Want a quick hot pot meal? It’s available!
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A good, steaming hot pot knows no season. Although traditionally thought of as winter fare, the spicy meal can be just as addictive in the heat of summer, helping the body to work up a sweat to cool itself.
But if you’re on the go and want a quick hot pot, then think Fairiemor.
The Minhang-based Mo Xiao Xian Food Co makes the Fairiemor brand of hot pot packets that are self-heating and portable. They are produced at a manufacturing center in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, where hot pot cuisine originated.
In the three years since the brand hit the market, the company has earned revenue of 400 million yuan (US$62.52 million), making it the second-largest brand of its kind in the industry.
Wang Zhengqi, founder and chief executive officer of the company, has been working in the food industry since graduating from university with a finance degree. He first started his business selling cooking oil in 2008, and then he expanded to food imports in 2012 under the new company name Haoteng International Trading Co.
Then came a change of direction.
“When on business trips abroad, I noticed there were few Chinese instant food choices in many foreign markets,” he said.
Indeed, he saw opportunity in a huge, largely untapped market. So he switched from food importer to food exporter and renamed the company Mo Xiao Xian.
“People are always after freshness in food, and for instant food products, taste is especially important,” Wang said.
The company is constantly trying to improve the taste.
Normally, beef tallow is the base of a traditional hot pot, but to cater to the public’s demand for healthier food, Fairiemor combines the tallow with chicken and plant oils.
Wang has no qualms about revealing the “secret recipe.” He said it’s not the ingredients but the right proportion that delivers the good taste.
The hot pot packets use potatoes and lotus root, sliced to just the right thinness to allow retention of some crunchiness during the 5-minute heating process. Precise amounts of water and starch are also stipulated in the manufacturing process.
Various peppers, onion and other ingredients are ground into a powder used as a flavor pack.
“When we develop a new product, we purchase all similar products in the market and taste them all,” Wang said. “We will try to figure out how we can improve the taste and what we should avoid.”
Plans to expand the brand were interrupted last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Still, sales during lockdown periods quadrupled last year.
“In 2015, our company successfully introduced a kind of Turkish biscuit that was a top seller online, so we have experience in food marketing,” Wang said.
A Fairiemor hot pot packet costs just under 20 yuan, which Wang said is a bit lower than other self-heating instant food brands.
To be price competitive, costs are saved elsewhere. For example, packaging is kept relatively simple and small. That saves 2.5 yuan per packet, he said.
For online sales, the packets are sent directly from manufacturing sites to circumvent middlemen. The product is promoted through many online stores and sites instead of one flagship store. It can be found on platforms like Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili and Little Red Book.
“Our customer research shows us that our largest group of buyers is aged between 16 and 30,” said Wang. “They are mostly people who work late, and after that, college students.”
The design of the packaging uses traditional Chinese ink-brush calligraphy, with a clean, net color scheme that aims to be eye-catching.
“Public tastes change very quickly, and we launch new flavors every year,” Wang said.
Fairiemor is expanding beyond its signature hot pot product. Among new products are instant sesame paste noodles and spicy bean jelly.
“We try to follow the trends of public taste,” Wang said.
The company is also moving toward promotion of offline sales. Its products are now sold in supermarkets nationwide in China, as well as in countries like Australia and New Zealand.
In 2020, the brand won a three-star Superior Taste Award from the International Taste Institute in Brussels.
According to Wang, the market for self-heating hot pots is likely to reach 80 billion yuan. At the end of 2020, Fairiemor had secured about 8 percent of the self-heating market.
“It’s a long run to expand in the food industry, and it requires a team effort on product development, marketing and everything,” Wang said.
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