Filling the culinary gap

Architect makes the leap to grow his food manufacturing business

A BUSINESS should exist to fill a gap in society’s needs. This may well be a principle that makes sense to many, and for Zheng Food Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wilson Chang Soo Har, this is the sole reason for the survival of his business.

The 63-year-old had taken the big leap from architecture to manufacturing food products simply because he saw a need that he could meet.

“I learnt that there was a shortage of chefs in Malaysia as many of them move on to take up opportunities overseas. And hotels are always in need of talents to prepare their delicacies,” he says.

Zheng Food manufactures halal frozen processed food such as pau, dim sum, curry puffs and others.

And how is the manufacturer meeting a need?

With the talent pool shrinking, hotels need to look for a viable alternative to prepare their food fast and at the same time, be less reliant on their chefs in preparing some of these foods.

The way forward, says Chang, is simply to order processed food from his factory and heat them up. Restaurants would also order them in bulk to cater to their chain of eateries.

The food manufacturing business started with his brother, who worked as a chef in a hotel. His brother understood what was going on in the local market and saw a potential for growth in this sector.

In 1992, Chang set up the business with his four brothers in Ipoh in a 1,000 sq ft rented shoplot.

“I started out as an investor as I was still working as an architect at that time. We started out manufacturing four season dishes, also known as cold platters back then,” he says.

These dishes are mainly served during functions and special occasions. As such, they are not high-volume products.

The brothers first marketed these products to hotels, and business grew.

But as their customer base grew bigger, they realised that it was more convenient to have a base closer to where most of their clients were, that is in Kuala Lumpur.

So they moved their operations to KL in 1994. The relocation proved to be a good move for Zheng Food and sales started to grow more significantly.

Soon, they found that their customers were demanding more products with better quality control.

This was when they realised that they needed to set up a properly designed and managed factory. No more of that small-scale operations in small shoplots.

However, this change in operations would mean incurring some pretty heavy invest-

Filling the gap: Chang says the food industry is huge and there are opportunities waiting to be tapped.

All in order: The products go through stringent quality control to meet standard requirements.

Good team: Chang (right) with some of his chefs who help him develop the company’s recipes.

Chop it up: Workers at the factory are seen preparing the ingredients for processing.