A REVOLUTIONARY COFFEE ARTISAN

HKUST benefits its students well beyond just academics. sensory ZERO's co-founder and Chief Brand Officer Alvin Hui is a perfect example; make no mistake, his ability to crunch numbers as a BBA graduate in finance was never in doubt, and set him up well for his career.

Graduating during the dot-com bubble era, Alvin eschewed the then-popular technology businesses and found himself in various procurement management positions of leading hospitality companies, including 5-stars hotels and chain restaurants. "I was one of the rare F&B professionals during that decade who understood the fundamentals of accounting, balance sheets, cash flows and so on," Alvin remembers. Not only did that make him invaluable to his employers, it also instilled the importance of keeping an eagle eye on financial accounts.

Alvin notes, "A lot of indie coffee shops fail because the owners don't know how to handle basic accounting, and before they know it, their ventures are hemorrhaging cash and are forced to shut down." Together with his partner at sensory ZERO, Dixon Ip, Alvin applies business best practices in running Hong Kong's standout specialist coffee chain—it's surely one of the top reasons why sensory ZERO is still operating since its founding in 2014.

Going back to how HKUST helped him, Alvin comments it was a professor there whose love for the black drink introduced Alvin to a new world. Likewise, any customer who visits sensory ZERO's Wong Chuk Hang headquarter branch can't help but notice the strong Japanese motifs throughout the shop. "I'm a big fan of martial arts. I was HKUST's Judo Team Captain and was awarded the university's Best Athlete in 2000. I trained as a professional judo coach at the Kodokan in Japan (considered the headquarters of global judo) during university," Alvin says. A black belt in multiple fighting disciplines, Alvin also doubles as a MMA instructor.

When asked what distinguishes his coffee chain from others in Hong Kong, Alvin quickly responds: "We use big data and science to apply the best attributes of our customers' favorite coffee uniformly across our products. Too often, top coffee roasters keep all the recipes and techniques in their heads, and when they retire, the special coffee they once made also disappears with them. That’s not what we want here at sensory ZERO."     

Alvin is keen to chat about his company's overseas expansion plans, but he has another appointment to keep—at the large ring nestled at the corner of the Wong Chuk Hang location. Yes, a coffee shop with a fighting ring. Clearly, Alvin is not your average specialist coffee operator.