A Newcastle vegan snack producer is breaking into the Chinese market with help from another firm in the North East.
Vegan snack company Cheeky P’s, which was founded by Malaysian siblings Gregory and Gracia Goh, is selling its chickpea snacks through the Great British Food Store on the country’s largest social media platform, WeChat.
The Great British Food Store, which was set up by the Business West chamber of commerce, sells 20 UK food and drink brands on the platform, which has a user base of 1.2bn.
Mr Goh said: “The WeChat initiative marks one of our early export opportunities to the market which is really exciting.
“Since the initiative, we have been receiving interest from the region about Cheeky P’s which we feel speak volumes about the versatility and appeal of our snacks.”
The company’s snacks have been shipped to China and re-labelled in Chinese by North Tyneside logistics group Elanders. The snacks are shipped to Elanders bonded warehouse in Shanghai, allowing customers to have orders delivered within 24 hours.
Elanders managing director Kevin Rogers said: “This cross-border ecommerce offers the simplest model for UK brands to sell to Chinese consumers and expand their export footprint.
“As the Chinese travel, they get a taste and palate for foreign goods, and they have a really good affinity with the UK. They see British products as having heritage and high quality.
“This initiative by Business West is right on the money because e-commerce in China is just insane. They buy everything online and WeChat is a very powerful tool.”
