There’s still a big demand for organic, fairtrade products as locals become increasingly aware of healthy living, says Calista Chan, owner of vegetarian takeaway and organic, fairtrade products retail shop Concept H. Ms. Chan tells Business Daily that her shop, mainly targeting locals, would like to bring the culture of healthy diet and living to all ordinary citizens Why did you decide to create Concept H and open the shop? One of the main reasons is that there are many organic shops in Macau that are opened or operated by foreigners but there aren’t really a lot of Cantonese speakers who are keen on promoting the concept of organic products, living healthily and green to the local community. The majority of the population here in Macau are Chinese who wouldn’t necessarily frequent organic shops that require English language skills to be a customer. That’s why we see a demand in the market. That’s when the idea came to me to open a shop with this concept. On the other hand, food is very significant to our health. Many times we see urban people get ill because of the bad, oily food they eat. You cannot control the amount of monosodium glutamate (MSG) you consume when dining out. Unhealthy diet finally results in an imbalance of nutrition in one’s body. Personally, I used to have stomach problems but since I’ve adopted a healthy diet the problems have gone. That’s why here at Concept H we want to offer the kind of food that’s different from common restaurants. For example, the rice we have is prepared from vegetables of five different colours. The nutrition is more balanced and it’s of a lighter taste compared to other food outlets. We don’t add MSG at all and the seasonings are carefully selected for products, such as extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. What do you mainly offer here in your shop? We currently have two main businesses. One is vegetarian takeaway. We make quick, innovative vegetarian food such as hamburger and oatmeal. They can be freshly prepared in a relatively short time so that people can have them to take away quickly and eat back in the office. The other one is retail – organic and fairtrade products. The products come from all over the world; the closest from Hong Kong and also Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Also, a lot of products come from Europe where they have a very high standard for organic food. And they are also certified non-genetically modified foods – non-GMO food. How did you become aware of the concept of green, organic food and living style? Actually, I was in very different fields such as tourism and the hotel industry. But I majored in environmental studies. That’s why I’ve always been interested in these aspects. In addition, I lived in Seattle for five years. I was more exposed to this kind of culture and had more opportunities to learn about it. I’ve been paying a lot of attention when preparing my own meals. So, I’d like to combine the ideas of vegetarianism, organic and green – and promote the whole concept so that more people are aware of it. In addition, I wanted to engage in some areas that I’d learned about, related to the environment in general. We are also advocating being environmentally friendly here in the shop. For example, the boxes we use are made of recycled paper. There’s a discount if you bring your own lunchbox to take the food away in. If you bring your own containers for the products we sell, there will be a 5 per cent discount. There are also other policies encouraging people not to use plastic bags, or disposable tableware, or not wasting stuff. Why did you choose Rua de Henrique de Macedo for your shop? First of all, it’s a very local neighbourhood. In addition, it’s very near the Central district, Tap Sac, Rua do Campo. The ground floor has been up and running since our opening late last year. And we’ve recently taken the upper floor although we’re still formulating ideas about what to do with it. I’m planning to organise workshops, such as cooking classes, nutrition seminars and the promotion of fairtrade awareness. Why do you want to bring fairtrade products to Macau? Fairtrade is an organization that helps farmers in third-world countries. They teach them the techniques of agriculture and give them some standards so that the products are of higher quality. Meanwhile, they have councils set up helping the regions manage their agriculture industry so that they won’t be exploited by traders and monopolies who play with the prices. A portion of the profits of fairtrade products goes directly back to the farmers. That’s one of the reasons why these fine products are not necessarily of a higher price. For example, the fairtrade coffee we have here is no more expensive than elsewhere. Traditionally, cultivated coffee is very low cost but when selling through a big chain or monopolised brands, traders at each level would take part of the profits thus the goods for sale to regular customers ended up being very expensive. What do you think of the awareness of healthy diets and living style among the local community? In the beginning, our aim was to promote the idea to the local community. We’ve come to understand that compared to the younger generation the elderly have more trouble accepting the concept. They have the stereotype that organic, fairtrade and vegetarian products are more expensive. They are more price sensitive. Youngsters usually have a higher acceptance of the idea. A lot of our customers are office ladies, people working nearby, or mothers. Sometimes they’re searching especially for organic food and when they hear about us they come to pay us a visit and shop here. One thing I didn’t expect is that there is a diversity of nationalities living in this neighbourhood. We have a lot of Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese customers, as well as Portuguese. They come here to shop for the products or take our meals. How is the business going so far? We haven’t taken back the initial investment yet. It’s actually not a lot. For example, the decoration of the shop is quite simple and we’ve made a lot of stuff ourselves such as assembling the shelves and painting the blackboard. The main cost lies in the kitchen appliances, machines and initial product sourcing. But since the opening of the shop at the end of last year we’ve managed to more or less break even on a monthly basis with the rent, inventory and operating costs, etc. What kind of marketing approaches have you adopted, and what’s most effective in your opinion? We haven’t used a lot of flyers since they’re not very environmentally friendly. The effectiveness of publicity is not very high using papers. We mainly use social media such as Facebook and WeChat to promote our brand. We’re preparing the launch of our own website as well. You can send enquiries and place orders through these social media. The video on our Facebook page is mainly to explain what we do so that it’s easier for people to understand. The effect of social media is quite strong in Macau as it’s a relatively small place. When people hear about you it’s not that difficult to find you. Especially during holidays, we see a lot of new faces who are not regular customers that come especially because they’ve heard about us. Nowadays, for food takeaway, there are usually regular customers who work nearby and come here for lunch. For retail, I’m very happy to see a lot of return customers that have recognized our products being of good quality and even introduce them to their friends. For instance, we have quinoa here, and people that like it share the information by word-of-mouth and they will come here and buy. What makes your shop special compared to other organic shops we see in Macau? Many organic shops here in Macau import their products from Taiwan or a single origin. However, since we also engage in promoting fairtrade products you can see that the goods we offer come from a variety of places. They are more diverse. In addition, we pay extra attention to selecting these products. We wouldn’t choose products that contain preservatives or additives. Moreover, some other organic shops appear to be more ‘high-end’ but we really like to bring the idea of healthy diet and living to all ordinary residents. Human resources are one of the main difficulties in running a business in Macau. Have you encountered such problems? Actually, our recruitment requirement is quite simple, which is [employees] can work here stably for a long period. We thought about this and it came to our mind that some housewives are not employed but have lots of spare time. They are our ideal kind of employees. We also welcome university students who would like to gain some work experience. Of course, when we expand our business in the future, it will require more specialised and experienced staff. Have you sought government support, as you are a young entrepreneur start-up running a small and medium-sized business? We’re considering it. When we expand and enlarge our scope of business, we may need support as it would require larger amounts of funding. But since in the beginning the initial investment was not that much we didn’t apply. We’ll consider it in the future. What’s your idea of expanding? We’d like to do more promotional events advocating the ideas of nutrition, fairtrade, organic, and concepts of this sort. We’d also like to take up the role of distributor if there’s an opportunity. Have you considered partnering other organizations, like fitness centres, to supply nutritious meals or provide catering? Customers ask whether we could cater nutritious meals. Some people see the meals we offer here and think that they’re for people who want to lose weight. But actually everyone needs to adopt a healthier and more balanced diet. That’s why we would like to team up with nutritionists and see if there are more opportunities to explore. The most ideal scene is to partner up with schools and provide nutritious meals for children like lunch. It’s been long operating in Hong Kong but few schools provide food in Macau.
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