It promises to be an exciting day for Lin Sheng-zhe and his classmates from Sandwo Elementary School in Taipei County, as they are scheduled to go on a field trip to a museum to have fun baking cakes and playing games. Making sweets and playing at a museum--to the students, it sounds almost too good to be true. Their hopes prove to be well founded, however, as soon as they arrive at the doorway of their destination, where two staffers bang out a hearty welcome on a gong and drum, exclaiming "Welcome to the Kuo Yuan Ye Culture Museum of Cake and Pastry!"
As many tours do, the schoolchildren's visit begins with a video. As this one documents how some of their favorite sweets are made, however, the students pay close attention. The film begins by discussing the wheat fields and sugarcane plantations where the raw ingredients for pastries are grown, before going on to present the complicated processes of producing flour, sugar and other key ingredients.
When the video is over, excitement peaks as the kids roll up their sleeves and get ready to do some baking. "You mix the butter and flour into dough and then put the dough into the mold," a chef in a tall white hat says while demonstrating the steps involved in preparing the cakes before baking. "Then you pick up the mold and pound on it once from straight above. After that you pound three times from the side. One, two, three ... and the red bean dough will fall right out!" The kids waste no time as they begin pounding and banging, enjoying themselves immensely. Such a noisy activity might be frowned upon at school, but at the pastry museum, it is encouraged and expected.
Kuo Yuan Ye Foods, one of Taiwan's leading pastry makers, established the cake and pastry museum--the island's first such institution--in 2001 in Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan to preserve and promote the rich heritage of traditional Chinese baked delicacies. Through its exhibits of cakes and cake molds, historical mementos and interactive games, the museum teaches visitors about the various kinds of pastries consumed in Taiwan for different occasions such as weddings, births, holiday celebrations and traditional festivals, as well as about how pastries have changed over the years.
"It's the first time I've ever baked cakes and it's so much fun!" Lin says. "I want to take what I've made back home to share with my parents. And I've learned about the history of pastries and some of the customs that go with them. Going on a field trip like this is a lot more interesting than just sitting in the classroom."
Curator Cheng Chao-wei says the company's museum aims to educate visitors--mostly elementary schoolchildren--about the history, culture and art of baking traditional Chinese pastries. It concentrates on doing so in a lively manner through guided tours and hands-on activities. Another of the museum's goals is to introduce visitors to various local pastry specialties like sun cakes from central Taiwan, square cakes from the south and taro cakes from the eastern coast.
"Our museum offers kids a direct way to learn about pastries--they can see them, touch them when they make them, smell them and finally taste them," Cheng says. "But more than that, they'll also learn something about the customs and traditions surrounding life's major events, as well as about the pastries that accompany them. All our activities are designed to reflect the role of what we call 'pastry culture' in daily life in an educational and entertaining manner."
The original Kuo Yuan Ye museum's approach proved to be so popular that the company decided to set up a similar facility in 2002 at its headquarters in the Shilin District of Taipei City. By March 2009, the two institutions had attracted a total of about 480,000 visitors.
The guided tours at the Taoyuan museum have recently been expanded to include a trip to the company's production facilities, which include the longest tunnel oven in Asia. Visitors get a chance to see every step of the procedures used to make pastries, ranging from mixing the ingredients to baking through to the quality control process and packaging operations. Cheng explains that last year his company secured certification under a system promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for industries that wish to open up their operations to tourists. The certification verifies that businesses such as Cheng's meet the government's cultural and educational standards for the tourism industry.
The public display of Kuo Yuan Ye's production facilities, Cheng says, also serves to assure customers of the company's product quality and safety. The knowledge that the public is watching has the further benefit of pushing employees to meet high management and food safety standards. The company's accomplishments along these lines can be seen in its extensive use of automated production equipment, as well as its certification of compliance with the government's Food Good Manufacturing Practice, he adds. The certification was issued by the MOEA after a rigorous, multi-step inspection of Kuo Yuan Ye's sanitation, quality and safety standards.
"We're in a highly competitive industry," Cheng says, "and one of the ways we're attempting to maintain our competitiveness is to establish interactive relations with [potential] customers. Operating the pastry museums and opening our factory to the public are two of the measures we've adopted to reach this aim. They seem to have had the effect of improving our corporate image and also boosting our industrial culture."
Schoolchildren learn how to make pastries under the instruction of a chef at Kuo Yuan Ye's museum. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
Industrial Microcosm
Kuo Yuan Ye has had plenty of time to develop that industrial culture, as its 142 years of continuous operations offer a microcosm of the history of Taiwan's pastry industry. Company founder Kuo Liang-zhen immigrated to Taiwan from mainland China's Fujian province in 1867 when the island was under Qing dynasty (1683-1895) rule. Once in Taiwan, he and his wife started up a small business at the foot of a bridge in Shilin, baking pastries in a clay oven and hawking their wares on the street from baskets suspended from bamboo shoulder poles. Some of their earliest products relied on old family recipes in the production of specialties like green bean cakes and cakes with a rock sugar filling, both of which are still popular today. Kuo named his business "Yuan Ye" after the name of his old family home in the town of Zhangzhou in Fujian province.
During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945), the second-generation head of the family business, Kuo Ba-qiu, switched to a brick oven and started making Japanese-style confections such as bread stuffed with red bean paste. Third-generation owner Kuo Qin-ding and his wife ran the store when the Republic of China government took over Taiwan in 1945 after Japan's defeat in World War II. As a result of the generations of effort by the Kuos, Kuo Yuan Ye gradually established a reputation for good quality and tasty products, resulting in a thriving business.
Kuo Qin-ding began running the company in 1926 and is particularly remembered for cultivating a solid base for Kuo Yuan Ye's eventual leadership in Taiwan's wedding cake industry, a lucrative and competitive market segment. To achieve growth, Kuo Qin-ding oversaw the automation of production lines, actively sought to improve baking techniques and developed new methods for freezing and storing semi-finished products, a step that proved instrumental in mass-producing cakes and pastries. He also broadened the company's line of traditional products while at the same time developing new confections to appeal to younger consumers hungry for a taste of something different.
After Kuo Qin-ding passed the operation of the family business down to his four sons in 1986, this fourth generation of owners recruited financial and management professionals to guide operations, thus facilitating the company's transformation from a traditional, family-run business into a modern enterprise. Another initiative promoted by the four sons was to aggressively expand the company's distribution network by setting up chain stores across Taiwan.
All these improvements in Kuo Yuan Ye's operations proved crucial in helping the company navigate a rough patch in the late 1980s when market demand for traditional Chinese pastries started to decline as competition from imported Western baked goods increased and the preferences of local consumers began to change.
Li Hui-xi, manager of Kuo Yuan Ye's sales department, says that to meet these challenges, the company began to focus on developing new products and flavors while also renovating its store layouts to give them a sleek, modern appearance. This renovation effort was aimed at creating a pleasant shopping environment through the installation of attractive window displays and pleasant interiors. The emphasis on new products and fresher store layouts was part of the company's ongoing effort to market itself to younger consumers, as Kuo Yuan Ye's research indicates this age group tends to spend more on pastries than older customers.
Citing the increasingly Westernized eating habits of young people in Taiwan, Li says the company has recognized the need to add Western pastries to its product line. Today, Kuo Yuan Ye's offerings include such non-Chinese confections as butter, coffee and yogurt cookies, cheesecakes, almond pies, honey pancakes, chocolates and candies. These Western-style confections are in high demand and currently account for 70 percent of the company's total sales. Along with adapting its business strategy to accommodate the tastes of younger customers, Li says that Kuo Yuan Ye is also working to keep up with today's growing health consciousness by offering baked goods that come in smaller portions and are low in fat and sugar.
Updating Traditions
In addition to its foray into Western pastries, the company continues to produce traditional Chinese delicacies with fillings of green and red bean paste, pineapple and lotus seeds, as well as savory pastries filled with braised pork, mushrooms and egg yolks. However, Li says that Kuo Yuan Ye realizes the need to continue introducing new Chinese-style offerings, and has thus developed new fillings including green tea, curry and pureed fruits like banana, mango, orange, peach, litchi and pomelo. The Taiwanese pastry maker has also branched out into Japanese-style pastries through technical cooperation with Japanese counterparts. As a result, it has established two sub-brands--KIMURAYA, which was founded in 2002 and sells Japanese-style bread and cakes; and L'Affection, which was founded in 2003 and offers handmade cookies that are largely made of whole wheat flour and other natural ingredients.
While the taste of its products is of vital importance, Kuo Yuan Ye also understands that its goods must be presented in an attractive manner, so it has placed a greater emphasis on packaging with creative overall designs, environmentally friendly materials and expressive themes. "We've developed different styles of packaging for our various products," Li says. "Regardless of whether they have a traditional or modern look, the packages are all designed to be eye-catching while conveying significant meaning. We also work to ensure that they are recyclable and reusable as containers."
Kuo Yuan Ye has ventured into the wedding services sector as one of its strategies to diversify its business scope and sustain growth momentum. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
Adrian Kwong, a 60-year-old tourist from Hong Kong, says he always visits a Kuo Yuan Ye store when he travels to Taiwan. "I've savored their cakes for some 30 years," he says. "I think they still retain the flavor of the originals, even after all these years. I particularly like their pineapple cakes--they're really tasty and the flavor lingers on my taste buds. I also notice that they've created many new flavors and their package designs are beautiful, which makes their products ideal gifts for friends and relatives."
Building on the success of its domestic sales, Kuo Yuan Ye has been endeavoring to reach out overseas. Terry Cheng, manager of the company's International Department, says the pastry maker now markets its products in Japan, Southeast Asia, Canada and the United States, where they are sold in duty-free shops, department stores and upscale supermarkets. Cheng says that the company is particularly proud of making inroads into Japan because being able to meet that country's strict regulatory standards for food products is a testament to Kuo Yuan Ye's quality.
The company's main line of exports is Chinese-style specialties that feature a soft pastry shell wrapped around various pureed fruit fillings such as banana, pineapple, mango and litchi. "Taiwan produces a wide variety of excellent quality fruit," Cheng says, "and we want to do our part to promote locally grown fruit around the world." Cheng takes special pride in the fact that his company's products are able to remain fresh for six to nine months after baking without requiring any artificial preservatives. "With our advanced production facilities and use of quality ingredients, our products are able to remain flavorful for an extended period of time after they're baked," he says.
Wedding War Winner
Kuo Yuan Ye has spread out across Taiwan with 31 sales outlets, helping it to consolidate its position in an important part of the pastry market--that for wedding cakes. In Chinese societies in the past, such cakes have mostly been presented as gifts for guests at engagement banquets, but they are increasingly being given to guests at wedding banquets in Taiwan today. Currently, the company controls 25 percent of the sector on the island, the largest share held by any single player. Li Hui-xi says his company has launched 40 kinds of wedding cake gift sets with different combinations of traditional Chinese and Western styles and flavors, as well as various pricing levels for customers to choose from.
Reflecting its strong position in this market, Kuo Yuan Ye has been picked as the "Ideal Brand" in the category of wedding cakes every year since 2002 in annual consumer surveys conducted by Management Magazine, a monthly publication produced by Taiwan-based Harvard Management Services Inc. Still, like most of its rival vendors, Kuo Yuan Ye has been confronted with shrinking demand for wedding cakes in recent years as fewer couples make the decision to tie the knot. Li says that currently, about 120,000 couples in Taiwan are married each year, whereas not long ago, the figure was closer to 200,000.
As Li points out, however, while wedding cake sales have slowed, the company has been able to more than make up for the lost income by expanding into providing general wedding services, an overall market worth more than NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) annually in Taiwan. In contrast, the market for wedding cakes is worth only about NT$6 billion (US$180 million) in total. Kuo Yuan Ye entered the wedding services sector in 2006 by setting up K.L. Wedding Co. in Taipei. K.L. Wedding assistant manager Coco Wu says that the customer trust built up by the Kuo Yuan Ye brand name in the pastries market has helped the company make a smooth entry into the wedding services industry. In addition to investing in building a wedding photo studio complete with a wedding gown display area and a luxurious hairstyling and makeup area, K.L. Wedding has also teamed up with some of the island's renowned photographers, bridal gown designers, hairstylists and makeup artists to offer a wide range of wedding services. To expand its offerings even further, Wu says that K.L. Wedding is now working on a plan to offer one-stop wedding services by seeking cooperative ventures with hotels, restaurants, florists and travel agencies.
Yu Han-yu, a young woman trying on gowns at K.L. Wedding, says her mother asked that she buy wedding cakes from Kuo Yuan Ye because of the company's reputation for delivering delicious cakes with reliable quality. Then, when Yu and her mother were ordering the cakes at a Kuo Yuan Ye store, they found out that the company also provided wedding services. They decided to take advantage of the company's ongoing special offer that combines wedding cakes with bridal photography. "My fiancé and I are both very busy, and we are running out of time as our wedding date is just around the corner," Yu says. "That's why I'm glad to find integrated services like this. Plus, their bridal and pastry business sections keep close communication with each other, so I don't have to double check everything with separate shops. That saves me a lot of trouble."
By offering quality products and services, as well as enlarging its business scope, the venerable pastry maker has gained a competitive edge in a fiercely contested market. "You've got to pay attention to changes in customers' tastes and needs, and offer something new in established parts of the market to keep pace with the times," sales manager Li Hui-xi says. "The principle that our company has passed down from generation to generation is that of innovation--which should be part of the recipe for success for every business as well."
Perhaps young Lin Sheng-zhe and his classmates visiting the Culture Museum of Cake and Pastry are a bit too young to think about taking advantage of the company's innovative wedding product combinations. For such students, Kuo Yuan Ye's aims are to impart an understanding that what appears to be a simple pastry is actually the result of the effort of many people and a lengthy production process, as well as to give them insight into the local customs associated with such confections. Still, given the company's recent expansion into the matrimonial market, if and when Lin's wedding day finally does roll around, there is a growing chance that the pastry maker will play a part in it as well.
Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw