CH’NG Poh Tiong
Founder & Managing Director of Malt & Wine Asia Alex Yong
Alex Yong is one of the region’s most experienced pair of hands.
The Singaporean has two qualities crucial for success and, just as importantly, sustaining that success.
Alex Yong possesses vision and tenacity.
Vision cuts through all that noise. Vision alone is not sufficient if there is no perseverance to stay the course. We may have to tweak our original plans and methodology to achieve the vision but unless there is dogged willpower to hold the line, that vision will vaporise before our very eyes.
Having worked for others for nearly two decades, in June 2018, Alex Yong founded Malt & Wine Asia.
“Spirits represents 60% and wine 40% in the company. This month (March 2022), we are starting a joint-venture in Vietnam based in Ho Chi Minh City. We are also currently looking at Indonesia,” Yong informed.
Malt & Wine Asia spirits portfolio
Apart from vision and perseverance, loyalty is another trademark of Alex Yong.
In the span of 20 years, he was essentially working for companies that had more or less metamorphosed from the previous one he was serving.
In 1999, Alex Yong entered the wine and spirits world by joining Remy Singapour as their Sales & Marketing Manager. In 2005, the company morphed to become Maxxium South-East Asia. Yong remained, becoming Sales & Marketing Director and Regional Wine Manager for the region.
Maxxium SEA was owned jointly by Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Remy Cointreau, the Edrington Group, and Vin & Spirit.
When Beam Global Asia was established in 2010, Alex Yong joined them as Country Manager and Duty-Free Director for SEA/Hong Kong. Later, when Beam Suntory was created in 2015, be became their General Manager for South-East Asia and later their Director of Market Development for Emerging Asia.
Malt & Wine Asia wine portfolio
Just as a spirit becomes remarkable after spending a long time maturing, evolving in the same oak cask, so too the career path of Alex Yong. In some 20 years, he has looked after and advanced the reputation of some of the world’s most iconic spirits.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that in the short span of four years, Malt & Wine Asia has secured the trust and distribution of some of the most prized names in the beverage industry.
