On 14 June, the British Consulate-General of Shanghai held a party breaking a Guinness world record with its partner Sanpower Group—735 people enjoyed English cream tea at the same time to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Queen of England in a truly British style.

At this big party of Chinese and British cultural exchange, Sanpower elements such as House of Fraser, Hamleys, Brookstone, and Natali were outstanding and became the focus of the event.

Sanpower supported the English cream tea party with 735 people to break the Guinness record

As an old friend of the British Consulate-General of Shanghai, Sanpower Group took part in the birthday party with two big British brands: House of Fraser and Hamleys. The Chairman of Sanpower Group, Yuan Yafei, Senior Vice President of Sanpower Group Yue Lei, CEO of House of Fraser in China, Kong Jun, CEO of Hamleys in China, Huang Jiaqiang, and others attended the party to offer congratulations.

Chairman of Sanpower Group Yuan Yafei made a speech as a special guest. He first congratulated the Queen for her 90th birthday with best wishes of good health and a happy life. “I took part in Prince William’s personal banquet last Wednesday and I told the Prince that I will join the celebratory activity for the Queen held in Shanghai on the 14th day. The Prince was very happy and entrusted me to say hello to everyone on behalf of him.”

Yuan Yafei introduced the indissoluble bond between Sanpower Group and the UK. In April 2014, a listed company, Nanjing Cenbest of Sanpower, acquired a department store brand with a 167-year history in the UK—House of Fraser (HoF). HoF created the best sales record in history in those 167 years. In March 2015, Yuan Yafei visited the “Elephant Sanctuary” in Yunnan with Prince William. Later, they established the Wildlife Protection Foundation together. In October 2015, a strategic partner of Sanpower acquired a British toy brand with a 256-year history — Hamleys.

“Now we are making preparations for introducing House of Fraser and Hamleys to China. In October this year, their first flagship stores in China will have grand openings in Nanjing’s Xinjiekou district.”

At about 20 past 5 that afternoon, 750 people joined the English cream tea party together on the grass of InterContinental Shanghai Ruijin. Except for 15 people who didn’t join in, 735 people enjoyed English cream tea, which broke a Guinness World Record. The former record was created in September last year in the UK, with 691 people.

“Thank you for helping us to achieve this feat. You are winners of the Guinness World Record title.” Consul-General in Shanghai John Edwards said m at the ceremony, before giving Sunpower Group a special thank you for its full support.

Sanpower version “Business 4.0” bloomed at Xinjiekou in October

“House of Fraser and Hamleys have both enjoyed a history of more than one hundred years and they are still vibrant now.” Yuan Yafei noted in the media interview. Adding that the reason why offline business always develops well in foreign countries is that the foreign offline business forms a very mature business model. Compared with existing domestic shopping models – such as the “supermarket model”- it really provides a unique experience for customers.

Yuan Yafei noted that Sanpower will introduce advanced business models and management systems, such as an own-bought (buyers) system, House of Fraser’s supply chain system, the themed settings and interactive experiences of Hamleys to provide more spiritual and experience value for customers, leading the new trend in Chinese business and opening a new era of “Business 4.0”.

“Our opening of stores in China at this time is not a traditional copy of a foreign store to China, but a development and an accumulation of its methods in China.” Yuan Yafei explained, as he expressed his full confidence in the development of House of Fraser and Hamleys in China.

You could say that the cream tea party on the 14th day was an introduction to British culture and products. Activities were prepared for children at the party with the theme of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Two big British brands brought by Sanpower Group—House of Fraser and Hamleys—added British atmosphere to the site. These two big brands will come to China in October this year, with the first stores located at the No. 1 shopping destination in Nanjing’s Xinjiekou district.

The highlights of the two big brands became the focus of media. Yue Lei, Senior Vice President of Sanpower Group said that “the biggest highlights are differentiation of our service, British style of our brands and the experience of our themed settings.” Yue Lei also noted that House of Fraser planned to introduce nearly 300 brands, in which more than 50 brands came to China for the first time. “At the same time, there is also the part played by local designer brands representing oriental elements in brand planning.”

Yue Lei also noted that “since Sanpower entered the UK, besides great results in business development, it has had a tremendous achievement in public welfare and people-to-people diplomacy. The relationship between Sanpower and the UK is growing deeper and better.”

The buyers system is one of House of Fraser’s trump cards. However, buyers companies have emerged in large numbers in China at present. What are the advantages of House of Fraser’s buyers system?

The CEO of House of Fraser in China, Kong Jun, said that House of Fraser has a history of more than one hundred years and has established long-term business partnerships with many European and global brands. Its reputation, resources and partnership are its unique advantages. “Long-term partnership makes us more trustworthy and also makes the cooperation process more harmonious.”

Meanwhile, Hamleys will enter China together with House of Fraser, and the first store will be opened at Orient Fraser in Xinjiekou with a business area of nearly 7,000 m2. It will be the largest toy store in China.

The CEO of Hamleys in China, Huang Jiaqiang, told reporters that customers of Hamleys are based on the 2-12-year-old group. However, if a boy wants to send cute presents to his girlfriend, there are suitable choices here. “Different from other toy stores, Hamleys will teach customers to play with toys and enable customers to discover the pleasure of toys during play.”

“Sanpower elements” caught your eyes

Besides many British elements, “Sanpower elements” also caught the eye of guests at the grandest cream tea party in history. House of Fraser (HoF) offered the Queen a present of huge “flowers and cards”. The flowers scented the air. HoF also invited British supermodels to support the party, providing a dreamy atmosphere and adding more British fashion. Two modern grandmas selected by Nataly attended the party and took photos in front of the “flowers and cards”.

As a well-known toy retailer with a history of 256 years, Hamleys also led children to experience the wonders of the toy world. While introducing the Hamleys toy store, the huge talking tree in the exhibition area interacted with children at the site. Huge dolls attracted guests to interact with each other and take photos. They had lots of fun. Besides these, 200 Hamleys toy bears were also given out at the party, they were quickly snapped up.

Hisap Brookstone also sent out an Alpha robot dancing band and UAV “Flying Tigers” to make an impressive show of support for the Queen’s birthday. The entrance of the party was not a rabbit hole, but it was also full of fairy tale flavour. The entrance was a “Huge Cat Ear Headphones Door” with the popular product Cat Ear Headphones of Brookstone as its model sample.

Cute children were attracted by the sand paste of Brookstone at the exhibition stand. This environmentally friendly and non-toxic sticky sand enabled the lovable kids to develop their imaginations freely.