In the 1990s, Lassonde’s partnership with Thailand was going strong, when a new opportunity knocked in the vast Asian marketplace. China was opening its doors to Western investors, many of whom would race over there in the next decade. Lassonde, the Thai company Tipco Juice and a foreign investor decided to form a consortium with a head office in Hong Kong. The goal was to set up and run joint venture companies with local partners in the fruit juice and nectar sectors.

Beijing was chosen as the location for the first factory, which really had to be built from scratch. Lassonde’s first generation Hypa packaging equipment was dismantled in Rougemont and reassembled in an abandoned dynamite depot where there was literally nothing. What a challenge!

But the biggest hurdles were those faced by Lassonde’s engineers and technicians who were dispatched to China. Some knew enough English to get by at airports and hotels, but how they would fare in small local restaurants was anyone’s guess. No one had even a smattering of Mandarin. Some had never even travelled outside Quebec and their first plane ride was a long haul flight with stopovers to the country famous for its Great Wall. And with wives and children at the other end of the earth, telephone bills were also sky high!

Lassonde continued to operate in China for about 10 years. This Asian adventure had its ups and downs, but the plucky team who experienced the culture shock of a sojourn there returned with memories of lifetime.

Next column: A snapshot in time…