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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - DECEMBER 2012
C
ANADA’ S SMALLEST PROV-
INCE ,
PEI, has long been
known as the home of some of Cana-
da’s most storied brands and products:
COWS Ice Cream, legendary PEI lob-
ster, and of course, Anne of Green Ga-
bles.
There are these successful brands,
and then, there are the companies
who make these names and products
known to the rest of the world. Sunrise
Group, led by Frank Zhou, is narrow-
ing the divide between two very differ-
ent commercial markets: Canada, and
China. And Sunrise Group’s success is
showing “how it’s done”—capitalizing
on the Eastern and Western market-
places.
INTEGRATING INTO A NEW
CULTURE
Frank Zhou, President of Sun-
rise Group, came to PEI in 2004. His
intent was to visit PEI, and then move
on to Toronto, as he had big plans to
launch services with his company in
Canada. At the time, it was winter, and
Zhou reflects that it was very cold and
snowy on the island. However, curi-
osity got the better of Zhou, who on
the recommendations of new friends,
stayed to experience the PEI summer.
“
I just fell in love with this place,”
Zhou recalls.
Sunrise Group already had sever-
al clients, but Zhou knew more could
be done in the PEI business landscape.
“
I felt that the people were the attrac-
tion of PEI—real Canadians. Coming
from Beijing, this global centre, where
there are 5 million cars on the streets,
and then coming to PEI: this was the
perfect combination that suited our
lifestyle,” he adds.
SUNRISE EXPERTISE
Sunrise Group started relatively
small in PEI. However, now the com-
pany operates five different business
units. The Sunrise Group of Compa-
nies includes: Sunrise Consulting,
Sunrise Innovation, Sunrise Immigra-
tion and Investment, COWS Ice Cream
(
China) and Suneast Auto .
Sunrise Consulting is the com-
pany dedicated to sharing Canadian
companies with Chinese markets, and
vice versa. The company provides
business development and manage-
ment consulting expertise to a variety
of client types: associations, govern-
ments and educational institutions
throughout Canada and China—as
well as businesses large and small.
Services include strategic planning,
business advisory services, interna-
tional business matchmaking, program
review and evaluation, situational
analysis, industry and competitive
environmental scans, quantitative and
qualitative market research, and trade
mission organization.
“
I felt that the people
were the attraction of
PEI—real Canadians.”
