Portugália jumps into Macau market with MOP10 million investment

Portuguese beerhouse chain Portugália celebrated its grand opening of the company last Friday, and expects to be operational in the territory this week, although some pending legal issues could delay the opening to the end of the month. The expansion to Macau has been tied to part of the 90th anniversary celebrations of the group.
“Macau is a territory where the Portuguese presence is very strong and it’s a place where Portuguese gastronomy is very much appreciated.
Having considered many destinations to invest abroad, we decided to choose Macau because it offers the best conditions”, Francisco Carvalho Martins, the Chairman of Portugália, said.
The initial investment of the company in Macau is around MOP10 million, with the group leasing a three-storey a building from Macau company Sniper Capital in Taipa.
“We chose this building because of its Portuguese architecture. That was the main factor for our option because we believe that this building is the best to transmit the values of our company”, Mr. Martins explained.
As a Portuguese beerhouse the company will for obvious reasons target the Portuguese community. The goal, however, is to attract local residents and many tourists.
“There are a lot of expectations by the Portuguese community in Macau and we hope to serve them as they are used to. But we want to have all kinds of clients, not only Portuguese, but Macau locals and Chinese tourists”, Martins said.
For the time being the group is only opening one beerhouse but the objective is to expand to other areas of Macau, including the big shopping malls in casinos. The presence in the territory may also be a first step to entering other regions such as Mainland China or other countries.
“We’re considering opening beerhouses in casinos. We wouldn’t travel 12,000 kilometres just to open one restaurant. Our project is to create a local group and that includes opening beerhouses inside the gaming resorts that attract many visitors”, he explained. “We’re considering existing resorts and the new ones being constructed. At this moment, we’re in touch with the gaming operators and so we prefer not to talk much about it. We’re studying all options”, he said.
At a time when hiring local residents is a problem for every company in Macau, Portugália is no different, especially when competing with big corporations.
“We’ve brought qualified people from Portugal in order to make sure our project Is a success but we’re also hiring local people. We want to create a mixed team with Portuguese people that will transmit the values of the company to the locals and other employees”, he said.