is making it his personal mission to export local goods across the Pacific into the China market.
The flagship store opened on Friday among more than two dozen others in the new wing leading to the brand-new Nordstrom department store.
Besides a beverage bar offering Kona coffee, smoothies and acai bowls, the store sells deep-sea water, books, music and health and beauty products -- all of it made in Hawaii.
It will serve coffee in environmentally friendly cups, and offer free Wi-Fi. The motto is "Live Healthy Live Aloha."
"China is the perfect market to begin our branding of Hawaii's healthy, active lifestyle," said Zhang, CEO of Blue Hawaii Lifestyle and also owner of Blue Hawaii Surf. "There is a great need for the unique alternatives we offer."
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
The flagship Blue Hawaii Lifestyle store opened on Friday among more than two dozen others in the new wing leading to the new Nordstrom department store.
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Zhang, also the CEO of Blue Hawaii Surf and
CMC Consulting Group, is setting out to bring quality Hawaii products into the emerging markets of China.
"The containers come from China full," he said, "but they go back empty."
Zhang hopes to even out that imbalance by filling the containers going back to China full of Hawaii goods that promote a healthy lifestyle.
Among the dozen or so Made in Hawaii suppliers he's signed on are : Oils of Aloha, Waialua Soda Works, North Shore Soap Factory, seawater from Koyo USA Corp., Kona coffee from the Hawaii Coffee Co. and North Shore Noni from Kamauoha Farms.
Blue Hawaii Lifestyle will also offer music from the Mountain Apple Co. and hula supplies from kumu hula Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett.
The company is looking for still more suppliers that fit their criteria for quality and marketability. Those that have the state department of agriculture's Hawaii seal of quality are highly considered.
Zhang says there is a growing market for these Hawaii goods in China. Wealthy residents in China are seeking high-quality health products following the SARS scare, as well as vitamins and beauty products.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
The store carries many Made in Hawaii items -- such as bottles of Oils of Aloha, coffee from the Hawaii Coffee Co. and soap from North Shore Soap Factory -- which store owner Michael Zhang hopes to export to China, too.
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One of the current challenges of getting Hawaii products into the China market is to meet the Chinese government's Food and Drug Administration rules.
That process can sometimes take years, but Zhang is confident, having gone through the process for Hawaiian Host, he can get approvals within a year.
Zhang said he is using one of the largest food distribution companies in China to sell the goods.
A group of 15 private investors from Hawaii and the mainland put at least $1 million into the Blue Hawaii Lifestyle store at Ala Moana Center. Zhang says another group of private investors from China are putting $3 million into the stores he eventually plans to roll out in Shanghai.
Zhang says he's planning to open two new stores in Shanghai by 2009, including one in the fashionable Xin Tian Di district in downtown Shanghai. He hopes to eventually open six stores total in Shanghai and four in Beijing by 2011.
Unfortunately, no stores will be open in time for the Beijing Olympics this year. But Zhang said 70 million visitors are expected to attend the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
The long-term goal is 50 stores worldwide.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Michael Zhang, owner of the new Blue Hawaii Lifestyle store near Nordstrom, is planning to open outlets in Shanghai and Beijing that will sell locally made products.
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"This is my baby," he said of the project, which he eventually plans to take public five to seven years down the line.
Jerry Driscoll, owner and president of Hawaiian Bath & Body dba North Shore Soap Factory, was happy to be selected as a supplier. He noted the number of North Shore products featured at the store.
"I definitely see it as a great opportunity to build the brand of Made in Hawaii," said Driscoll.
Zhang, a native of Shanghai, speaks Shanghainese as well as Mandarin, the general language of business in China. He moved to Honolulu in 1990 with his wife, who was then a student at Hawaii Pacific University.
He acquired Blue Hawaii Surf 10 years ago when it went bankrupt and now has two retail stores -- one at Ala Moana and one at Waikele.
Jack Pitcher, formerly of Starbucks Hawaii, will be leading the lifestyle store's Hawaii division. Zhang has also assembled an advisory board of seasoned business leaders from both Hawaii and China.
"Definitely, the growth market is in this segment," said Zhang. "People want life and longevity. They want a healthy lifestyle."