TRAVEL restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic have turned out to be both a bane and boon at once for homegrown food manufacturer Mr Popiah, which has seen greater overseas demand for its products even as it continues to deal with a labour shortage.
The company saw a 20 per cent increase in sales for what second-generation owner and business development director Lewis Tan calls its "convenience products" - microwavable wraps such as its signature popiah (Chinese spring roll filled with vegetables) as well as other popular items like its chicken burrito and salted egg prawn wraps.
"We are focused on products that are more convenient and ready-to-eat - those are the things that people are looking for during this period of time," he said, adding that the growth in online sales has helped to buffer the decline in restaurant sales.
Tan told The Business Times that the company is now in talks with several partners in Australia, Indonesia and the Middle East who are interested in customised flavours.
The most unique flavours requested so far? Singapore laksa and chicken rice - in a wrap.
"People cannot travel as much now, but they can still taste the food they have missed," Tan said.
"Our strength is also in our R&D (research and development)... we can do a lot of those unique flavours, so we have briyani, satay, salted egg and mala (Sichuan peppercorn and chilli). Singapore is very multicultural and it's a food haven, so the recipes are not hard to find," he added.
Foreign labour
The bigger challenge, however, was the shortage of production staff, all of whom used to be foreigners in the pre-pandemic era.
When Covid-19 hit in early 2020, the team lost about 30 to 40 per cent of its workers overnight, as some had decided to return home when borders were shut, said Tan, who even had to help out with both production and delivery.
The situation was not unique to Mr Popiah, he added, as the manpower shortage was felt keenly by the rest of the industry too.
But this also pointed to an instant shift in bargaining power to workers, affording them the choice and mobility to switch to better-paying jobs.
"Because of this, a lot of companies are really thinking how they operate their production - because you really cannot rely on foreigners and this is something that you cannot change," he said, adding that government policy in recent years have also been nudging employers towards less reliance on foreign labour.
"There's no point for you to fight this kind of thing, it's only a way where you try to resolve this issue," Tan said. "So you really have to adapt to it, or your troubles will be endless."
One solution is to automate as much of the production process as possible. The other is to tap into segments of the workforce that sometimes struggle to find opportunities: the elderly and those with disabilities.
To get them on board more quickly, Tan said Mr Popiah has taken steps to simplify the work process, and this has also led to the company making small upgrades to their equipment. "Instead of making workers come and do the job, we make the job more appealing to the workers and easier for the workers to do."
This small but important shift has paid off in a big way, as the company has managed to maintain its production volume in the same time but with fewer workers.
Over the last 2 years, Mr Popiah has also embraced the use of data.
This is collected by observing sale patterns at the company's popiah vending machines and online store as well as at supermarkets and minimarts. The company also conducts random post-sale surveys with customers while gathering feedback on social media.
"Through data, you can see the engagement on Tiktok is actually higher than on Instagram... because what you want is not just people seeing (your product), you need engagement," said Tan. "We make use of all the data to customise new flavours, new products... now it's really very customer-centric, and we have to see how our customers react, and also we have to be fast and effective," he said, adding that it is critical to react quickly to emerging trends.
Healthier options
One such trend is the growing demand for healthier options. Popiah, as Tan pointed out, is already a fairly healthy food, but this can be further enhanced, for example, by using wholemeal popiah skin or a healthier type of oil.
"We don't see ourselves as food manufacturers, we see ourselves as problem solvers. We always see issues and problems in the market and then we do our business development, we do our products in a certain way to fill the market gap or to solve an issue that's happening in the market," said Tan.
And that, to him, encapsulates what the company stands for.
Looking at the list of nominees for this year's Emerging Enterprise Awards, many of which are high-tech firms doing "fancy things", Tan's first reaction was "Wow, like that how to win?".
"But I think for us - doing a simple thing like popiah - to be nominated, it's already something. To be put together with all these big tech firms, it's really something that we feel proud of," he said.
Mr Popiah started out as a stall in a coffee shop in Bedok North, founded by Tan's parents in the early 1990s, before the company was set up in 1995 to become a popiah ingredient distributor.
When Tan's father Tan Tok Hoo died suddenly in 2015, he felt it was his duty to save his father's lifelong business, even though he knew next to nothing about business, being a digital animation diploma-holder from Singapore Polytechnic. "I felt like, I just lost my dad, how can I lose the company that he had built over so many years?" the 28-year-old said.
It was then that the company was incorporated, he added. His mother Li Li Hong serves as managing director.
Tan quickly learnt the ropes, and he gave credit to the generous guidance from other food makers that he had met through the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association. These seasoned players - from the likes of Dragon Brand, Tai Hua and SMH Foods - are much more experienced than him and even old enough to be his parents, Tan said.
Firmly against resting on his laurels, Tan said he is now working towards creating greater brand awareness among consumers, since Mr Popiah used to be more focused on business-to-business dealings.
At the same time, he hopes to elevate the status of popiah both at home and abroad. "People always say chicken rice is a Singaporean dish, but popiah is a Singaporean food too," he said.
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