BHF: IT STILL TAKES TIME TO EXPLORE THE EVER-CHANGING CHINA MARKET
BHF - its business from a workshop in 1991. After more than 20 years of development, now it has become one of the top 3 bakery giants in Singapore, supplying over 200 kinds of bakery products for large hotels, coffee chains, restaurants, and public institutions in Singapore. It also sponsors some important sports events or expositions, such as the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, Singapore Youth Olympics, and the annual Singapore Airshow.
But in facing the China market with a spurt of import growth of bakery products in recent years, BHF is more prudent compared with its competitors. According to its president Simon Tay, it still takes time to explore the ever-changing China market before BHF entering it, but there is no doubt that the China market is and will be the most valuable one in bakery industry.
Director of BHF Simon Tay
From An Architect To A Bakery Giant
Nowadays, with the rising living standards of Singaporeans, to most people, “food” is not only a necessity for living, but also a source of enjoyment. Particularly, as Singaporeans have a sweet tooth and would fall for any kind of dessert, there has always been renovations in the variety and flavor of desserts, which lead to wave after wave of trends—as well as the rapid development of Singapore’s bakery industry. Out of the fierce competition, a brand, starting from a workshop, has survived for over two decades and made itself as one of the top three bakery giants in Singapore—BHF. It produces more than 200 varieties of baked foods, including breads, cakes, cookies, and puff pastry sheets, which are supplied to high-end hotels, restaurants, coffee chains, and public institutions like hospitals in Singapore. It is well-trusted by Singaporeans, for both its product quality and production flow have been accredited by the strict international Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System in Food Safety on FSSC22000.
Director of BHF Simon Tay told us in the interview that he majored in engineering and was engaged in architectural industry, and that he started to join the bakery industry quite by accident. In 1988, with increasingly intense interest in bakery, Simon decided to take a bakery course in the Bakery College of Richemont Group. After he had worked his way through the college, he went back to Singapore and applied what he learnt to running a small bakery named BHF From then on, he started his own bakery career.
At the very beginning, the business didn’t go as well as Simon had imagined. He had to work as the boss, baker, salesman, and even deliveryman at the same time in order to control the operating cost and seek for further development. However, he was not intimidated by the difficulties and challenges coming one after another, and even moved in the shop. Speaking of the hardships in starting his business, he once told others, “the literal meanings of “persistence and perseverance’ are easy to understand, but they also denote that one has to consistently overcome difficulties in finance and operation when confronted with pressures on both his body and mind.”
Even when BHF has grown into a top bakery brand in Singapore today, Simon doesn’t believe that his brand could rest easy. “It is quite difficult to run a business in Singapore’s food industry as the cost is high and the rapid development of automation technology has outpaced the progress of our staff. We usually cannot find desirable workers.”
It Still Takes Time To Observe China Market
How to stand out of peer competitors and maintain the leading position in the industry? Simon believes that “there is no short cut for a food business”. He thinks that there are four essential, dispensable elements for a successful food business, i.e., quality, service, R&D, and personnel, which have always been valued by him for the past over 20 years.
On the government side, there is AVA that is responsible for inspecting food quality and safety, while on the enterprise side, the key is the integrity and self-discipline of relevant personnel. “The monitoring of product safety and quality is all dependent on human effort. We’ve got two specified staff who is in charge of monitoring product safety in order to ensure our product quality,” said Simon. They have not only obtained the Halal certificate, but also the international FSSC22000 certificate, meaning that their products already meet the global safety standard.
With the current remarkable achievements, BHF still progresses to develop new products. Take their latest products—Hayley cookies and puff pastry—for example. These products propose the trendiest concept of Healthy, Diet, and Vegetarian. They are well-received as soon as being launched in the market.
In fact, not only the Singapore’s bakery market is growing, the China’s market is also growing at an annual rate of 20%. It is even predicted that, by 2020, the turnover of China’s market will reach RMB 550 billion, which is a tempting “large piece of cake” to everyone.
But Simon holds a prudent attitude to the brand’s going into China. “We still need to wait and see, because China grows so fast and the local markets are so different from each other. It takes time for us to investigate and decide which city to launch and develop our brand.” He also told us that currently the cooperation with some large-scale Chinese chain supermarkets is under discussion. It is hoped that BHF’s products can meet Chinese costumers as soon as possible.
