XCJ Rebrands as MiLa, Prepares Retail Rollout

After bringing in $31 million in financing over the past year, Chinese food brand Xiao Chi Jie (XCJ) is preparing for its retail debut, beginning with a new name: MiLa.

Founded in 2018 by husband-and-wife team Jennifer Liao and Caleb Wang, XCJ began as a small modern Chinese restaurant in Seattle, but when the pandemic hit in 2020 the company quickly expanded its offerings into direct-to-consumer frozen products and sauces. The brand’s portfolio features soup dumplings, ice creams, noodles and crafted sauces, all of which ship nationwide.

Speaking to NOSH today, Liao said the brand is now looking to make its mark in the frozen aisle as MiLa, which means “honey and spice” in Chinese, and is intended to be more accessible to a mass consumer audience. “Mila,” also has a personal resonance, as the name was intended for Liao and Wang’s first child if they had a daughter (they ultimately had a son born last year).

“The whole idea was that you can have this name and be whoever you wanted to be and fit into the world however you wanted to fit in” Liao said. “The whole idea is that coming from so many different backgrounds, and having so many different cultures and heritages to draw upon, the company could fit into this Chinese American space in a really unique way.”

The planned retail expansion is now being aided by Vincent Kitirattragarn, the founder and CEO of Asian American CPG brand Dang Foods, who invested in the company in 2021 and joined in December as general manager with the goal of establishing and overseeing the brick-and-mortar business, with a focus on sales.

According to Kitirattragarn, Dang Foods is currently undergoing a sales process and he has shifted his focus to the MiLa brand, which will begin a pilot rollout in April.

“Our mission at Dang was to share our culture for a healthier and more flavorful world, and I feel like they’re doing exactly that at XCJ,” he said. “I think we found each other at a unique, perfect time when they were just about to go into retail and my experience, my skills are particularly relevant. So it felt like a really good fit and a really good time.”

This test launch, he said, will experiment with different price points and promotional strategies before undertaking a larger retail expansion next year. For the time being, the company will focus only on the frozen soup dumpling line – available in 10-pack Pork, Pork & Shrimp and Chicken varieties – although its noodles may also be tested in select retailers.

Citing market research, Kitirattragarn said Chinese cuisine makes up about 8% of restaurants in the U.S., but only 2% of the frozen foods aisle in grocery. With that 6% gap, he said the company expects the frozen Chinese food category, currently growing 16% year-over-year, could ultimately be a $1 to $2 billion market.

“That means every year, there’s an extra $160 million-plus going into frozen Chinese food,” he said.

Part of the challenge ahead, it would seem, is moving consumer perception away from Chinese food solely as a takeout or on-premise experience but as something that can be made authentically at home. Unlike most frozen dumplings on the market, which are intended to be quickly microwaved or reheated in the oven, MiLa’s line is designed to be steamed for a fresh meal experience. It’s a cooking technique fellow newly launched dumpling brand Dumpling Daughter also uses.

However, while there will still be some education involved, Liao said American consumers are already trending towards a demand for authentic Asian cuisine. While the company intends to take to social media and TikTok to educate consumers about its products, she noted that trend research suggests consumers are more ahead of the curve than some may think; for example, Google search trends conducted by the company showed that by the end of 2021 the proper Chinese name xiaolongbao had surpassed “soup dumplings” as a search term in the U.S., she said.

Kitirattragarn added that a consumer survey conducted by the company found around 60% of American consumers already own a steamer and about 60%-70% of those consumers already know how to make dumplings: “That represents an opportunity for us to say you already have everything you need at home. You just need to use the liner that comes in the bag,” he said.

As well, Liao said there is opportunity to draw consumers in areas of the country that are “Asian food deserts”, as the pandemic inspired many Americans to leave cities for more suburban and rural areas.

The expansion follows the company’s recent $21 million funding round led by Imaginary Ventures and Stripes. The financing brought total funding to around $31 million, which Liao said will go towards vertical integration, growing its manufacturing capabilities as well as its go-to-market strategy through sales and marketing.

As more Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) owned CPG startups enter the market, Liao said she hopes MiLa will be to able to define what is currently a “blank space” by bringing more innovation to the Asian food set that didn’t exist before, whether it’s gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian options or higher quality flavor.

“For a lot of folks right now, [there’s a question of] where do we fit into American culture?” Liao said. “What is our upbringing? How do we embrace this rather than reject it? And as Third Culture people, then we can look at how does the food evolve and how does it represent us authentically, as well? So I think, you know, this could mean totally different products that didn’t exist before. This can mean products in different formats that didn’t exist before.”