The Kingway beer brand is owned by Kingway Brewery Holdings Limited (formerly known as Guangdong Brewery Holdings Limited), which is a listed company in Hong Kong (stock code: 124). Kingway Brewery Holdings Limited is a subsidiary of GDH Limited, the biggest Hong Kong-based enterprise owned by the Guangdong Provincial Government.
Applying traditional German brewing techniques, Kingway has made bold innovations to create a unique international light flavour on the basis of mellow taste. Over ten product series have been developed including Kingway Classic, Kingway Draft, Kingway Gold, Kingway 2008, and Kingway Green, which are mainly sold in the Guangdong market but are also distributed to more than 20 provinces, municipalities and cities like Tianjin, Sichuan, Xian, Guangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shaanxi and Heilongjiang, as well as Hong Kong, Macau and overseas markets such as south-east Asia, Canada and the Republic of Panama.
Specialising in brewing and selling beer, Kingway owns seven modern breweries with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tonnes each: Shenzhen Kingway Brewery Co Ltd, Shenzhen Kingway Brewing Co Ltd, Kingway Brewery (Shan Tou) Co Ltd, Kingway Brewery (Dongguan) Co Ltd, Kingway Brewery (Tianjin) Co Ltd, Kingway Brewery (Xian) Co Ltd, and Kingway Brewery Group (Chengdu) Co Ltd.
In January 2004, international brewery Heineken through Heineken-APB (China) Pte Ltd. became a strategic partner of Kingway and holds a 21 percent stake in the Company.
With the commencement of operation of our brewery plant in Foshan in January 2008, a total of 8 modern beer production facilities with an aggregated annual production capacity of 1.7 million tonnes are now in place to serve as a solid foundation for the Group's future development and profit.
Kingway's long-term objective is to develop into a brewery enterprise with an annual production capacity of more than 2.5 million tonnes of beer, annual sales volume of over 2 million tonnes of beer by 2014.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Kingway is the first brewery in China to obtain ISO9000 BSI certification. Undertaking "to make every bottle of beer flawless", Kingway has established a consumer-oriented quality assurance system. Accompanied by a healthy, safe and fashionable brand image, Kingway receives the admiration of a large number of consumers. In April 2005, Kingway was granted with HACCP, ISO14001 and OHSAS18001 certifications, becoming the first brewery in China to have passed the three certifications at the same time.
Kingway is reputed as "High-Tech Kingway" in the industry. Kingway's Green Technology application and research received state-level certification in March 2003, and was listed in June 2004 as a key scientific and technological project of the state by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Kingway took the lead in advocating brewing beer without adding formaldehyde. All of its subsidiary breweries use state-of-the-art brewing technologies and apply environmental considerations, thereby ensuring consistently good taste and quality.
Kingway beer received China Top Brand, Green Food and China Well-Known Trademark in 2002, 2004 and 2005 respectively. These awards helped elevate the Kingway brand from a regional brand to a national one.
Answering the call of the government to "build a conservation-minded society", Kingway uses its capabilities to the best advantage and intensively advocates environmentally-friendly production. Kingway has taken the lead in the industry in energy consumption indices and was designated "an example to follow" by the Shenzhen Municipal Government in July 2006.
In pursuit of the Company's mission "to provide consumers with their favourite beer" and "to make every bottle of beer flawless", Kingway exercises strict quality control over the whole production process from sourcing of raw materials to production and sale of beer, to ensure that no substandard product enters the production process thereby providing consumers with the highest quality beer.
Applying the new GDH culture of "Performance First, Efficiency First", Kingway has established its corporate culture centering on the values of "honesty, probity, harmony and efficiency". In November 2005, Kingway won the National Outstanding Corporate Culture Award 2005 granted by the Chinese Enterprise Confederation.
Kingway has a united management team. Mr.Ye Xuquan, chairman of the board of directors has won such honours as National Model Worker, Guangdong Model Worker, Guangdong's Top 10 Outstanding Young Persons, China's Top 10 Marketing Persons 2003, Top Ten Figures in Economical Industry in Guangdong 2005 and China's Top 100 Outstanding Persons in the Brewing Industry. He is also a lyric writer and the vice chairman of the Chinese Music Literature Association. His works like The Story of Spring and Always With You have helped him receive the national Five-One Project Award and the highest music prize – the Golden Clock Award.
THE PRODUCT
With the growing demand for a broad range of products in the Chinese beer market, Kingway is expanding aggressively – both in terms of production capacity and product diversification to cater to the preferences of mid-to-high end consumers.
Considerable effort is devoted to building the Kingway brand and promoting the product image, utilising the full gamut of media: books, videos, newspapers, magazines and art performing troupe.
The product range now includes the fuller taste Kingway 11°, Kingway 12° and Kingway Special 13° processed beers, the lighter Kingway 12° draught beer and the super-light 10° draught beer. All are available in large and standard bottles, cans and kegs.
Kingway's brewing facilities incorporate modern production and packaging technology. The technology includes saccharification and fermentation equipments are imported from Germany. The entire production process is automated. Other equipment imported from Germany include the bottle-filling production line, can-filling production line, automatic checking and control system, automatic measurement control and cleaning system, carton packaging line, draught beer keg production line, heavy oil boilers, industrial refrigerators, air-compressors, brewing water treatment equipment, carbon dioxide and waste yeast collection facilities.
The introduction of advanced production technology has helped Kingway increase the shelf life of all beer (other than draught) to 360 days after packaging. This is three times the preservation period prescribed under Chinese standards for beer production.
BRAND VALUES
Kingway employs more than 2,000 staff and strongly emphasises efficiency and productivity. Regular internal staff training courses are carried out and staff are encouraged to further their professional qualifications through external programmes. The staff performance appraisal system is part of a promote-from-within policy of the company. Staff are encouraged to choose an area for specialisation. The group also has a performance appraisal system and discretionary bonus scheme to reward individual achievement.
Both the management and production teams of Kingway are industry professionals of the highest standing. More than 80 percent of staff at management level are college graduates and more than 70 percent of the production team are technical school graduates.
The group's dedicated team of professionals takes pride in the timely delivery of superb quality products to customers. Their commitment, entrepreneurial spirit and innovative strategies are instrumental in helping the group maintain a leading position in the beer industry in southern China.
Kingway supports the endorsement of the country's environmental conservation efforts. Carbon dioxide released during fermentation is collected and reused in the carbonation process. The brewery's wastewater treatment system ensures that any liquid waste discharged will contain no toxin or residue detrimental to the environment.
Kingway beer leads the competition in terms of quality. To ensure consistent reliable quality, the group has forged strategic alliances with reputable suppliers of quality malt, husked rice and hops to supply all the ingredients needed for beer production. As, our management believes, ingredients are critical in determining the flavour, taste and aroma of beer, the group places sourcing of superior-quality ingredients as a high priority.
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