Fresh fruit and vegetable salads are rich in nutrients, but their shelf life is limited and their green taste is not acceptable to everyone. In response to this pain point, local food technology start-up Allklear has developed Future Salad, a healthy and delicious instant salad drink made from fruits and vegetables, reducing carbon emissions and integrating the concept of sustainable development into life.
The brand makes good use of KOLs and micro-influencers for promotion and promotion, resulting in a sharp increase in product sales and gaining favor from strategic investors. They will gradually expand into markets from the United States and Canada to Japan and South Korea, and hope to be listed in Hong Kong as a unicorn in 2026. Allklear is one of the winning start-ups of the "Entrepreneurship Express". It was invited to participate in the "Food Expo" for free earlier, and invited a number of KOLs to take turns serving as store managers. It successfully developed new customer sources in the form of O2O (online to offline).
(Pictured left) Allklear was founded by six young people who love outdoor activities and advocate healthy living, including business development director Zhu Junxun (left) and chief marketing officer Ou Xiaofeng (right). (Picture on the right) Brands make good use of KOLs and micro-influencers to promote promotions. They can promote products through social posts and through their dedicated discount codes. They can earn 40% commission for each item sold, which is higher than other brands on the market. .
Ice crystal sublimation drying technology to prepare instant salad
The concept of salad drinks originated from a dining experience the six founders had about five years ago. Angus, one of the founders who is also the chief marketing officer, said: "We both like outdoor activities and delve into health preservation. Once we went to eat together after hiking. No one wanted to eat the salad with the meal, so we just joked and suggested that we It’s better to wrap it up, cut it, and pick it up, and it’s better to lose it and drink it away.”
This joke prompted them to seriously conceive of the feasibility of drinkable salad, and formed a team with scientific researchers and nutritionists to develop ready-to-drink vegan salad powder. He admitted that the most difficult part of the research and development process was the seasoning. It took the team a year to create a satisfactory taste, and launched Future Salad, a new high-fiber salad drink in 2020, which is convenient, hygienic, delicious, healthy, environmentally friendly, and affordable. To solicit.
The factory is located in Tai Po Industrial Estate and uses ice crystal sublimation drying technology to produce salad drinks. The team first collects fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world, freezes them at minus 36 degrees to minus 41 degrees, solidifies the free water into ice crystals, and then puts them into a pressure vacuum chamber to directly sublimate the free water ice crystals into gas. The process removes more than 98% of the water without heat treatment, thereby retaining the nutrients in the ingredients. Finally, the ingredients are blown into powder with a spray gun. Mix the powder with household boiling water and you have a delicious salad that contains fiber.
Ou Xiaofeng pointed out that Future Salad hopes to redefine "salad" and use technology to reduce the carbon emissions caused by traditional salad transportation, refrigerator storage, and use of plastic utensils and tableware, thereby saving costs and extending the storage time of "salad." Reduce food waste. "We hope to promote sustainable development and at the same time ensure that heavy metals and pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables meet standards by carefully selecting the sources of ingredients." The brand has obtained SGS inspection, Hong Kong STC quality seal, Halal food certification, vegan certification and Hong Kong GMP guarantee .
(Picture on the left) Each packet of salad drink has the same amount of fiber and nutrients as 5 bowls of salad. (Picture on the right) The most popular detoxifying high-fiber salad drink is made from 12 natural ingredients, including spinach, wheat, moringa leaves, green tea, spirulina, guava, guar gum, green apple, and wheat grass , lemon, aloe vera and oligosaccharides.
Make good use of KOL marketing strategies to expand the O2O market
Future Salad is now available in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Thailand, with sales exceeding one million packs per year. However, when the product was first launched on the market in 2020, there was still a lot of room for development; until a year ago, social media promotion was strengthened, and sales were promoted in the form of split accounts through cooperation with KOLs and micro-influencers, making the brand and products more famous and exposed sharp rise.
Founder and Director of Business Development Daniel Zhu pointed out that consumers staying at home to fight the epidemic have virtually spent more time browsing social media. Therefore, brands have attracted KOLs as customers and used their social platforms and fan circles to develop customer sources. Future Salad currently cooperates with nearly 12,000 Hong Kong KOLs and micro-influencers, bringing a total of more than 200 million exposures on social media, driving 40% of online sales. The brand currently has more than 40 offline sales channels, including Watsons, City'super, Eslite Bookstore, YATA, etc.
In early July this year, Future Salad opened two physical stores in Admiralty Galleria and Times Square in Causeway Bay, hoping to reach more consumers at different levels. Zhu Junxun said: "During the epidemic, rents are lower than before, which reduces the cost of opening a physical store. In addition to selling products, the physical store can also provide KOLs with 'check-in' points and receive free gifts, allowing us to save express transportation costs. "
(Pictured on the left) The flagship physical store in Admiralty Galleria opened, with many internet celebrities showing up to support it. (Picture on the right) The physical store design incorporates many “check-in” scenes specially designed for KOLs.
Launch new products to expand markets
Zhu Junxun revealed that he completed Pre-A strategic financing last year and received nearly 10 million Hong Kong dollars in investment from Gobi, Vectr, etc., which will be used for research and development, development of new markets and operation of physical stores. It is expected to launch Series A financing next year and become a unicorn in 2026. Listed in Hong Kong.
"We are currently developing new salad cookies and banana or peach flavored salad drinks specially designed for children. We plan to enter the U.S. and Canadian markets this year and open a production line in the United States. Next year we will target the Japanese and Korean markets. In addition, The brand is also actively expanding into the B2B market and is currently in contact with a number of banks, real estate developers and logistics companies to provide alternative drinks to their employees, or to cooperate in launching joint corporate gift sets.”
He said that the company will hire additional personnel in communications, marketing, digital marketing, etc., and the scale is expected to gradually increase from the current 30 people to 50 people by the middle of next year. "We are also studying the feasibility of setting up a factory in Taiwan to expand production capacity, meet the needs of overseas and Taiwan markets respectively, and reduce transportation costs."
(Pictured on the left) Future Salad invited Cai Siyun, the heroine of the movie "Fantasy Love", to shoot a short commercial. (Pictured on the right) Future Salad currently has four products, which are marketed as rejuvenating, boosting energy, replenishing collagen, and high-fiber detoxification. The team is developing salad drink recipes specially designed for children, as well as vegetarian cookies.
Participate in the HKTDC "Food Expo" promotion
Future Salad participated in this year's Hong Kong Trade Development Council's "Startup Express" startup training program and became one of the winning startups. Ou Xiaofeng said: "We take this opportunity to test the brand. This competition allows us to contact other start-ups to explore cooperation opportunities. We also hope to increase our exposure and receive support in exploring new markets. With the help of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, we can reduce the risk of "hitting the wall" "Chance."
The brand earlier participated in the "Food Expo" organized by the Trade Development Council and held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center from August 11 to 15. It invited a number of KOLs to take turns as store managers and distributed free drinks on the spot, both online and offline. Expand customer base. "The first time I participated in the exhibition, the results were good, with sales reaching HK$60,000. The customers we usually come into contact with are mainly OLs (office-collar beauties) and young people. This time we found that the original products are also widely welcomed by men, housewives and family customers, which will provide us with a good future The marketing work brings new highlights.”
