Food & Travel Magazine - April 2010

Did any one catch the latest issue of Food & Travel magazine?  The April 2010 edition?

We are on the COVER!  Yippee!  Don’t you just love what they did to our cups?

Their pictures are so beautifully taken, I’m getting hungry just looking at them.  I can almost smell…  yumz.

They’ve got some interesting recipes.  Go grab a copy at your nearest newsstand!

Cheers!

Roch

Gong Xi Fa Chai 2010

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Let me first extend a belated Chinese New Year greeting to all our Chinese folks.  Gosh, how time flies when you’re having fun!

Do allow me to apologize if you were not able to get any of our cups during this CNY period.  Every single cup is still individually handmade, and we can only make so many each day.  So if you did not place your order early and could not get any, do remember to call us earlier next year to avoid disappointment.   We started collecting orders as far back as December for CNY 2010, and will probably begin to do so this year as well.

Supply is now back to normal, and the various Cold Storage outlets are now fully stocked.

Thank you so much for all your support!

Here’s wishing one and all a wonderful year ahead!

Cheers!

Roch

Resumption of regular prices

Greetings and Saluations!

How time flies!  February is upon us and normal service resumes. 

As promised, our cups are back to pre-CNY levels and are as follows:

Regular Kueh Pie Tee Cups:

30 Cups ………. S$7.00
50 Cups ………. S$10.00

Mini Kueh Pie Tee Cups:

50 Cups ………. S$8.50
80 Cups ………. S$12.00

Premium Fresh Chilli Sauce .. S$3.00

Vegetable Filling . . . . . . .. S$5.00

Party Packs:

50 Regular Cups ……. S$22.00
80 Mini Tee Cups . … . S$24.00

* Party packs come complete with vegetable filling, chilli sauce,
sweet sauce, groundnuts, corriander leaves and fried egg topping

Enjoy!

Roch

A Big Thank You!

Dear friends and valued customers,

A BIG thank you for all your wonderful support!

Due to overwhelming demand for our Tee Cups, we are SOLD OUT for Chinese New Year.

Should you require our Tee Cups from 28/01/09 onwards, please place your orders early.

Gong Xi Fa Chai.

Red Lips Foods Pte. Ltd.

P.S.: We will be closed from 25/01/09 to 27/01/09.

* Wishing all a prosperous Lunar New Year *

Merry Christmas and a Happy Niu Year!

We at Red Lips would like to wish one and all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New (Niu) Year!

Seasons Greetings!

p.s:  Don’t forget to order early for Christmas!

regards,
Roch

To be or not to be - Part Deux

Sadly, we’ve decided to pass up the option for retail - for now.

We had two options actually. One in a heartland suburb, and another in a central downtown location. Plenty of excuses with both. Perhaps it’s not His time for me - yet.

LLS floated the idea of sharing L1 with me way back in March 08. Based on our excellent working relationship during our food fairs, C foresaw an opportunity where we could work out a rental sharing arrangement for the stalls she intends to take up. LLS had been really aggressive lately, with retail outlets springing up everywhere. But rental prices in choice locations command a premium (Thats why I’ve been buying REITs for the past few years), and she is not fully utilizing all the space she has. Hence, her desire to increase revenue per square foot. Totally understandable. But a from purely financial perspective.

Privately I shared with S, her main man on the project, that deep down, it cannot be just financial. There will be issues with branding, with marketing, advertising, legal representation, accounting, HR - just to mention a few. And with the range of products that LLS intends to put up at L1, they - to me, clearly have the product depth to justify taking the entire stall.

Branding is a serious issue. The stall will had to have a brand-neutral brand name, look and feel. So neither RLF nor LLS will appear at the stall. Having paid so much to build up a brand, neither party could really accept this. Not for one outlet in L1. (Unless of course, the rental and returns are totally obscene)

After much discussion with L1 and with LLS, LLS decided to pull out of a joint venture and go for it themselves.

We were disappointed. But we had no right no insist that we stick to our agreed arrangement. Firstly, we never signed anything. Secondly, S had been working day and night, meeting up with L1, negotiating rental, finalizing the merchandising mix. Besides, it was only through LLS’s contact that they managed to secure that location - right smack in front of NTUC. Darn excellent. Potential cash-cow.

Truth be told, we didn’t lift a finger. So honestly, so had no principled right to insist.

It was unfortunate. But in the long run, it would have been a better arrangement for both parties.

With our failed attempt to secure a location in a heartland-ish area, we turned our attentions to the downtown concept. RCM wanted us to take over the stall on the first week of June. That’s less than 3 weeks away. Having the right product mix together with fancy presentation will be key. We had neither and time was running out. They also required us to put 6+1months rental down - as a security deposit, excluding a $3K fitting out fee.

In short, taking up the location would have been financial suicide. Plenty of excuses.

Ideally, one would have a gourmet styled Pop/KPT with a choice of fancy toppings such as XO sausage (halal), garlic king prawns, baby octopus, smoked salmon, chicken floss etc. These will be an incremental progression from an familiar product. Bang Kwang base, the usual chilli, sweet sauces, nuts, bean sprouts, egg, Chinese lettuce, then the gourmet topping.

Then we have the real gourmet filing with Pop/KPT. Like those you can find over at our Recipes page. Thai mango salad with Duck, the KraThong Thong or a Yu Sheng filling. Plenty of things you can do.

But it’s plenty of work and lots of money down for an unknown and untested product.

Which leaves us back to square one. Perhaps it’s not my time yet. Were they smart decisions? Only time will tell.

Roch

To be or not to be, that is the question.

Most entrepreneurs will face this question one time or another, I’m sure.

Some probably come face to face with it almost everyday. Some take it in their stride, some like me, will do a study (read: research), ponder (read: analyze) over it for some time, ask opinions then make a decision. Some others eventually don’t make a decision - these are the worst kinds. Some are afraid to make mistakes. And some take it in their stride - riding the wave, rising above challenges and the occasion. Fearless.

I’m not that fearless. And I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s fear of losing what I have already built up all these years. Perhaps I lack faith. Perhaps (perhaps, perhaps) I (still) think too much. My heart says it’ll work. My gut can’t find a reason why it shouldn’t.

And although putting this up on a ‘corporate’ website might seem too personal, it is personal. You’ve helped me out by appreciating what I offer all these years. You’ve stood by me through our off-peak periods and supported me through our reluctant price increase (the first in 6 years). You, our customer, have the right to know how we think and feel.

The question at hand is the development and implementation of a retail strategy (i.e. entry into the tough retail sector). We have an offer that will expire on Monday, 12th. It’s a decent location with a decent rent. Our product will have to change quite dramatically to suit the buying demographic. It has to be very westernized (or pan-Asian) with a strong branding. Only then will it be attractive. And there lies the problem. The constant fear of the unknown. The resistance to change from the status quo.

Plenty of work to be done.

Concerns:

• Lack of retail experience (apart from our food fairs)
• Long-term commitment with long-hours
• M’s worried about the location - especially for our existing range of products
• MH’s worried about the high turnover of the place - most outlets don’t stay long
• L’s worried about the lack of a strong brand and identity
• I’m worried that my 3 trusted confidants are worried.

To these I say: There are successful operators in the vicinity of that location. What is attractive about them is the range of products they offer and the ability to differentiate themselves from the competition with a strong brand.

We gotta start from somewhere.

It just doesn’t make sense to wait for all conditions to be right before diving into it. There is no real impetus to engage a retail consultant and develop a retail brand just to wait and see. Just Do It. We will just have be flexible and evolve. We can do a soft launch for a few weeks after opening to get customer feedback and to work out those niggly issues. PS has experience with developing a retail concept, and they are willing to design new recipes and to train. TPM did NYNY and PL. We know the right people who can help.

A lot of work needs to be done. Time is ticking away as we ponder and debate over this. Enough talk already. Decide and move on.

Roch