Getting to know Yu Kwok Chun

Yu was born in Indonesia, but his ancestors came from the city of Meizhou, Guangdong province. In 1959, his parents moved to Hong Kong. Yu finished primary school in Hong Kong, then got his secondary education in Canberra, Australia. Later he was admitted to Macquarie University, in Sydney, where he majored in accounting.

Yu returned to Hong Kong in 1974 to help his father with the family business, Yue Hwa Chinese Products and, over the next 40 years, created a unique range of Chinese products, which gained him the reputation of “King of Chinese Products”.

The company has 17 stores spread across various parts of Hong Kong, with a diverse range of products, and an annual turnover that runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Over time, Yue Hwa gradually got into the department store business on a considerable scale. It also moved into retail sales, trade, transport and warehousing, real estate (e.g. property management and rentals), and securities and capital investment. In addition to Hong Kong, it has branches in Singapore, the mainland, and Canada. The company’s flagship department store is on Hong Kong’s Jordan Rd and is the city’s largest department store.