Catering the Paris 2024 Olympics was a major feat for the prolific, Yunlin-headquartered Han Dian. However, it’s a difficult path for Taiwanese F&B businesses to reach the top.
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was all systems go in late July, with officials on heightened alert in preparation for the 2024 Summer Olympics in France’s capital. With so much on their plates, customs inspectors were doubtless working up quite an appetite while going about their duties.
So, when a large consignment of Taiwanese xiaolongbao (小籠包) failed to receive clearance in timely fashion, and it became apparent that these “soup dumplings” would need to be devoured or discarded, the decision was not a hard one.
“There were 800 pieces in total,” says Rebecca Chung of Han Dian, (UK). Specializing in frozen and ready-made Asian dishes, the company is currently Europe’s only dedicated manufacturer of meat-based Taiwanese products. “They ended up becoming the customs officers’ lunch!”
The intended recipient of the order was Taiwan’s 60-strong Olympic team, which had arrived in Paris shortly before in preparation for the Games. This wasn’t the first time that they had been deprived of their comfort-food sustenance.
“The very first pallet of 400 xiaolongbao that we sent was detained,” says Chung. “At least we know our Taiwanese ‘soupy bao’ has earned a great reputation among French customs officers!”
Thanks to the proximity to Paris of the company’s manufacturing base in West London and a proven capacity for handling large catering assignments with only a small team, Han Dian secured exclusive rights to provide meals for Taiwan’s athletes in Paris. This was granted after consultations with the Kaohsiung-based National Sports Training Center, which oversaw preparations for the Games in conjunction with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee.
An Airbnb apartment was booked as part of a support hub for the athletes. The “cuisines apartment,” as it was dubbed, featured a kitchen with three of Han Dian’s own resident chefs on hand to combine the pre-prepared frozen items with fresh vegetables and other healthy side dishes. Athletes had the option of stopping by the apartment for a bowl of beef noodles or having bento boxes delivered to competition venues, training centers, Athlete’s Village, and even physical therapy clinics.
“We collaborated with nutritionists from the center,” says Chung. In the buildup to the competition, coordination with Han Dian’s headquarters in Yunlin, Taiwan to select dishes, screen ingredients, and manage each item’s calorie content was imperative to ensure nothing contravened the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List while appealing to the team’s dietary requirements and preferences. “After that, Han Dian UK took charge of production and all export processes to France, ensuring that the quantity of daily meals met the required demand,” Chung says.
While in Paris, Han Dian made good use of its connections to guarantee supplies were always on hand. “Two of our restaurant clients served as external storage for over 1,000 meal portions,” says Chung. “On one occasion, we even started at 5 a.m. to sort the stock, so we didn’t disrupt the restaurant’s lunch and dinner periods.”
Impounded dumpling consignments aside, Paris 2024 was quite the coup for Han Dian, which established UK operations in 2017 at the Park Royal estate – the country’s largest business and industrial area. The choice of location followed a protracted search for premises that would be suitable for both office space and manufacturing facilities.
The decision to manufacture in the UK was driven partly by a desire to circumvent the cumbersome bureaucracy involved with importing meat-based products from Taiwan. There was also the long-term goal of creating a base in London from which to expand into the EU. “If we made the products here, then it would be easier for us to export to EU countries,” says Chung.
But Chung and the scouting team had not accounted for Brexit. The referendum on EU membership, ultimately leading to the UK’s departure from the union, had taken place in August 2016, just as Han Dian was exploring potential locations. Yet the ramifications would not be fully felt until after January 31, 2020, the nation’s official withdrawal date.
“We already had quite a few customers in Europe,” says Chung. “But after Brexit, we had to rebuild everything because there were so many new procedures that we had to learn again from scratch.”
Almost overnight, ingredients that had previously been fine for export now had to be reviewed, and stipulations over minimum orders were renegotiated due to increased shipping costs. New certification processes were another unforeseen expense. Then, just as Brexit was kicking in, the Covid-19 pandemic struck, undermining what little progress had been made and exacerbating matters.
“We hadn’t anticipated any of this,” says Chung. “It was a very challenging period, but we’re still here.”
Building through food
The company adopts a two-pronged approach to its business in the UK, says Chung. The first is a sales channel that offers a range of frozen food products promoted as “traditional Taiwanese night market dishes.” Among the stylishly packaged items on offer are staples such as popcorn chicken, guabao (a soft, fluffy, steamed bun filled with braised pork belly and a mix of greens), and braised pork rice. Three varieties of beef noodles are also available. All the dishes are packed with flavor and incredibly convenient to reheat. The range was launched exclusively under the Han Dian banner and is now available at over 150 supermarkets across the UK.
“There are some home kitchens making authentic Taiwanese food, but they can’t really [produce] at that scale and just deliver locally,” says Chung. “So, we don’t really have any competitors.” Food safety standards are also an obstacle for smaller businesses, she notes.
As the second strand of their business model, Han Dian supplies products to pan-Asian restaurants and bubble tea stores around the country. While most of these businesses produce the lion’s share of their produce in-house, many are keen to add items to their menus without the associated costs and inconvenience. “It helps them cost down on the labor, wastage, and the storage side,” says Chung.
One client with whom Han Dian enjoyed a long and fruitful cooperation is Hoja – a provider of Taiwan-style bento boxes and street-food snacks. Run by Tainan-native Summer Xia, who relocated to London in 2013, Hoja is located in Shepherd’s Bush, about 5 kilometers southwest of Han Dian’s factory in Park Royal.
Having started Hoja as a dine-in restaurant in 2015, Xia made the decision to switch to “dark kitchen” catering and delivery services during the pandemic when restaurants and pubs were forced to suspend indoor hospitality for more than a year. Almost 10% of Britain’s restaurants folded during this period, according to data provided by the UK food and beverage consultancy firm CGA in cooperation with the U.S.-based advisory AlixPartners.
“In fact, at that time, it would have been less damage for us to close the shop,” says Xia. “But, if we’d done that, five or six staff would have lost their jobs.”
This was something Xia could not countenance at a time when everyone was feeling the pinch. She also stresses that most of her workers were immigrants from low-income families who were already struggling to make ends meet. Instead, she decided to switch to delivering ready-made meals, snacks, and ingredients to customers around London. Limited takeout options were also made available. It turned out to be a shrewd move for several reasons.
“Most supermarkets were experiencing a very high demand in a very short period of time,” she says. “So even delivery services were too slow for some people, who were desperate for food.”
With many larger stores experiencing shortages, partly due to customer stockpiling and panic-buying, not to mention supply chain issues, there was a gap for smaller food providers with direct, personal connections to wholesalers.
“We didn’t have a delivery system at that point or even a driver, so we just did it ourselves,” says Xia. “But luckily, there were very few cars on the street, so it was easy.”
At the same time, Xia expanded what had initially been just a shelf of products in a corner of the restaurant into a full-blown grocery store. “We did that immediately,” she says. “But we didn’t have a lot of shelf space, so we just used tables and even chairs.” Chuckling at the memory, she expresses the view that such ad hoc improvisation is a quintessential Taiwanese trait.
Once Covid restrictions were lifted, Hoja, which takes its name from the term for “delicious” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), transitioned back to eat-in dining. However, more recently, Xia has struggled to turn a profit, mainly because fewer people are dining out than before Covid, and wholesale food prices have remained painfully high as the UK’s cost of living crisis continues.
“Before Covid, a box of 360 eggs was about 35 pounds (roughly NT$1,500),” she says, noting that the price doubled during the pandemic. “It’s come down a bit but is still around 55 pounds (roughly NT$2,350).”
These factors led to Xia’s reluctant decision to close the restaurant in July after nearly 10 years in business. “It’s a shame,” she says. “But I could do with a rest.”
Another business hit hard by the pandemic was Boba Formosa, a supplier of bubble tea ingredients. The company, which also provides training services for individuals wanting to run their own Taiwan-style bubble tea stores, was just finding its feet as the crisis unfolded; and skyrocketing import costs very nearly crippled the fledgling business.
“When we were starting out, five years ago, the price for a 20-foot [shipping] container was US$2,000 or less,” says Vicky Liu, Boba Formosa’s founder and manager director. “But, once Covid hit, it jumped to US$10,000.”
In those early days, Liu recalls “pushing a trolley full of boxes of tapioca powder,” which is used to make the famous chewy “pearls” used in bubble teas, and “knocking on doors” of potential clients to hand out free samples.
“I made sure the boxes were big, so they were less likely to just throw them in the bin,” she says. “Looking back, I don’t know how I did it. It makes me feel quite proud of what I’ve achieved. It was a struggle.”
Through dogged networking, she has gradually built up her customer base to the point where she needed to take on more staff. She now runs a team of 10 employees from her company’s headquarters in Nottingham. “It took four years, but we now have a solid foundation that will support our expansion.”
Boba Formosa frequently stages promotional activities, including tasting events at high schools, which introduce the history of Taiwan’s “national drink.” It also sponsors a women’s football team.
Efforts to create greater familiarity with Taiwanese culinary culture are a common theme among Taiwanese food and beverage brands in the UK. Han Dian also stages food demos and tasting events twice a month with its supermarket partners and frequently represents Taiwan at food festivals and trade fairs in the UK and Europe.
“We’re building Taiwanese culture here through our food,” says Chung. “I can say that we are the first to educate clients about typical Taiwanese flavors.”
