CHINA IS probably better known for its fondness for rice, but growing affluence has seen newly wealthy Chinese start to eat a particular form of potato long treasured in the West – the crisp.
Now an Irish-Chinese entrepreneur is hoping to convince consumers in the world’s fastest growing major economy to eat Tayto.
In Chinese, Tayto are known as tudoushenshi shuping, which translates as “Potato Gentleman Crisps”, explains Qian Wei, who first arrived in Ireland 11 years ago to study. He met his wife Miriam Collins there and is now an Irish citizen.
“It was my wife who first had the idea, she said she didn’t like Pringles, she thought that Irish crisps were the best in the world, so we started to think about the idea of selling them in China,” said Mr Qian, who speaks English with a Dublin accent.
The family has a shop in East Wall in Dublin, which was doing well until the recession began to bite, and Mr Qian began to look for other opportunities to boost revenues. So they approached Largo Foods, which makes Tayto. Largo managing director Raymond Coyle was keen.
“He needs to know if his crisps will be liked in China. I went to him with the idea. He said he had tried to break into China before but he didn’t know how to make the brand famous in China to complete his dream of making a factory here. I want everyone in China to know that Tayto is the best,” said Mr Qian.
This is the first time Tayto has been in Asia – so far the company founded by Joe Murphy in 1954 only sells its crisps in a few countries around the world, including the Czech Republic and the United States.
Mr Qian has been running the office of Largo Foods in Shanghai since last year and is about to start selling the crisps through the convenience store chains Lawson’s, Lianhua, Family Mart and Metro, some of the biggest retail chains in Shanghai, which has a population of 20 million.
The crisps retail at 50 yuan (€5), a packet for a 50-gram packet – the average bag of Tayto in Ireland sells in a 37-gram bag.
Shipping takes 28 to 30 days and they have initially brought in 3,000 cases of crisps, with 50 bags per box.
The Chinese crisp market is very different from the Irish market. It is dominated by Lay’s, with other brands making up just 5 per cent of the market.
The reaction among Chinese consumers has been positive so far. They are a difficult sell for those used to Western potato crisps, favouring flavours that appear unusual to Irish palates. These include hot and sour soup, french chicken, blueberry, cucumber, lemon tea and Italian red meat. For this reason, there will be no cheese and onion flavoured crisps to start with – Tayto famously invented that flavour, revolutionising the crisp market around the world.
“We’ll initially focus on Thai sweet chili and original salted. We are using sunflower oil and organic potatoes and that’s a point of sale, that’s our advantage,” said Mr Qian.
This approach has worked well with consumers, and the packaging has also gone down well. Ultimately, though, it’s about how the crisps taste.
“They say the crisps are very crispy and you can really taste the potato,” he said.
Another selling point is the fact that sunflower oil has Omega 3, which some studies have shown to lower cholesterol, though no one is planning to market crisps as a health food just yet.
Initial sales will be through Lawson’s 430 shops and Lianhua’s 1,500 stores, while Family Mart has 400. They are also awaiting approval to sell through the French retail chain Carrefour, which has a major presence in China.
Introductions to the chains like Family Mart were made through his sister Wang Liping, who is in business in China, and Mr Qian said also received a lot of support from Bord Bia’s Breffni Kennedy in Shanghai.
“The reaction from the shops has been great. Chinese people’s lifestyle is changing, and there is demand for crisps here in China – they’re addictive,” said Mr Qian.
“China is the most expanding country in the world at the moment. People here are always catching on to fashions – they love Starbucks for example, even though 20 yuan out of a wage of 2,000 yuan a month is a lot,” said Mr Qian.
“When I was a kid my parents worked all the time, now it’s different.”
If Mr Qian succeeds in selling Tayto to enough Chinese, the plan is to open a factory in Shanghai, focusing on the city and neighbouring areas like Zhejiang province. Beijing is a long way away from Shanghai, but he would also examine the other cities if expansion becomes an option.
“There are 20 million people in Shanghai – if I can get just 10 per cent of them to buy Tayto, it would be great,” he said.
