Leshan's Traditional Cuisine Successfully Lands in Toronto,
Achieving Standardized Chain Operations
Young Sanniang Beef Pot, as a leading brand in the Qiaojiao Beef category, embodies the essence of Leshan's traditional cuisine, carrying on a century-old cultural heritage. It has consistently ranked first on the "Leshan Food List" for several years.
Under the guidance of the TrueRise team, Young Sanniang Beef Pot has successfully entered the North American market. This accomplishment is not just a brand introduction but a successful case of TrueRise's cross-border business chain. Through our comprehensive expansion strategy, including investment attraction, supply chain establishment, and central kitchen support, we have brought this century-old culinary tradition to the Canadian market.
In recent years, it's evident that young people in North America have developed a preference for bold flavors. With the increase in dining out, dishes must stand out with distinctive tastes and visually appealing presentations. According to the "2023 Xiaohongshu Annual Life Trend" report, "authentic flavors" ranked second, with a 227% year-over-year increase in related searches. Similarly, in Canada’s diverse market, specialty and affordable local dishes are being embraced by food enthusiasts, driven by growing consumer demand for authentic and high-quality food.
Moreover, the operational model and expansion strategy are crucial. Post-pandemic, rational consumption has become predominant, and the dining model focusing on affordable small dishes, drinks, compact venues, and targeting smaller communities is rapidly expanding, becoming a new trend in dining entrepreneurship. Compared to high-cost, heavily operated large restaurants, we aim to develop a model with smaller shop areas, more flexible operations, lower operating costs, and ease of replication for standardized chain operations.
With this understanding, our team focused on the Sichuan cuisine category. In the summer of 2023, we conducted a field study in Chengdu and Chongqing to find brands suitable for the Toronto market. We eventually selected "Qiaojiao Beef," and Young Sanniang Beef Pot, representing Leshan's traditional cuisine, stood out for its tender beef and rich bone broth. Its product system aligned perfectly with our strategic and operational model. TrueRise recognized its potential and actively secured the North American market rights. Understanding the Toronto dining industry, we knew that bringing a single dish to an overseas market required product localization and refined management in alignment with local cultural and consumer habits.
Traditional Sichuan cuisine is known for its diverse ingredients and complex cooking techniques, which limit the potential for chain expansion. The taste and quality of a dish heavily depend on the chef's skills, making it difficult for Sichuan restaurants to maintain consistent quality across multiple locations. Procuring authentic ingredients overseas further complicates standardization, especially with the scarcity of skilled Chinese chefs and diverse consumer preferences in foreign markets.
To address these issues, the TrueRise team leveraged years of experience and resources, supported by the central kitchen, to achieve customization, standardization, and chain-operated restaurant business model. Despite the technical demands of Sichuan stir-frying, the primary technique of "quick stir-frying" can be mastered quickly with systematic training. By collaborating with multiple culinary training schools in China, TrueRise has repeatedly introduced skilled chefs to Canada.
Regarding ingredient challenges, we use beef as the primary material, benefiting from Canada's high-quality and cost-effective beef. We also adapted and optimized our dishes to match local tastes, using fresh local Angus beef, simmered daily with over 100 pounds of beef bones and various spices and herbs, creating a rich and savory broth.
Sichuan's signature spices like Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers are sourced directly from Young Sanniang's headquarters in Sichuan and processed in our Toronto central kitchen before distribution to stores. Once these ingredients arrive in Canada, our central kitchen in Toronto processes, blends, and stores them before distributing them to the stores. This systematized management achieving Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) allows for easy replication and standardization, enabling rapid chain operations.
In North America's Chinese restaurant industry, the post-pandemic development has entered an era of "Scene creation." We need to offer excellent products and create compelling environments, integrating both to provide a more comprehensive dining experience. Similar to the "immersive" dining models of Wenheyou and Nanjing Impressions in China, which focus on "Instant time travel," we use decor, signage, and tableware to craft unique dining settings that offer guests an immersive experience.
Young Sanniang Beef Pot adopts a vintage design style, recreating the bustling streets of 1980s Chengdu in a way that defies time, making guests feel as if they have traveled back 40 years. The walls of faded cement, rough bricks, old hand-carved plaques, handwritten calligraphy curtains, and green retro mailboxes, along with old items like black-and-white TVs, seem to have withstood the test of time, becoming more vibrant and lively. They paint a vivid picture of street corner life in China, filled with the bustling atmosphere of traditional eateries.
Every detail in our stores, carefully crafted by our team, showcases the unique characteristics and cultural depth of the Young Sanniang brand. These details are not merely decorations but are intended to convey the brand’s philosophy and emotions, allowing guests to deeply feel the brand's message while enjoying their meal. Through this meticulous brand presentation, we establish a resonant emotional connection with our guests, enhancing their dining experience and strengthening brand recognition and loyalty.
TrueRise is dedicated to facilitating the international expansion of restaurant businesses and incubating culinary startups. We are committed to helping Chinese restaurant brands embark on their international journey.
