Next time you bite into a steaming, succulent shrimp dumpling at a Tao Heung Chinese restaurant, picture a highly automated production line churning out dish after dish instead of the busy, sweaty, traditional Chinese kitchen that you might see on a TV show.
Eric Leung, CEO of Chinese restaurant group Tao Heung, said the construction of the group's first logistics centre in Fo Tan in 2003 was a turning point for the business. Founded in 1991, the number of restaurants owned by Tao Heung totalled 18 in 2003, but increased sharply to 79 by the end of last year.
'The key to expansion was changing from a labour-based production model to a centralised one,' Leung said. 'Nowadays, over 80 per cent of the food items on our menu involve finished or half-finished food ingredients produced by the logistics centres in Tai Po and Dongguan.'
When it comes to dim sum items, the figure goes up to over 90 per cent.
'The market position of Tao Heung is clear - we provide affordable Chinese food of good quality. To achieve this we have had to centralise and standardise food production.'
Another reason behind this strategy is concern over increasing labour costs. Last year, the ratio of labour costs to revenue was 27.5 per cent and the logistics centres - which employ 887 people - helped save on kitchen staff.
