You Tiao Man began out as a humble hawker stall that sells fried you tiao (Chinese language-style fried dough sticks) within the 1940s. It’s presently situated in Toa Payoh, and is likely one of the only a few hawker stalls that make recent dough from scratch.

It’s based by fourth-generation hawker Audrey Chew, who’s now 37. The Nanyang Technological College (NTU) graduate beforehand labored in “one of many prime buying and selling companies on this planet” and after spending 5 years working in China, she lastly returned to Singapore in 2017.

Upon her return, she realised that a lot of issues have modified through the years.

“Among the traditional meals that I used to like as a little one had been already fading out, and I felt that it is extremely necessary to protect our hawker heritage. The hawker tradition is such an integral a part of our each day lives and if we don’t revive it, most of the recipes and crafts of the previous will probably be misplaced in our era,” she stated.

“So at 32 years previous, I made a decision to begin a enterprise that may change the best way individuals understand and eat traditional meals. I needed to modernise methods and enterprise methodologies to rejuvenate a traditional trade.”

At this time, You Tiao Man is certainly one of Singapore’s largest you tiao producers, with business-to-business (B2B) prospects together with resorts, caterers, eating places, cafes, meals courts, espresso outlets, hawkers, e-commerce companies and supermarkets.

She began manufacturing her personal you tiaos

With none prior expertise in F&B or manufacturing, she took a leap of religion to begin up her personal you tiao manufacturing enterprise that very same 12 months.

Within the early days, she would go to a number of eating places and corporations in a day to speak to cooks and restaurant homeowners, and promote her product to them. Their reactions weren’t at all times constructive — some took pity on her and tried to take heed to her pitch, many had been “amused” at her, however most shoo-ed her out of their workplaces and kitchens.

These rejections motivated me and made me a stronger individual. They remind me that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Rejections encourage us to work tougher to realize our targets. I’m usually reminded that if I can obtain one per cent extra every day, then I might be 30 per cent higher off after a month, and 365 per cent higher off in a 12 months.

– Audrey Chew, founding father of You Tiao Man

Moreover dealing with fixed rejection within the early days, Audrey additionally labored exhausting to construct up their fame as “dependable suppliers who behaved with integrity, listened deeply, and handled prospects with respect.”

“If there was a final minute order from a buyer, I might fulfil it regardless of if it was 10pm or on Christmas eve. If there was a robust and demanding buyer, I might do my greatest to serve them with sincerity and a smile. If there was a buyer grievance about my (product) high quality, I might give a refund — no questions requested,” she recounted.

Though it was positively tough initially, she persevered and readily took on no matter challenges that was thrown her manner. Now, she is targeted on rising her younger firm and attempting to redefine a traditional meals such as you tiao.

“In simply 4 years, now we have diversified our enterprise into a multi-channel enterprise,” she added.

Enterprise income plunged 50% throughout circuit breaker

When Covid-19 first hit the shores of Singapore in 2020, many industries had been severely impacted, together with the hospitality and occasions sector.

We see fellow producers and B2B prospects threw within the towel and closed down their companies. Everybody was afraid, and so had been we.

Inside two months of the circuit breaker Section 1 lockdown, You Tiao Man’s enterprise (income) had fallen by over 50 per cent. Motels, occasion caterers and eating places reached out to (us), asking for credit score extension from the standard 30 days to 90 days.

– Audrey Chew, founding father of You Tiao Man

To point out help and solidarity, You Tiao Man agreed to each single certainly one of them and even volunteered to chop down on their product costs.

“To scale back costs throughout a pandemic is counter-intuitive for some enterprise homeowners, however right here at You Tiao Man, we adhere to a completely different mind-set. As enterprise homeowners, we consider in friendship and supporting one another when instances are exhausting. We consider that with collaboration, all of us stand a better probability of survival. By sharing info and serving to one another throughout robust instances, all the enterprise neighborhood advantages,” she added.

In an effort to maintain the enterprise afloat, Audrey additionally determined to undertake a customer-to-customer (C2C) enterprise mannequin as an alternative.

“We pivoted our enterprise to the web and offline shopper markets, promoting on to the client. By listening fastidiously and observing the market, we realised that consumption habits had modified and prospects had been extra accepting of frozen you tiao as a part of their meals,” she defined.

“To be able to make the product handy for the buyer, we reformulated the product in order that no deep frying was required. We additionally made the product mini-sized in order that it could match into all family home equipment like oven, air fryers, toaster and even your cooking pan. This innovation would redefine that complete trajectory of the corporate.”

Finally, the pandemic gave her a probability to testbed her concepts. In spite of everything, innovation is likely one of the firm’s pillars and she is about on a path to develop a vary of frozen meals merchandise that caters to the trendy shopper.

Their expertise funding to launch their choices into the e-commerce market paid off. Inside 5 minutes of launching their web site, they acquired their very first order.

They wrapped up their day with 5 humble orders, however Audrey noticed it as a constructive signal that their e-commerce technique might work. Their merchandise turned out to be a “hit out there”, which considerably helped increase gross sales.

“Our Mini Traditional You Tiao had been so standard that prospects had been demanding the merchandise each day. Halal licensed with a shelf lifetime of 9 months, our vary of merchandise — akin to Sotong You Tiao, Otah Charcoal You Tiao, Mini Wholegrain You Tiao — allowed customers to take pleasure in this beloved Singaporean snack within the consolation of their houses, 24/7,” she added.

Companies must be taught to adapt and regulate

In response to Audrey, all the firm had rallied collectively and spent a few months to reformulate and repackage its merchandise for the B2C prospects.

“The administration workforce had been all fingers on deck, taking over duties like packing the products, delivering the merchandise and answering customer support (queries). When the employees (labored) additional time, all the administration workforce would stick with them. There have been instances the place we had been so busy, we introduced sleeping baggage and slept within the workplace for 3 days straight!”

This specific part marked a large turning level for the enterprise. Audrey described it as a “do or die” second, and it was a stage that she felt was essential for the enterprise development as they learnt to regulate and adapt to the altering panorama.

Due to the pace during which issues change, it’s very tough to plan on a long-term foundation. How we overcome these challenges is to construct a resilient enterprise. We set fastened targets, however modified our trajectory in response to the altering terrains.

– Audrey Chew, founding father of You Tiao Man

The pandemic additionally offered a chance for the model to go digital as a enterprise. It developed a digital technique and utilized digital options to its enterprise mannequin to type new and differentiated enterprise capabilities.

In July 2020, You Tiao Man expanded its on-line presence with social media pages on Fb and Instagram. In lower than two years, it has amassed a following of over 10,000 followers.

The model has additionally gone on to faucet on different social media platforms akin to Pinterest and TikTok as a part of its model constructing technique.

“We started leveraging huge knowledge and synthetic intelligence (AI) applied sciences to know and phase our prospects. Covid-19 has helped the corporate turn into a digital native F&B firm,” stated Audrey.

Regardless of the difficult pandemic instances, You Tiao Man has continued to drive year-on-year income development for the enterprise. It has expanded its manufacturing website into a new facility to deal with the rising calls for, and was awarded the ‘Made With Ardour’ model mark by Singapore Tourism Board in 2021.

Within the fourth quarter of 2021, NTUC FairPrice Most interesting additionally invited them to launch their frozen you tiaos in its retailers. By subsequent 12 months, You Tiao Man goals to broaden its product presence and have it obtainable at supermarkets islandwide.

As soon as they’ve strengthened their model presence in Singapore, You Tiao Man goals to export its frozen merchandise into abroad market.

Wanting again on her journey so far, Audrey stated that there’s no shortcut to success, including that all of it boils right down to exhausting work. No matter which trade a enterprise belongs to, the best way to thrive is easy: “good product, sturdy concentrate on prospects, and a nice workforce.”

“By following the above with self-discipline, now we have managed to develop the enterprise steadily and constantly within the final 4 years. At this time, we’re one of many largest suppliers of frozen you tiao in Singapore. Our sturdy monitor file of shoppers is a testomony to our good high quality.”

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Featured Picture Credit score: You Tiao Man