The entrepreneurial story of the American Chili sauce king

The entrepreneurial story of the American Chili sauce king

68-year-old Chen Dawei (see right) fled from Vietnam to the United States and started selling homemade Chili sauce. Now he owns his own HSBC Food Company and is a veritable king of Chili sauce. His main product "teh tarik Chili Sauce" sells 20 million bottles every year, and it is an indispensable condiment for many restaurants and family tables in the United States.

When it comes to Chili sauce, we may first think of Laoganma. Laoganma's overseas sales have so far made Chinese people proud, but whether we admit it or not, it is not Laoganma who is rated as the hottest Chili sauce in the world by Americans, but the Chili sauce produced by HSBC Food Company in the United States.

This kind of green hat Chili sauce, known as "American old godfather", has an annual sales volume of more than 20 million bottles and an annual income of 85 million US dollars. It never advertises, but maintains an annual income growth rate of 20%.

You might say, this is just a bottle of Chili sauce. How can it go to heaven? Yes, it's ratcha Chili sauce. It's really gone to heaven. Scientists have found that astronauts will gradually become dull in taste and need food stimulation in space, so the food science department of NASA will include this Chili sauce in space supply and send it to the International Space Station for astronauts to enjoy. There is even a director who filmed a documentary featuring La Chacha Chili sauce and won the best short film awards in several film festivals.

68-year-old Chen Dawei (see right) fled from Vietnam to the United States and started selling homemade Chili sauce. Now he owns his own HSBC Food Company and is a veritable king of Chili sauce. His main product "teh tarik Chili Sauce" sells 20 million bottles every year, and it is an indispensable condiment for many restaurants and family tables in the United States.

Learn to make Chili sauce from childhood

Chen Dawei 1945 was born in a farmhouse in Vietnam. His ancestral home was in Guangdong, China, and his grandparents moved from Chaozhou to the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnamese capital.

David grew up growing peppers with his family, making and selling Chili sauce. During the Vietnam War, he took his homemade oil-soaked Chili sauce to the US military camp and nearby shops for sale, which was very popular and sold well, helping him save some money.

1978, David and his family left Viet Nam on the Taiwan Province freighter "HSBC", settled down in Chinatown in 1980, and began to return to their old jobs. He bought peppers and other raw materials from big markets, made Chili sauce by hand in small workshops and transported it by Chevrolet trucks. This workshop was the original HSBC Food Company. David named the company after the freighter that took him out of Vietnam, and used his own animal chicken as the symbol of Chili sauce.

With the popularity of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants in Los Angeles, David Chili sauce began to enter more restaurants. Many restaurants will put a bottle of "Sarah Chili sauce" on the table for diners to enjoy at will.

From 65438 to 0987, due to the expansion of business, the production speed of Chili sauce could not keep up with the market demand. David bought a factory covering an area of more than 6,000 square meters, and also bought a piece of land to grow peppers. He also taught himself mechanics and welding, and transformed the machine for producing Chili sauce.

Today, HSBC Food Company sells 20 million bottles of Chili sauce every year, with annual sales as high as $35 million. 20 10, the company is located in California.

A new factory with a larger area. The company employs 70 workers. David's eight family members all work for the family business. His 33-year-old son William is the new president of the company.

"It's hot tea Chili sauce" went into space.

On the front wall of the factory hall, there is a huge photo that has nothing to do with Chili sauce-two astronauts of the International Space Station are floating in weightlessness.

Why does the Chili sauce factory hang such a photo? Take a closer look and the answer will be revealed. The photo is marked with an arrow pointing to a small green plastic bottle cap floating in the air behind the astronaut, which is a symbolic package of "Chili sauce".

A few years ago, Chen Dawei, the founder of the company, posted this iconic photo of the company. At that time, scientists found that astronauts gradually became dull in taste in space and needed delicious food. Therefore, the Food Science Department of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States included the Chili sauce of HSBC Food Company in space replenishment and sent it to the International Space Station for astronauts to enjoy.

The Chili sauce bottle cap in the photo is so tiny that it was discovered by food lovers. One of the reasons may be that the packaging of David Chili sauce is unique, which has never changed since it came out, and it is easy to identify: transparent plastic bottles, green caps, red rooster logo printed on the bottles and five text descriptions, including Vietnamese, Chinese, English, French and Spanish.

Food lovers specially sent photos to HSBC Food Company for this purpose, and like many other loyal consumers who wrote letters to the company, they expressed their love for this Chili sauce. This story is enough to show how popular it is in America.

Do not advertise to win by quality.

When Kara Nelson, a pastry chef, worked in a high-end restaurant in Berkeley, California in the 1980s, she found that Asian chefs in the kitchen loved to cook food with "Racha Chili sauce", and employees also liked to taste this Chili sauce when eating. From this, he judged that this cheap Chili sauce can enter high-end restaurants, which is deeply loved by chefs and will definitely sell well in the future.

Sure enough, the market reaction in the following ten years confirmed his judgment: "It's spicy tea Chili sauce" appeared in Baifu noodle restaurant in David Zhang, a famous chef in new york; Wal-Mart initially piloted the sale of "Sarah Chili Sauce" in Los Angeles and Houston, and then quickly spread to more than 3,000 stores in the United States; Subway and other chain restaurants also offer Chili sauce-flavored dishes and dips.

Bon Appetit magazine praised "This is Chili sauce" as "the best ingredient of the year" on 20 10, and food writer Randy Clemens even wrote a book "This is Chili sauce".

Many people want to know how David successfully promoted his products, but in fact, he has never advertised for Chili sauce and has no Facebook account. The company website only has development memorabilia, and the last update was in 2004. The popularity of "Checha Chili sauce" in the American market is entirely due to its reliable quality and reputation.

Dave Dewit, the author of the Bible of Chili Sauce, said that in the past 20 years, the market of spicy food has developed rapidly, but nothing is as popular as "Chili sauce with spicy tea".

The formula of Chili sauce has never changed since 1983. Directly processed with fresh red pepper, without adding any pigment, it is all the natural moisture and color of pepper. "We don't have any secrets except freshness," said Chen Yifei, the founder of Lesha Chili sauce and an overseas Chinese in Vietnam. Latha Chili sauce has not added any water since the first day it entered the market, and it is 100% solid. From pepper picking to processing, David asked employees not to spend more than two hours, because if they were processed the next day, the taste would be greatly reduced. In the past 30 years, the only supplier of HSBC has been family farms, which is a way to control prices and ensure freshness. But obviously, the production bottleneck of this farm limits the scale of Raza, but David said, "We can't guarantee what we can't do."

The experiences of successful enterprises are always strikingly similar. Laoganma and Laoandie have their own insistence. In the final analysis, they are: don't forget your innovative spirit, so as to achieve your ultimate goal.

This is a unique package of chilli sauce.

At HSBC Food Company, the smell of garlic is everywhere. Garlic is the company's flagship product and one of the key recipes for making Chili sauce.

In addition, the packaging of Latha Chili sauce has never changed since it came out. It is a transparent plastic bottle with a red rooster logo and five descriptions, including Vietnamese, Chinese, English, French and Spanish.

As we all know, this is Ratcha Chili sauce, and another iconic package is a small green bottle cap. This little green bottle cap has a little story. At that time, scientists found that astronauts' sense of taste would become dull in space. The Food Science Department of NASA listed this Chili sauce as a space note food for astronauts, which was a great honor for David.

From David's founding of HSBC Food Company, we can learn some experiences from it:

1, product first, keep the passion for the product: When the packaging supplier asked David to change the product, he said that American customers prefer sweeter food, but David refused. He said that the hot pot seasoning must be spicy. If you don't like spicy food and like sweet food, he can use it less. I won't change my product.

2. Have a guiding principle for the company.

3. Pay attention to customers and provide greater value: "We strive to do our own thing every day and try to keep the price as low as possible, but we must ensure that customers like our products." David said righteously. In order to widen the gap with related competitive products, David said that the demand of customers is king.

4. Provide distinctive things: the brand effect can widen the gap with other competitors and increase their own business needs. David's packaging is original. Crazy cocks and green bottle caps created David's brand.

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