Hotcha’s ready to wok and roll with its expansion plans

Research released last year by MyVouchersCodes.co.uk revealed that we spend almost £30m on fast food and takeaways annually. But it’s not curry, pizza or even fish and chips that comes top of the pile as the nation’s favourite takeaway. Suffice to say, the British love affair with Chinese food doesn’t look like ending anytime soon.”

Yet for every Domino’s or Harry Ramsden’s, you’d be hard-pushed to name a national brand that is synonymous with Chinese cuisine. While one could argue this is because we’re happy enough ordering from our local takeaway and waiting as long as it takes to tuck into our prawn toasts, there are sounder reasons for this gap in the market. These are explained by James Liang, co-founder and managing director of Hotcha, the Chinese takeaway chain that is hoping to shake up the sector.”

“Chinese cuisine is such a complex operation and relies on years of experience of being a chef to be able to run a busy kitchen,” says Liang. “If you are trying to develop a brand, there is no way you can rely on that kind of operation. How are you going to find enough experienced chefs to run all of those kitchens for you?””

Liang established Hotcha in 2011 with his friend Andy Chan, who he’d met while studying at University College London (UCL). While Chan has since returned to Hong Kong, he still retains a position on Hotcha’s board.”

The pair had previously run West Decor UK, an import business whose customers included House of Fraser, Argos, B&Q and Homebase. However, the flourishing Chinese economy meant they were unable to sustain that particular venture. “Towards the back end of 2009, the Chinese economy shot up quite quickly and labour costs went up three times in a year, so we as the middlemen got squeezed out of the market,” Liang explains. “That was when we decided that we wanted to develop our own retail brand.””

It wasn’t clear at that stage what sector they’d target but the business partners soon identified the perfect opportunity. “We had a lot of friends whose parents or grandparents owned Chinese restaurants or takeaways,” says Liang. “I got a lot of insight into the industry and one of the fascinating things we found was that, while the Chinese food market is twice the of the pizza market, there is no national brand. So we set up Hotcha at the back end of 2011 with the aim of developing it into a national brand.”