Astons in 7-Eleven: Why local restaurants are turning their dishes into ready meals

SINGAPORE – There are many reasons why one might resort to raiding the ready-to-eat section at 7-Eleven at lunch or dinner time. Desperation is often cited as the primary motivator. 

But what about curiosity? Or genuine interest? What might convince someone to pick a microwaved meal over a plate of freshly cooked food from a hawker centre or restaurant? 

Perhaps name-dropping might help.

There, at the top left corner, is a cup of Dong Ding Oolong Milk Tea from bubble tea chain Playmade. And tucked away in the lower right corner: a pack of sesame oil chicken with egg fried rice from Chinese restaurant Lau Wang Claypot Delights. Familiar favourites, now available without having to queue.

7-Eleven, which has been teaming up with local food and beverage brands to offer limited-edition ready meals, is banking on the magnetism of these household names. Its foray into local cuisine started in 2021, with a collaboration with Western food restaurant Andes by Astons, and has since grown to include brands like Playmade and Lau Wang.

“Convenience store food historically came with a lot of legacy issues. People think it’s just preserved or microwaved food, but that’s the perception we’ve been trying to change,” says Anushree Khosla, 46, managing director of 7-Eleven. 

She calls the ready-to-eat range a “critical strategy” for the convenience store giant, helping to differentiate its offerings from supermarket products. 

Sales for these meals have grown at a rapid pace over the last couple of years as travel picks up and customers become more adventurous. “That tells us that people are embracing our food. A lot of people in Singapore travel to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, so they’re quite used to seeing interesting and exciting food in convenience stores. When they come home, we hope to offer them the same experience,” she says.

Finessing flavour

That, in part, is why her team spends the amount of time they do refining and reworking each ready meal. The entire process takes around a year, and has to account for all sorts of customer needs. 

“We want propositions for breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, tea time. We want desserts. We want snacks,” says Khosla. 

From there, they divide the category into timeless, trending and core flavours. Potential partners are then identified – typically a brand with a distinct personality and a taste that can be distilled into a recognisable product. 

For instance, with Lau Wang’s signature chicken dish, the priority was capturing its sesame flavour and slight char. Certain ingredients had to be swopped for alternatives to ensure the ready meal, which retails at $5.50, is halal-certified.

Michelle Leong, 33, general manager of Lau Wang, says: “The 7-Eleven product development team tasted many of our original products and broke down the flavours into texture, smell and consistency, and built the recipes from there. It was quite a long process – research and development took almost nine months.”

The brand’s sesame oil chicken has also been turned into a wrap with scrambled egg ($4.20), which Leong was initially sceptical about. “You wouldn’t think of putting sesame oil chicken in a wrap, and then adding egg and mayo. It makes you go, ‘Huh?’ But it works.” 

On the other hand, a potential chicken baked rice was tossed out because the cheesy taste masked the fragrance of the sesame oil.  

Aston Soon, chief executive of his eponymous Western food restaurant chain, has had to leave out certain ingredients – delicate Korean vegetables that lose their texture and colour when refrigerated for several days, for instance – in his trial-and-error process.

7-Eleven now stocks meatballs from Andes by Astons, but Soon had experimented with proteins like steak in the past. “To be honest, microwaving a steak is a very big challenge,” says the 54-year-old, who is in the midst of his third collaboration with 7-Eleven. 

Within its tight budget, his team had to pick the right cut of steak. They also had to consider the fact that it would be finished in the microwave – somehow, the meat had to remain a tender pink, instead of turning well-done and rubbery.

“We had to blast-chill it to bring down the temperature as fast as possible so that when you heated it up in the microwave, it came out medium-well,” he says. 

He stresses the importance of the right equipment and detailed food science. “The cooking itself is a straightforward process, but you need to be able to regenerate it without affecting taste and flavour. As days go by, the taste usually gets more bland.” 

Khosla estimates that for every 10 products her team experiments with, only a couple hit the shelves. “People eat with their eyes. If it doesn’t look good, it isn’t going to sell,” she says. 

“Whatever we make needs to be scalable across 450 stores. So you really have to think of a lot of additional dimensions beyond just the taste of the product. There’s a lot of complexity that goes into a simple packed meal or a sandwich.” 

Does it taste like the original?

Still, all the food science in the world cannot mask the difference between a piece of meat that is microwaved and one that is freshly grilled or braised on the stove. 

Khosla is well aware of this limitation: “It’s quite clear that we can’t replicate the exact dish that you get in the restaurant, and we’re not even trying to do that. What we’re trying to do is turn it into a convenience-store format while keeping the essence of its flavours.” 

In Lau Wang’s case, regulars have told Leong that the ready-to-eat version is close, but not quite there yet – around 80 per cent similar to the taste of the original sesame oil chicken. 

Likewise, Playmade co-founder Tan Guo Rong, 38, concedes that “nothing can beat something that’s handcrafted on the spot”. The packaged Playmade drinks at 7-Eleven come in two flavours: Dong Ding Oolong Milk Tea and SG Milk Tea, priced at $3 each.

He says: “Even though we use fresh tea, because of the way certain products move, you might get a drink that is maybe one day old, or you might get one that’s five days old, and that tastes very different.” 

As the tea continues to steep in creamer, its flavour profile will evolve. And while the kanten jelly – picked for its textural resilience – retains its chew even after several days, it will naturally start to absorb the notes of the other ingredients over time. 

So are businesses worried about the impact this collaboration could have on their brand’s reputation?

“We were a little bit at first,” says Lau Wang’s Leong. “But through the R&D process, we realised that it’s not going to taste 100 per cent the same, and we want to target a different market as well. This version is halal, but our restaurants are not.” 

The real draw of this collaboration, for her, is being able to tap 7-Eleven’s extensive networks. Soon, too, has observed that many customers were inspired to dine at Astons after seeing its products in 7 Eleven. 

“This exposure really has a very big impact, because with over 400 stores in Singapore, you see our brand everywhere, and it reminds you to visit a restaurant, if not today, then tomorrow,” he says. So even though margins are slimmer in the case of ready-to-eat products – Andes by Astons’ fiery chicken wrap is priced at $4.20, while meatballs retail at $7.90 – this is a trade-off he is willing to accept. 

For Playmade’s Tan, moving into this market is the natural next stage of evolution for his brand. What better way to reach consumers than to offer them a product available round the clock? “As an avid 7-Eleven goer, I always wondered why there was no bubble tea at 7-Eleven,” he says.

The idea to roll out a range of fast-moving consumer goods was raised, then put on hold during the pandemic. “But Playmade has now reached a mature stage, where our HQ is strong enough to enter a different business line.” 

There was another hand helping to nudge things along behind the scenes. As part of its new Ready Meals Launchpad programme, Enterprise Singapore links up companies with 7-Eleven and Nanyang Polytechnic, which provides technical expertise in areas like product testing and shelf-life extension. The government agency also supplies funding, defraying up to half the cost of research and development, as well as product development.

Jason Lim, director of food services and heartland enterprises at Enterprise Singapore, says such aid ensures local businesses can adapt in the face of changing consumer preferences and remain competitive in today’s market. “Ready meals offer businesses a new potential revenue stream, reaching consumers beyond their existing outlets without the heavy manpower and capital outlay needed to set up new ones,” he adds. 

7-Eleven’s collaborations with Playmade, Lau Wang and Andes by Astons will run till Sept 8, though Andes by Astons’ fiery chicken wrap will be available until Oct 6.

Tan is holding out hope for a return. “I think our sales have done well enough to justify a return in November,” he says.

Khosla says 7-Eleven tries to space out its collaborations. “You can’t do it too frequently because then it gets boring for customers.”

So it picks a new partner every six to 12 months. “If the customers have to wait a little bit, you’re able to generate more excitement.”