Jeff Wong

Proprietor

Jeff Wong currently resides in Vancouver, B.C. Jeff has over 25 years experience in retail sales and over 15 years experience in retail liquor as a retailer of liquor and as a supplier.

Jeff has currently owns and operates 3 wine stores in the lower mainland. The Yaletown store as been in operation for 6 years, White Rock for 2 years and Maple Ridge is just 9 week young. Each store has a full time manager and a sales staff of 5-6 qualified sales associates.

Jeff’s retail liquor experience comes from his days at Liquor Barn as the Director of Operations and then with Liquor Barn Income Fund as the Chief Operations Officer. Jeff was successful at taking Liquor Barn public in May 2006. The company was then successful in acquiring 23 liquor stores in Alberta and BC to bring the total store count to 81 with over $150 million in store sales. The company was also successful in selling its assets to its biggest competitor, Liquor Stores Income Fund, one year later. Jeff was instrumental in integrating the original 58 stores to a single company platform operating under one banner. The integration cost $2.2 million dollars and was completed on time and on budget.

Jeff’s start on the liquor supplier side was with Labatt Breweries of Canada, now called AmBev (formally InBev and Interbrew). He joined Labatt in 1999 as a sales representative and was quickly noted as a top performer. He was promoted to a Territory Manager six months later. Jeff’s hard work and his understanding of the restaurant, pub and nightclub industry helped him win client business in the on-premise channel. He then worked diligently to understand the retail business by conducting needs’ assessments for his clients and assisted in providing win-win solutions for both. Jeff achieved the Labatt top sales performer for Western Canada and the overall title of Top sales person in 2002, beating out 500 other sale personnel; he was runner up in 2003. He was then promoted to head office as Retail Key Account Manager for Alberta and BC. He managed the big liquor chains, Liquor Stores Income Fund, Liquor Barn, RCLS, Safeway, Coop, Sobey’s Spirits, Liquor Merchants, Berezen group, and the Crown group.

Prior to Labatt, Jeff owned and operated several restaurants, pubs and nightclubs in Winnipeg, MB. Jeff operated restaurants from $1.0 – $5.0 million dollars in sales. All of these businesses were sold.

Jeff has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Manitoba, and an MCSE from Microsoft. He worked briefly in the cosmetic industry in research and development. He then decided his passion was in retail.