His company has started with seven staff members – and Chinese entrepreneur Anthony Liu says it’s just the beginning.
Liu set up Art Best Design Ltd. (ABD Canada) in Squamish on Queens Way to design and produce cosmetic displays for international companies such as L’Oreal, Lancôme and Dior. In an interview with The Squamish Chief, he said he first heard of Squamish in 2010 while watching the Vancouver Olympics and visited in 2011. Through an interpreter, he said, “I thought it would be a good place to have a business, and I also wanted to live here. It is a very beautiful city, the air and the people are so nice. You could not find that in China.”
Liu had also considered Vancouver or Whistler, but preferred Squamish for both the scenery and the friendly people at the district office, he said.
In 2013, he was approved for immigration to Canada and moved from Shanghai to West Vancouver, where he still lives with his family, commuting to his office in the industrial park in Squamish. He hopes to eventually move to town with his wife and 13-year-old twins, a girl and a boy who already speak English well.
ABD employs five full-time and two part-time staff at its local site, where display units to showcase high-end cosmetic products are designed, produced and shipped across North America.
Liu said his company initially had some troubles finding the right people to hire. “Our quality is really good, so the employees need high skill levels in production, and also, we had to send our designer to China to get training. Right now, we have a good team.”
The company’s international arm, Grand Beauty Display, has a large factory in Shanghai and offices in other locations serving international cosmetic companies, and Liu has big plans for the Squamish plant.
“In the future, it will be a big factory in Squamish, the biggest,” he said.
ABD’s main focuses are innovation and manufacturing, and it has recently partnered with a local tech company Liu is not yet naming because the products have not been unveiled.
He also has another company, EPZ, with a 50,000-square-foot warehouse in the free trade zone in Shanghai where he can import goods to China including, possibly, Squamish products – but Liu has been too busy with ABD to pursue that business, for now.
“He is offering the opportunity for Squamish people to access the Chinese market,” explained entrepreneur David Crewson. “He’s not focussed on that, but he has the opportunity.”
Operating a business in Canada, Liu has enjoyed the different work culture and noted the public concern with environmental issues.
“In China, everyone works hard to make money – there is no personal life. Now I can enjoy life, even if it’s a snow day or a rain day,” he remarked.
“The most important thing I need to learn from the Canadian people is how to protect the environment, because here, everyone really cares about the environment…. It’s the most important thing.”
