“My mission in life is to feed 100 million people with healthy, convenient and affordable vegetarian food. It does not matter whether they consume from my brand,” said Justin Chou, co-founder of vegetarian restaurant chain Greendot Gourmet.
One way he has identified to achieve his aim is through refreshing the hawker trade which has been characterised by mature workers who are using outdated food preparation methods and is currently facing a challenge in attracting the younger generation.
As a NTUC U SME partner, Justin volunteered his help to NTUC U SME last year where he rallied 14 ‘Gen 2’ food and beverage brands to pilot ‘Hawker 3.0’ at a NTUC Foodfare hawker centre in the second half of 2017. As part of the project, Justin took the lead to design training at Greendot for aspiring ‘hawkerpreneurs’.
The company is also in discussion with NTUC LearningHub and NTUC Foodfare to build a ‘Hawker Academy’ with Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications and SkillsFuture training modules.
Additionally, Greendot has been working closely with NTUC U SME to further develop its business.
“U SME has really widened our network and linked us to a huge resource pool. Through the management courses and dialogues that they organised, I’ve also kept abreast of the best practices and industry changes. This has helped us to steer our company better and implement structured welfare for our employees,” said co-founder Fu Yong Hong.
Both founders have also committed to “be there wherever NTUC needs” as they truly believe in the benefits the U network can bring to the small- and medium-sized enterprises and their workers.
Nominated by NTUC U SME
