Chemistry graduate turns to grilling trotters

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Editor's Note: In the Songjiang University town in the suburbs of Shanghai, a pig trotter grilling booth named "Pigsy Grilled Trotters" has recently risen to fame.

The shop owner Lai Zhangping is an inspirational start-up businessman. Born in 1985 to a rural family in Jiangxi Province, Lai quit his job as an engineer in 2012 after four years at university studying chemistry. Instead, he set up his roadside shop and started to sell grilled trotters, which earned him the nickname "Brother grilled trotters" on the Internet.

His "Pigsy Grilled Trotters" boomed in the year after they were set up. Lai expanded his business online by taking orders on WeChat and from groupon websites; Lai also used all his mobile phones to take orders. Among all his 700-800 grilled trotters -- eight yuan (US$1.3) each, sold on a daily basis, two thirds are ordered online. His daily profits reach 2,000 yuan (US$326). He has reportedly opened a branch in Beijing recently.

"Brother grilled trotters" did not have a smooth path in business. His parents, both ordinary farmers, once hoped the university graduate would find a "decent" job. Lai said he did not dare to tell his parents about setting up the small business until much later. Before he was granted his first interest-free loan, he had been a street vendor, who, like all his counterparts, constantly took precaution measures against urban management officers, who would come to bust their unlicensed stands. His business settled down after getting the loan, which he used to rent a fixed booth in Songjiang University town.

"Grilling trotters is a difficult job; not many would want to do it," said Lai. But he believes grilled trotters are a good business opportunity. According to his description, each trotter has to be cleaned, softened and grilled before it reaches the hands of customers, and Lai does everything himself.

Seeing his business budding, Lai's parents gradually accepted his choice. Both of Lai's parents and his younger brother also joined him in the business.

Media coverage helped Lai's "Pigsy Grilled Trotters" boom, with people coming to taste the trotters from afar. This year, Lai hired several more employees from his hometown to help with his business.

"Apart from opening new stores and making it a franchise chain, developing our online sales is our best tactic now," he said.

A young woman waits for her order at Lai's "Pigsy Grilled Trotters." She said Lai's trotters are famous on the Internet, and this is why she traveled so far to taste them. [Photo/China.org.cn]