Our origin story started way back in 2003, and you could say it was quite serendipitous. I think nowadays people will say we manifested it!

Although we grew up in different environments and households, my co-founders Karl, Raymond and I are all huge foodies. We all agree that our earliest memories of eating food have always been around family.

For Karl, as a multi-generation pastry chef from Germany, food has always been a deep connection to his ancestors, and for Raymond and I, as typical Singaporeans, food has always been the highlight of our family gatherings. I think this feeling of warmth and joy that all three of us associate with food pushed us to start Foodedge Gourmet and the Melvados brand. 

We must go back to the beginning

In 1996, I started a company called TransFlorand with Raymond and another friend, and our main job was to do cold-chain logistics. We transported chilled and frozen goods imported from the region such as milk and ice cream from the airport to the warehouse.

While doing this, we noticed a lot of imports of foreign-made ice creams that dominated the Singapore premium ice cream market. A small number of imports of dips and cheeses, yoghurts and other artisanal food were also being sent to the hotels.

To put it into context, during this time there were no gourmet speciality stores like you see today, and definitely no cafes and artisanal bakeries like now. What we consider normal now was very exotic and expensive back then, and not many people had access to fine European pastries or traditionally made gelato and ice creams.

Seeing this, I really felt that there was a gap in the market, and our first thought was to become a distributor based here in Singapore to bring in and introduce more of these ‘western’ products to the mainstream market.

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We even tried bringing in a few items from Australia to limited success. But the costs in distribution were not viable without scale, and to achieve scale, we had to have many more customers so it became like a chicken and egg problem.

That’s when I started thinking about how we could manufacture here in Singapore instead. 

The brewing idea

While this idea was brewing, I was coincidentally introduced to Karl, who was the head Chef and production manager of a food factory at that time. We became fast friends, and decided, together with Raymond, to take the plunge and start our own manufacturing plant.

At first, we only made gelato, ice cream and brownies. But as we went out in the market and more customers demanded more products, we had to open more lines of work, and today we have eight departments including a bakery, pastry baking, pastry finishing, hot kitchen, cold kitchen, snacks, ice cream and packing.

Foodedge Gourmet is the parent company and what we started with. It is primarily an outsource manufacturer and we serve cafe chains, hotels, airlines, restaurants and even catering companies.  

Melvados is our retail brand that we started to go direct to consumers. We noticed through our own life experiences first by becoming husbands and then by becoming fathers, life could get so busy and realised how important convenience was to us.

So, Melvados was built to be an easy heat and eat solution for families, covering the full range of starters all the way to desserts. We also have different options for the different levels of cooks such as sauces and pestos, so one can be more inventive and creative in the kitchen with heat and eat meals that require no effort.

We are also known for our ice creams and brownies, which are made with the same quality of ingredients that you can get in Europe.

Another key aspect of Melvados that is very close to our hearts is affordability. All three of us love good food, but we all grew up in the lower-middle class, so we wanted to sell good food that was reasonably priced. This remains our ethos until today. We are very mindful of the balance that is creating delicious products while still being wallet-friendly, and a large part of our R&D is focused on this. 

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I guess you could say how we manage Foodedge is a bit like a crew on a ship. Over the years we have had to constantly read the winds and pivot along. Most times, the tide has been on our side, smooth and steady, but sometimes the weather gets bad and we’ve had to brace ourselves.

Challenges and beyond

The most recent example of course is COVID-19, where our wholesale business dried up overnight as the lockdowns began. But on the flip side, Melvados sales soared as we served products that met the needs of staying at home perfectly.

Later this year, we will be opening our 9th outlet and the target is to have 15 in the next three years. We are also focusing on our snacks range and have introduced many new and unique flavours like our Gula Melaka Biscotti, Pisang Goreng Brittle and Ondeh Ondeh Brittle. In September, at the Food and Hotel Asia Exhibition, we will be unveiling our snack line for the first time on a global stage, and we are excited to see how we can break into this market as our third leg of business, not only through local distribution but through export as well. 

We continue to face challenges even though COVID-19 is subsiding such as the war in Ukraine which has severely affected supply chains and caused a huge spike in ingredient prices.

Manpower is also another big issue we continue to face as we try to grow. But we understand that this is part of business, so we are always finding solutions to keep moving forward. 

Often we get asked about investments and really super-charging the Melvados brand but overall I think our business is what you would call ‘old-fashioned’.

We move steadily and reinvest our profits to grow the business, and I think all three of us can agree that we have succeeded in our dream to finally own food business with the hard work of our own hands.

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Image credit: Melvados

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