YouLiang Offers the Promise of an Advanced, Intelligent Food Preparation System and a Global Rebrand of Chinese Food

YouLiang is on a mission to expand its upgraded model outside of China to help standardize and expedite the food preparation industry, and they are kicking off with what they know best - Chinese food. There are an estimated 800,000 to 1 million Chinese restaurants in the world, outside of China; YouLiang is gearing up to partner with them, and in doing so, enhance the quality and image of Chinese cuisine around the world.

Closed-loop "operating system" ensures an efficient model and safe product

YouLiang's closed-loop "operating system" for the food industry oversees and manages the entire food production and delivery process - from the farm to the factory, to inside the kitchen and at last into the hands of consumers.

Every participant in the supply chain from growers to couriers adheres to YouLiang's standardized procedures, with industrial and food standards applied at each step in the chain. From the quality of ingredients to the packaging design of the takeaway box, consumers are assured of high standards. The result is a standardized supply chain that ensures customers food that is safe, high quality and, when it comes to take-out, delivered on time.

Founder and CEO of YouLiang, Wang Xingzhou, says that while in the traditional model, restaurant owners take responsibility for every decision at each step, from purchasing supplies to customer delivery, in their system they represent just one part in a closed-loop industrial chain, with the rest being taken care of by YouLiang.

"YouLiang will help restaurants become standardized, digitized and intelligent in their ingredients supply, product design and workflow. Our partner restaurants don't need to worry about any product, technical or operational issues."

The company's data-centric system digitizes the total supply chain process to track, analyse and manage the data flow, with all ingredients and food transferred to data for this purpose. It allows restaurants to predict, for instance, how many customers they will likely have on a particular day, the corresponding amounts of food to prepare or how many staff to roster, enabling restaurants to accelerate the food preparation process, understand consumer behavior or estimate future revenue. In working with its partners abroad, YouLiang also provides its expert taste and interior design teams with the extensive experience necessary to localize food and enhance a restaurant's brand image.

By teaming up with YouLiang, restaurants are left to focus on doing what they should be doing best, which is preparing delicious food.

The birth of a new cooperation model for the food industry

It was during the four years Wang Xingzhou spent jointly running a take-out only restaurant that he sensed the potential for the introduction of a new interconnected and standardized system for the food industry.

YouLiang (in English, it translates roughly to Premium Foods) launched its business in 2014 using a take-out only model to supply the need for standardized and healthy food delivery. But its competitive advantage lay in its intelligent system that improves the speed and quality in food services provision. The company started off cooperating with restaurants, making use of their kitchens during downtimes to prepare the food following strict guidelines; it has since grown into a full-scale partnership model that includes over 200 restaurants who work solely for, and comply with the requirements and safety standards set by YouLiang.

YouLiang offers a standardized menu of take-out dishes acceptable to the Chinese public's palate and growing health consciousness. They have delivered takeout to more than 30 million customers in China, with the service covering 40 Chinese cities. Under its new global partnership program, the unique accelerator-style system designed for better Chinese food is expanding worldwide. Partners in Europe have already signed up with YouLiang for future cooperation.

Building a new global brand for Chinese food

Wang Xingzhou says the market's tolerance for processed food in both China and the US has been fading for some time: people want fresher, healthier food.

Also, while Chinese food will always remain a staple on the foreign take-out scene in the US and other countries, its brand image is sometimes unfavorable - viewed as the unhealthy option with other negative stigmas attached such as too much oil, salt or MSG.

Data also indicates the Chinese food industry in the US has considerable space for improvement, with an average lower consumer rating when compared to that across all restaurant categories in Yelp.

YouLiang's closed-loop operating system and restaurant cooperation model has proved a success in working with restaurants in China and attracting the modern, health-conscious Chinese consumer. Now through its Global Business Partner Recruitment program, the company wants to introduce its upgraded system into overseas markets and promote a new branding of "healthy Chinese food" to the world.

For locally established restaurants in the US, many fixed parts of their neighbourhoods and attracting their own loyal patrons, YouLiang's intelligent system provides them the opportunity to further boost their popularity through improvements in taste, quality, speed of preparation and an overall better customer experience.

Wang Xingzhou says the company's technical expertise and experience in product and system design will also enable other Chinese brands go abroad in the future. "Our definition of future food is 'delicious, healthy and scientific' and we are prepared to bring it to consumers worldwide," said Wang.

About YouLiang

YouLiang Technology Inc. is a leading Chinese food service provider for its unique closed-loop food preparation model for restaurants. The Beijing-based company started business in 2014 and grow to a known food service provider nationwide, having served more than 30 million consumers and established exclusive cooperation with more than 200 partners in China.

SOURCE YouLiang Technology Inc.