Inside Sungiven Foods’ fresh-focused growth
The Greater Vancouver Area knows Asian grocery retail well, but Sungiven Foods isn’t aiming to be a specialty chain.
“We see ourselves as a community fresh grocer with Asian DNA,” says Paul Zhang, president, Sungiven Foods North America. “Some customers call us the Asian Trader Joe’s, while others see us as an affordable Asian Whole Foods.”
It’s easy to see why. The stores feature modern spaces with wide aisles, warm wood produce tables and playful mural walls celebrating community and agriculture. Oversized speech-bubble placards highlight messages such as “No pesticide and fertilizer” and “Organic certified in (the) United States and Canada,” helping to create a conversational, transparent shopping experience.
The concept quickly proved both popular and scalable. It began with a 13,000‑sq.ft. store in November 2019 at City Square Shopping Centre in Vancouver, taking over a space formerly occupied by Safeway. Sungiven Foods has since grown to nine locations: another in Vancouver on West Broadway, three in Burnaby, two in Surrey and one each in North Vancouver and Richmond. A second Richmond store, opening later this month, will bring the total to 10.
“In the first couple of years, 80% to 90% of our customers were Asian,” Zhang says. “Now, more than 40% are non‑Asian or don’t speak an Asian language.”
He attributes the shift to the sense of discovery the stores offer, where shoppers browse globally sourced fruits or distinctive snacks and drinks, such as premium pink coconut water from Vietnam. Unlike most coconut waters, it’s 100% not-from-concentrate; its natural pink hue—caused by oxidation—signals minimal processing and reflects Sungiven Foods’ tagline: “More Natural, Less Processed. Fewer Additives.”
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“We’re changing the old perception that Asian food products aren’t high quality and healthy—because there’s a lot of goodness from Asia,” Zhang says.
Much of that “goodness” comes from Sungiven Foods’ own products, sold under six in-house labels—including Sungiven (oils, grains, eggs and dairy), Onetang (dim sum, sauces and Asian snacks) and Ontrue (health-focused foods sourced globally)—with a private-label lineup now totalling roughly 3,000 SKUs.
“Our private label is really the heart of who we are. Over half of what you see in our stores carries our own brand and our goal is to reach above 70%,” says Zhang. “We’re not just selling, we’re creating. Each product tells a story—like our Sungiven Black Truffle Chicken, which blends Asian flavours with Western inspiration, or our ready-to-cook dumpling sets made fresh from our central kitchen. These products let us offer better quality, consistent standards and everyday value that bigger chains can’t replicate.”
“Our central kitchen is the bridge between health and convenience,” he continues. “It produces all our ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meals—sushi, dumplings, rice bowls, even Peking duck. Everything is made fresh daily by our award-winning chefs.”
Long before opening stores, the company operated as Xiamen Sungiven Import & Export Co. Ltd., founded in 2001 by entrepreneur couple Richard Lian and Kathy Su in Xiamen, China. By 2011, its network included more than 700 partner factories and more than 1,000 product sources, supplying healthy everyday foods and specialty Asian ingredients to retailers across North America, Australia, Europe and Southeast Asia.
That same year, the founders opened a community supermarket in Xiamen, followed by stores in Quanzhou and Shenzhen, eventually growing to more than 100 locations in China.
“They were shipping goods worldwide and making so many of their own products that they thought, ‘Why not open our own supermarket and sell all of the products that are ours,’” Zhang explains.
Vancouver marks Sungiven Foods’ first—and so far only—international expansion, inspired by the founders’ visit to the city.
Zhang, who moved from China 26 years ago and has spent two decades in the food industry, initially supplied ready-to-eat meals and meal kits from his restaurants to Sungiven’s earliest Vancouver locations.
“I was able to meet the founders and experience firsthand their focus on quality, value and community,” he says. “When the opportunity came to join the company in 2024, I was excited to be part of the journey and support what they are building."
Today, about 10% of Sungiven Foods’ private-label products are sourced locally, supported by a B.C.-based research and development centre focused on developing high-quality, healthy Asian-inspired goods. The facility also handles food safety inspections, complementing research and development teams in Japan, Germany and South Asia.
“Local supply chains let us create region-specific SKUs, because different communities have different needs in their daily lives,” Zhang explains. He adds that the company conducts extensive market research in the communities it serves. “Once you build trust with your private brands, customers start to like the store more and more.”
This month, alongside opening its 10th store, Sungiven Foods is launching on Uber Eats.
Zhang notes it’s British Columbia's first Asian grocery chain on the platform and says the move “is about adapting to and understanding how people live today. Younger generations are busy and they'd rather spend time on what they enjoy doing, rather than say driving 40 or 45 minutes to a supermarket, hunting for parking and waiting in line when all they need is milk and eggs."
“Uber Eats is just one of the partners we’ve been working with on food delivery,” says Zhang. The company first experimented with online delivery about a year and a half ago through DoorDash, which Sungiven Foods is still on.
“To our surprise, we gained almost 20% in sales in that first month,” Zhang recalls. They quickly realized that handling the surge in online orders required stronger fulfilment systems to maintain a seamless customer experience.
“At the time, we hadn’t put much marketing behind it,” he says. “Now is the right moment to relaunch, having improved our fulfilment capabilities with the right systems in place.”
Looking ahead, Zhang says the company plans to consolidate its six private-label brands under a single Sungiven label and continue expanding its Vancouver-area footprint, noting there’s still significant opportunity in the region before considering expansion into other Canadian cities.
“With the size of our locations, we think of ourselves more as a food service hub than just a grocery store,” he explains. “Over the coming years, we plan to open more stores and serve more communities.”
