Debra Li

debra_lidan@163.com

A DONGGUAN-BASED food manufacturer and retailer officially opened its first store in Nanshan’s CBD area on Thursday, marking its first step to expand outside its home base.

Xinyuan Select store, occupying 400 square meters in OK Mall adjacent to the five-star Kempinski Hotel, is an attempt at a new retail business model, selling Guangdong specialties such as chen pi (dried peel of mature tangerines) and sausages, while at the same time offering a catering service within its store.

“Several food-making techniques involved in these specialties have been listed as national or Guangdong Province’s intangible cultural heritages, including chen pi from Xinhui and Canton-style sausages from Houjie,” said Lyu Fenglin, general manager of Dongguan Xinyuan Foodstuff Co.

“The food we eat is close to home and heart, and we hope to have our prized traditions carried on to future generations.”

To attract a younger consumer base, Xinyuan Select offers desserts such as chen pi-flavored red bean paste, sugarcane herbal tea, as well as fastfood choices like claypot rice with sausages.

A white-collar worker surnamed Ding was among the foodies who came to try dishes at the new store at lunch Thursday. “This is definitely worth trying,” she said, adding that the chen pi flavor was authentic and strong in both the drink and dessert.

The brand, with a modern factory and six stores in Dongguan, started as a small humble soy sauce factory in the 1960s. It took its present name in 1984 after expanding its product lines to include sausages, mooncakes, and other snacks.

After the brand’s sausages were included in the provincial list of intangible cultural heritages, the firm began to export its products to Southeast Asia in 2004 and to European countries in 2007. In 2016, the company also built a museum exhibiting over 1,000 pieces of traditional tools and documents used in producing local specialties.

With 30% of its total sales made online, the company records an annual revenue of more than 100 million yuan (US$14 million).

“We plan to open three to five new brick-and-mortar stores each year,” Lyu said. “We chose Shenzhen as the first stop of our expansion because it’s an international and open-minded city.We wish to get better access to the overseas market from here.”

Known for its food and drink industry, Dongguan has industry clusters in Machong, Chashan and Daojiao townships. The city has 208 food and drink firms with annual sales of over 20 million yuan at the end of June.