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Yiping Goh, a 39-year-old Singaporean, and her Spanish husband Carlos Bañón, 43, traveled to Spain twice a year to visit his family and friends in the pre-pandemic times.
However, as Covid-19 restricted travel, they were unable to travel to Spain for the past two years. In addition to family and friends, they really miss the local food, such as Spanish wines and food, such as the new slice of Iberian ham (Spanish ham), olives and cheese.
“That [became] a project to directly import our favorite Spanish pastries and wines to satisfy our desires and also to share what we know about Spain with our friends and relatives. We also saw a large representation of Spanish gourmets and wines here in Singapore, despite being a food paradise, ”Yiping said.
“Every time we share the private storage we brought from our Spanish travels, our friends love them. So a few years ago, we always thought that Spanish food and wine could be unused here. Finally, the roadblocks pushed us to take action. “
The couple went on to establish themselves The weather CasaJulian – Named after Carlos’s ex-mother – October 2021, which is mainly a “passion project” born out of the late nights that feed the second newborn.
They are not beginner entrepreneurs
The pair may be green for the F&B scene, but both are not new to the business world.
Yiping is the creator of the series technology. Lippo Group is the former founder of AllDealsAsia and MatahariMall (Indonesia), the same group that produced the unicorn OVO. He is now a venture capitalist and a partner in Quest Ventures, which sponsors household names like Carousell, ShopBack, Carro, 99.co, Style Theory, SGAG and Ion Mobility.
He also has an award-winning architecture firm, Carlos Subarquitectura, and is also a professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
They had already done some research work a few years ago, so when all the other parties came together, they were finally ready to start the business.
However, although they are both seasoned entrepreneurs, they have faced some challenges in navigating the import and F&B business, which is “quite foreign” to their regular work in technology and design.
For example, they had difficulty finding the right partners to work for in Spain, mainly because they were a start-up and could not meet the minimum purchase volume set by the suppliers.
“We had to convince our suppliers that Singapore is a new market worthy of achieving this fine balance and crushing it,” Carlos said.
In fact, the couple believes that the palate preferences of Asians are similar to those of Europeans, and that our tastes are compatible with Spanish food.
“We love our seafood, meat, rice, cold dishes and enjoy good wines. But as Singapore’s Spanish cuisine is newer to the Italian and French scene, there is still no knowledge of Spanish food, ”he added.
“Spanish wines are as good as other wines from the old world, if not better, but less well known and underrated. In fact, because of their similar quality, Spanish wines are usually less valuable. ”
Bringing part of Spain to Singapore
CasaJulia is basically an online marketplace that directly imports your favorite Spanish foods, such as ham, rare wines, olive oil and cheeses, to your doorstep.
For those who don’t know, jam is one of the best hams in the world and has been named one of the national treasures of Spanish cuisine. Just as Japan has its precious Kobe beef and sashimi, Spain is proud of its Iberian ham.
Like many other foods, they are expensive – prices can range from $ 1,000 to about 8 to 9 pounds, depending on their grade, which is determined by the parents of the pigs, their feeding and the duration of their aging.
“They (Iberian black pigs) grow up in humane and free conditions, [which] some say [are] the most luxurious conditions, ”Yiping said, justifying his price.
According to the couple, they have tried and tasted all the products that appear on their platform for their Spanish and Singaporean palates. So far, their best sellers are Iberian ham legs, sliced packs and wines.
In fact, the couple has seen a tendency to gift ham at holidays like Christmas.
“For the Chinese New Year, we are seeing more friends this season where our jamon is nicknamed the Spanish version of bak kwa or‘ atas ’bak kwa, especially when it comes to split packages. It’s funny, but it has some resonance. They’re also healthier, but they’re delicious. “
As for their wines, they originate all over Spain, including “undiscovered” regions and rising wineries, their first batches being made up of only hundreds or thousands of bottles.
“We import [our wines] Directly from Spain, working with local and high-level sommelier there, ”Carlos shared.
“In particular, we have this crazy weird underwater wine, Attis Mar, which was submerged under the Atlantic Ocean because of its aging process – something special that makes white wine more intense and has a very long finish.”
Yiping stressed that CasaJulia is helping customers enjoy the cut-out jam and bridge the gap in exploring exotic wines that are almost never exported from Spain, many of which only serve the domestic market.
“We really want to take care of the experience of traveling around Spain without being physically present, or treating the withdrawal symptoms of someone who has been to Spanish cities before and misses their wines,” he added.
He has earned five-figure income in two months
Covid-19 has had a negative impact on many businesses, but it has also encouraged the creation of new ones – CasaJulia being one of them.
Asked how the pandemic affected their business, Yiping said it is a double-edged sword because it serves as a business threat and opportunity.
“People are eager to try new experiences when they can’t travel so much. They see trying out new cooking experiences as a way to travel, and [it helps] that more people are staying [meals] at home today. ‘
He also acknowledged that tightening Covid-19 restrictions on home visitors may raise more questions about consumer spending, but believes that the overall boom in e-commerce outweighs the threat.
In fact, the start-up business has already broken down, and within two months it was able to achieve five-figure sales without any marketing expenses.
This is indicative of CasaJulia’s continued growth, but the pair are not resting on their laurels. After all, the F&B space is highly saturated and competitive.
In order to stay in the game, they believe that it is important to “find your own niche and stay ahead of the trend”. At the same time, the quality of their offer and service is constantly improving to win the hearts of their customers.
“Most importantly, while we were doing our calculations and checking several key assumptions over and over again, we decided not to think too much and decided to start. [because] we know that if we have a long list of criteria that a startup idea must meet, we will never start, ”said Carlos.
“With CasaJulia, we followed our hearts, but we were presented with this pandemic and we also followed the gaps in opportunities that are still expanding. We started at a young age, doing small experiments and repeating them along the way.”
In the coming months, CasaJulia plans to expand its line of business to include other Spanish products, such as the introduction of a wide range of sea salt that is rare to come here.
Sharing other business plans for the future, the couple said they are looking into the idea of setting up offline pop-up events, partnering with restaurants and finally setting up the right time to set up a physical store.
“Our ultimate goal is to be the ultimate consumer choice for gourmet and Spanish wines.”
Featured Image Credit: CasaJulia
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