Corporate employees enjoy organic meals at group dining, and Xiaoqing Group Dining pioneers a blue ocean market

In an era of frequent food safety scandals, crisis also brings opportunity. When looking for employee group meal suppliers, many companies no longer make eating enough for a full belly cheaply their first priority; they also care about how to eat with peace of mind. As a result, group meal providers focusing on organic ingredients have become an emerging demand amid the food safety crisis.

Focusing on a high proportion of organic ingredients, Xiaoqing's business booms

"Using a high proportion of organic and certified ingredients has always been our hallmark," said Shao Lizhong, the operator of Xiaoqing Anxin Group Meals. When they first started the business four years ago, their main business was buying groceries for community customers and providing school nutritional lunches. In January last year they shifted to corporate employee group meals and found that corporate employees' lunches had a great demand for organic ingredients, but there were not many group meal operators focusing on organic food. "We discovered a huge blue ocean market!"

Since entering the corporate employee group meal business, Xiaoqing's company scale has continued to expand, from running it as a couple on their own to now employing 10 staff members, from using their own kitchen to renting an 80-ping factory as a central kitchen, with monthly revenue surging from 100,000 to 2 million now.

Currently Xiaoqing works with four companies, supplying lunch to about 1,500 employees every day. Many companies want Xiaoqing to provide employee group meals, but the person in charge, Shao Lizhong, said: "Our current manpower really can't take on these new orders. The earliest we can take on new corporate group meals is June this year."

For operators, the reason using good ingredients is difficult is that it does not fit the principle of "seeking the lowest cost and pursuing the greatest profit." But if food businesses keep pushing costs down, problems are bound to arise, which instead makes the company lose credibility. Therefore, when Xiaoqing was founded, its goal was "seeking good ingredients and pursuing reasonable profit." Shao Lizhong said: "We pursue reasonable profit and reasonable cost, so we can pursue the best ingredients within the existing budget."

When supplying ingredients for school nutritional lunches, although the budget is low, Xiaoqing seeks the best ingredients within the budget, so students can also eat organic vegetables, pork with a production traceability record, and non-GMO tofu.

From communities and schools to companies, in purchasing ingredients Xiaoqing insists on pursuing reasonable rather than maximum profit, and has also cultivated the ability to find good ingredients within a certain budget. Shao Lizhong said confidently: "Our persistence has instead made us beneficiaries of the food safety storm. Customers come to us one after another on their own, which is exactly what that old saying from Taiwan, China goes: People are doing, and heaven is watching!"

(This article is sponsored by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel expenses, but it does not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring news independence.)