S Soo Jerky Ltd W hen families move to a different country to embrace new opportunities and start a new life, that usually means leaving some things behind. In the case of the Wong family at Soo Jerky Ltd., they managed to bring a favorite item with them — traditional Singaporean and Malaysian style jerky.
Responsibilities are split amongst the family members, who have run the business from day one. The parents, Philip and Soo (after which the company is named), are the president and vice-president, respectively. Philip looks after day-to-day operations and Soo is also involved with R&D and production. Their son Jacob is the sales and marketing manager, and the other son Joseph is the general manager. The story starts when Philip, originally from in Malaysia, moved to the Lower Mainland for school where he met Soo. After graduating, they moved back to Asia once more before relocating permanently to Vancouver.
“One thing they missed being from Malaysia was the jerky. They made some for themselves and didn’t think about the business aspect of it, they were just doing odd jobs here and there,” says Jacob Wong, clarifying the difference between their jerky and the typical western-style kind as being sweeter and more tender. “Friends and family basically asked them for their jerky, and they got the idea to sell it.”
At first, Wong’s parents operated out of a home kitchen with a small smokehouse in the back. He recalled memories of his dad either being in front of the barbecue cooking, smoking and drying meat for a few hours each day, or inside mixing marinades.
take off. By 1989, they became a Canadian federally-inspected meat facility and their products could be found in stores nationwide. They even expanded to select cities in the United States in 1991. “We currently carry about 30 flavours all together. Our most popular product is fruit-flavoured beef jerky,” says Wong, who also has background in fine arts. He says that helps when shooting photography for advertisements and designing packing for new products.
RICHMOND PROFILES OF
“We currently carry about 30 flavours all together. Our most popular product is fruit-flavoured beef jerky.”
Just to name a few other varieties, they also offer five spice, sweet, satay, spicy szechuan, lemon grass, black pepper and teriyaki flavours — and that’s just for the beef. The success of Soo Jerky has allowed the company to expand its product line into pork, salmon, and even non-dried items like sausages and meatballs. No longer restricted to working out of their house, they have a 14,000 square feet for production at a building on 13191 Princess St. in Richmond where you can find many of their offerings at most Asian supermarkets and niche stores in the area. It’s now been almost 30 years since Wong’s father produced their first piece of beef jerky, and he says he shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. They would like to keep it running as a family business, a task made easier when Wong and his brother officially joined a few years ago.
Soo Jerky Ltd 13191 Princess Street Richmond, BC V7E 3S1 604.272.5758 soojerky.com
In 1985, Wong’s parents approached a now-defunct store in Vancouver’s Chinatown who agreed to take in some of their product. Orders quickly grew, and a year later they made their major debut at Expo ’86 where things really started to PHOTO: Joseph, Philip, Soo and Jacob Wong
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