Top executives of Wing On and others discuss products that will be shipped to China in a meeting at the Americo Toronto wholesale store on Aug 7. From left: Zheng Ping, CEO of Wing On; Yan Dongsheng, CEO of Shanghai Zendai Investment Development Corp; B. J. Moroney, general manager of Wing On; Hans Cai, associate at Anjie Law Firm; and Lu Mingguang, founder and president of Wing On. NA LI / CHINA DAILY

It has taken about 20 years, but Wing On New Group Canada Inc (Wing On), has transformed from focusing on exporting retail items from China to Canada and the United States, to becoming a major supplier of North American-branded products to China.

Established in 1996 by Chinese immigrant Lu Mingguang, Wing On has developed into a leading food and consumer products trading company in Canada by building partnerships with international suppliers such as J.D. Irving, Costco Wholesale and Hudson’s Bay.

Wing On created a new online-to-offline business with the development of Americo to link domestic and international markets that serve different consumers.

The first Americo wholesale business opened at the end of 2014 in China's Tianjin duty-free trade zone. After launching six Americo stores in mainland China — in Tianjing, Beijing, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou and Wuhan — Wing On opened its first Americo nutrition store in Toronto on Aug 7 in Markham.

“We provide the consumers a super shopping experience combining online and offline. The opening of the Toronto store is the first step for us to expand in Canada,” said Zheng Ping, CEO of Wing On. “We will open more stores in Los Angeles, New York and other cities in North America.”

Wing On collaborated with JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce site, to offer Chinese shoppers brand-name products from Canada and US companies online and offline.

“We recognize that JD.com is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in China. It does about $18 billion a year,” Brendon J. Moroney, general manager of Wing On told China Daily. “We just met with JD a week ago in New York. We are trying to figure out how to sell more North American goods to China from the Chinese perspective.”

“Leveraging China’s e-commerce free-trade zones and our own logistics network, we offer international brands a direct channel to Chinese consumers with preferential tax rates to make prices highly competitive,” said Lu.

“We have been worked with Wing On for more than five years. We sell them paper products, diapers and french fries. We are very happy to help them to build business, and they do great job for us. China is our largest customer right now,” said Ed Lamoureux, director of Corporate Business Relations at Irving Consumer Products, one of North America’s leading manufacturers of household paper goods and baby diapers.

Yan Dongsheng, CEO of Shanghai Zendai Investment Development Corp, joined the opening ceremony as the main investor of Wing On. “Our investment focuses on the global supply chain and helps China e-commerce companies to be the strong international traders. We fully support Wing On to develop the e-commerce business as it provides mutual benefits for both sides,” he said.

Yan said Americo's wholesale e-commerce business will contribute to building a market where Chinese consumers can purchase quality products, and that Americo's business will spark competition, which will help accelerate domestic suppliers to improve the quality of products.

“China can no longer depend on selling low-value-added goods to consumers for economic growth.” Yan added.

renali@chinadailyusa.com