China – a country where fatal recurring avian flu strains have forced the government to impose heavy restrictions on live chicken markets. A country where fake and expired meat scandals have eroded consumer confidence. And a country with deep set traditions around consuming only the freshest meat available.
For most locals, there is no consistently safe option for purchasing poultry. Enter Chicken Run, a Chengdu-based company carving out a high growth niche selling fresh chicken. The niche? A 15M population (almost 4 times the size of New Zealand) with an estimated demand of 240,000 chickens each day – in Chengdu alone. With a survey determining that two-thirds of the population crave fresh chicken, the company has identified one heck of a market opportunity.
Based in Chengdu, Denny Zou and Steve Xin, founders of Chicken Run, switched countries to attend Lightning Lab XX to stress test their business and accelerate their dreams of building an empire of quality chicken.
“Denny and Steve are amazing people to mentor. They don’t resist learning and quickly apply input to their business,” says Jon Hancock, mentor to the duo, adding that it was a big risk for the team to be away from their company for three months.
And the risk has certainly paid off. Chicken Run came to Wellington as a marginally profitable business and learned system design techniques to grow their revenue. The challenge was to preserve their core value: Providing customers with the freshest chicken.
Today, the team is set to triple their sales by the end of the year. With comprehensive market validation, performance enhancement and market strategies in hand, the goal is to turn Chicken Run into a multimillion-dollar business by the end of 2017.
“The Lightning Lab XX Accelerator has taken our business and vision to the next level,” says Zou, adding that the opportunity to savour a completely different lifestyle in New Zealand was an invaluable experience. “We have been exposed to a network of talented and helpful entrepreneurs, whose passion and courage have impressed, inspired and moved us.”
Creative HQ really enjoyed the experience of hosting Chicken Run and is eager to help other Chinese startups and entrepreneurs succeed.
Business accelerators such as Lightning Lab produce a quantum leap in a company’s growth plan through a structured methodology over a 12-week period – which can be applied to many different startups – both local and overseas.
