Maker of famed mainland steamed buns to open Taiwan outlet under JV
A famed stuffed bun producer that's been selling its product for 151 years on the mainland will open its first Taiwan outlet under an agreement signed Tuesday.
The outlet, to be set up in Taichung City, will be operated by a joint venture of Tianjin Goubuli Group Corp., based in the northern port city of Tianjin, and Taiwan Jianhua Group, according to the cooperation agreement.
Each will hold a 50 percent stake in the joint venture. The exact sum of investment has not been decided.
Tianjin Goubuli will provide technology transfers, the rights to use the brand name and management expertise.
"The Taiwan outlet will mainly offer the traditional Goubuli stuffed buns and its classic menu," said Zhang Yansen, board chairman of Tianjin Goubuli.
"The outlet will adopt the pure traditional craft, such as the chopping of meat stuffing by hand," Zhang said. "To achieve this, we will dispatch the chefs from Tianjin to the outlet."
There are various explanations of how Goubuli got its name. Themost popular is that a poor village boy nicknamed "gouzhai" (puppy) went to Tianjin and apprenticed himself at a food shop at the age of 14. Years later, he started his own business making steamed stuffed buns.
Each bun has 15 folds and looks like a chrysanthemum.
Goubuli's 2008 sales were 1 billion yuan (146 million U.S. dollars).
