Founder and CEO of Crust Group
I grew up with the mentality of not wasting food. Since young, my mum would cook for us. If we didn't finish the food, she'd incorporate it into something new the next day. That's the ideology in terms of starting Crust.
Tell us your story, how did you get here?
I wanted to build a value-based company that gained profit but was mostly about finding solutions; kind of a reference for how business would be done in the future. Back in 2018, I was home brewing and found out that the preservation of bread is one of the oldest forms of making beer. That was my Eureka moment; to put surplus bread and beer together.
I grew up with the mentality of not wasting food. Since young, my mum would cook for us. If we didn’t finish the food, she’d incorporate it into something new the next day. That’s the ideology in terms of starting Crust.
Crust Group was incorporated in April 2019. The company started with the same idea of upcycling food to create a value-based product: in particular, surplus bread and beer. In 2020, we saw an opportunity and realised there was a lot more we could do. Since then, we transformed into a food tech company. We’ve worked with various companies such as SaladStop! and Bettr Barista to reduce their own food wastage or loss under our Crust brand.
What impact have you made in Singapore?
We’ve helped to reduce close to 1,500kg of food waste and loss, and reduced more than 2,100kg of carbon dioxide emissions.
What does 2022 look like for you?
2022 will be a growth year for us. We introduced our Sustainable Unique Label (SUL) model last year. We also entered Japan last year with Crust Japan K.K. and will be making inroads into Taiwan by Q2 this year.
The SUL model allows us to be the R&D partner of other F&B and hospitality brands that generate their own food waste, to upcycle them on a co-branded product made by Crust. We’ll be launching a few such collaborations because we believe that the “future of food” should be more collaborative and less competitive.
What do you love most about Singapore?
Food and accessibility.
What’s the one thing everyone can do to protect our home planet?
Spend 30 seconds before any purchase and understand if you really need it or want it. If you want it, make sure you maximise it.
Who is your Local Legend, and why?
Paul Foster. He’s been on this journey with us since late 2020, starting out as our Brand Ambassador and later on becoming our investor and advisor. Seeing how he’s dedicated to environmental and social causes makes it easier for me to do my job on the toughest of days.