Roujiamo chain store attains global influence
Chinese fast-food chain Bingz which specializes in roujiamo was co-founded by Meng Bing and his partners Luo Gaojing, Yuan Zelu, and Song Xin in 2014. They graduated from notable universities and used to work in the IT industry. Holding dreams of entrepreneurship, they resigned from their well-paying jobs and embarked on the entrepreneurial path with roujiamo, a famous local cuisine from Xi'an.
Why roujiamo?
Meng Bing is a Shaanxi local. As the founder and CEO of Bingz, he graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University with a major in automation, and later worked as an engineer at Tencent and Baidu. When asked why he chose to start the business with roujiamo, Meng Bing replied that roujiamo and hamburgers have the same nature, boasting substantial popularity globally. Therefore, roujiamo can be a good fit for a global chain.
The path to standardization
After quitting the internet company, Meng Bing returned to Xi'an, becoming an apprentice to learn how to make roujiamo. He finished the apprenticeship in a month, yet a tough problem arose. In order to open a roujiamo store in Beijing, he had to give up the traditional method of baking with an open fire. One reason is that in many places, open fire is not allowed. And the bun can easily get blackened with fire. However, if he directly switched to using an electric oven, the crispy texture would be hard to attain.
After half a year of research, with 2500 kilos of flour and 1000 kilos of meat, Meng Bing was able to reproduce the crispy texture with an electric oven fully. In his words, "Making the roujiamo is not that complicated, yet it is challenging to have the traditional process standardized, scaled, and automated."
The most popular roujiamo among the global stores
Launching ceremony of Bingz
As Meng Bing recalled, on the opening day of the first store in Beijing in 2014, 1200 roujiamo were sold. Half a year later, 1 million roujiamo were sold. Since then, the brand entered rapid development. In 2016, Bingz received 12.6 million USD in Series B financing. In 2017, the team developed a user feedback system. In March 2018, the global brand Bingz was officially launched.
Chinese fast-food chain Bingz, which specializes in roujiamo, or Chinese-style burgers, opens its first store in Toronto, Canada, in 2021. CHINA DAILY
In November 2019, the branch company in Canada was established, becoming the first Chinese fast-food chain enterprise to operate directly in North America. In January 2020, the holding company of Bingz was set up in Singapore.
So, which roujiamo is favored the most among the overseas stores? Meng Bing said, "Our menus are generally the same in different countries, but each has its localized elements. For example, the butter chicken roujiamo is a best-selling product."
In Meng Bing's view, the key to starting a business is to put value on it. "We hope to promote our own culinary cultural symbol, which shall happen in our generation. If someone has to make it happen, I hope it's me."
