Old Flavours (hereafter, OFL) started it business selling traditional dumplings in a coffee shop in the Chinatown area some thirty years ago. The small family-owned business has since expanded and shifted to a bigger and air-conditioned shop house.

As the business operates only through its one and only shop house, the place gets fairly crowded during peak hours. As a result, takeaway sales have been increasing steadily over the years especially after the introduction of food delivery business like Food Panda and GrabFood. Increasingly, eat-in customers have also asked to take away their two most popular products - xiao long bao (XLB) and chilli sauce.

To leverage upon its strong reputation, OFL has in recent years also started retailing through the local supermarket chains like NTUC Fairprice. The XLB is sold fresh, vacuum packed and chilli sauce is sold in standard sized vacuum-capped jars.

According to the latest sales analysis for 2019, about 31 percent of OFL's XLB and 55 percent of its chilli sauce were sold through supermarkets. There is no difference in prices between that sold at the shop house and the retail price at the supermarkets. The accounting department of OFL has provided the following actual sales and costing details for 2019.