Sunright Foods, established in 1975, prides itself on the ethos of "doing things right under the sun," a principle emphasized by our Chairman. This spirit has been passed down for 48 years. Today, with over 400 products and more than 5,000 customers, Sunright Foods is the leading brand in Taiwan's small-package cereal food sector, says Li Caihui, General Manager of Sunright Foods, during the C2M Digital Transformation Benchmark Case Study Sharing Conference.
Through the "SalesKing APP," data across the entire province is collected in real-time and accurately! For food manufacturers, creating a bestselling and long-lasting product is not easy.
Sunright Foods, which started with manufacturing flour, sesame oil, and noodles, developed new-generation blockbuster products such as "Spicy Crab Vermicelli" and "Thai-style Spicy Wide Noodles" through the C2M project. These products have been successfully promoted and listed on Amazon.
Li emphasizes that one of Sunright Foods' key missions is to continue developing natural, convenient, and healthy foods while co-creating excellence with customers. Therefore, we place great importance on quality control and consumer health issues.
Sunright Foods is highly proactive in embracing digital thinking and staying current with industry trends. For example, they won the "First Digital Transformation Pinnacle Award" in the excellent operations category for SMEs, hosted by Harvard Business Review, and are also focusing on ESG governance, including carbon and water footprints, aiming to take responsibility for society and the planet.
As an OEM manufacturer, Sunright Foods' past business model mainly relied on producing goods according to overseas customers' requirements. This often left them feeling that they lacked the disruptive innovation needed to make significant market impacts. However, through industry guidance from the Business Development Research Institute, including PoC and PoB validation processes, they gained a clearer understanding of product functionality needs, reducing new product development time from six months to three months.
Addressing past challenges in product development, Li mentions, "We used to work in isolation, relying on trial and error. Often, this process was lengthy and based on guesses about current market trends. As an international market player, we knew we couldn't afford to rely solely on internal assumptions."
By using the Business Development Research Institute’s data platform and SaaS services, Sunright Foods reduced new product research time by 67% and product launch cycles by 50% through four key stages: data collection, competitive analysis, specification analysis, and packaging design.
The first stage involves collecting data through the Business Development Research Institute’s platform, covering over 200,000 Amazon price and review data for products based on mung beans, potatoes, and konjac. Complementary data from YouTube revealed key terms like allergies, gluten-free, and vegetarian. This led to competitive product analysis and identified high-potential markets for health-focused, transparent vermicelli products.
Next, Sunright Foods focused on low-calorie, gluten-free, and vegetarian vermicelli, and then moved to competitive specification analysis. Li highlights, "To ensure product quality, we had our vermicelli tested by SGS to verify it was truly gluten-free."
Packaging design also plays a crucial role in product success. "Our data showed that the color representing health is yellow, and spicy elements are red, so we incorporated yellow into our packaging design and continually optimized the images," Li adds.
Pricing strategy is another vital element. With transparent online information, consumers are used to comparing prices before purchasing. Li notes, "Thanks to the information provided by the Business Development Research Institute, we were able to confidently set prices based on large data sets, even when initially uncertain."
Upon completing product development and setting prices, Sunright Foods conducted validation tests on Amazon. The performance of these two new products showed significant growth compared to past products, with impressive results.
The success of these new products in the market is also attributed to effective product page descriptions. Sunright Foods highlighted key features like "varied flavors," "international certification," "low GI gluten-free," "freezing technology patents," and "no preservatives," offering consumers a multi-faceted experience of exotic cuisine, healthy taste, and peace of mind.
In just four months, Sunright Foods leveraged the C2M program and data-driven insights to collect data, analyze competitors, quickly develop new products, and list them on Amazon. This demonstrates that even as an OEM, embracing digital transformation trends can lead to successful development of distinctive blockbuster products.
Digital transformation efforts will continue, with Li emphasizing that they will use sales data to identify new development directions and refine sales forecasts and inventory management to ensure successful product sales.
Consumer feedback is also crucial. Li mentions that they monitor popular discussion topics on YouTube and noticed a market demand for spicier and tangier products. Consequently, Sunright Foods is launching a new, spicier version of their Spicy Crab Vermicelli to meet market needs, continuing the C2M spirit.
Finally, Li concludes with a quote from a Song Dynasty poem: "Searching for spring all day, yet spring remains unseen… Spring is already on the branch," sharing this with all business owners. The springtime for SMEs lies within C2M, offering the long-sought solutions for the manufacturing industry. Partnering with the Business Development Research Institute can help businesses achieve digital transformation, continuing their value and legacy.