A Johnnie Walker House exhibition hall. Liquor giant Diageo has been increasing its investment in China's second- and third-tier cities, where the rapidly expanding economy has generated great demand for foreign spirits. [Photoes provided to China Daily]

Managing director seeks to develop a taste for Scotch tipple among nation's alcohol lovers

SHANGHAI - Joseph Tcheng, a Hong Kong-born British, is a lucky man. He loves what he sells. His greatest challenge, of course, is to convince the people he tries to sell to.

Judging by the results, he has done quite well. In alcohol-loving China, sales of whisky and cognac have soared over the past several years.

The cognac market in China grew by 17.5 percent last year to 1.9 million cases, according to The IWSR Spirits in China Report 2011. Whisky, meanwhile, grew by a more modest 2.8 percent in 2010.

As managing director of liquor giant Diageo's Greater China business, Tcheng developed his love for whisky in his 20s.

During his university days in the UK, the Hong Kong businessman cultivated a taste for Black Label, one of the most popular brands of Diageo's Johnnie Walker family, and he has kept drinking it along with dinner or at business occasions for the last 30 years.

"It's the flavor that I first tasted at a young age and I have been fond of it ever since," the 56-year-old businessman said. "I like its refreshing taste when diluted with two portions of soda. It's quite suitable to sip it in highball glasses with meals."

Tcheng is also a fan of Guinness, the company's Irish dry stout beer.

In a similar way to how the managing director developed his appreciation of Scotch whisky, Diageo wants to cultivate an international spirits culture in China, where the younger "Generation-Y" types, who are more familiar with the Internet and expat communities, and the status-conscious wealthy are increasingly exposed to foreign drinking habits.

One of the distiller's focuses in China is the so-called super-deluxe market as the nation's economy is set to grow more than three times faster than the US and Europe this year.

Currently, the British distiller runs a wide range of brands in China, including Johnnie Walker, Windsor, Baileys, Smirnoff and Guinness. It is especially well positioned to win in the Scotch whisky sector: Johnnie Walker has acquired about a 30 percent share of China's whisky market by volume, or 6 percent behind its rival Pernod's Chivas Regal.

"The gap was much larger before," Tcheng said.