How Hey! Chips accelerate international expansion with Airwallex

Hey! Chips is Singapore’s first award-winning fruit and vegetable chips brand that is sourced traceably from farm to table.

Since 2018, Hey! Chips has established a brand presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Maldives. And recently, they expanded to the US and the UK. They sell directly on their website, and on other e-commerce platforms like Lazada, Redmart, Shopee and FairPrice Finest.

Emily Chu

Co-founder of Hey! Chips

"If Airwallex isn't around, I think a lot more traditional businesses will take a very long route to success."

TLDR

1. Setting up bank accounts in different countries is much more manageable with Airwallex's Global Account (multi-currency business accounts). Hey! Chips can submit the business verification documents once and open overseas bank accounts instantly, without physically travelling to bank branches overseas.

2. Using Airwallex's Global Account and Transfers, Hey! Chips managed to eliminate high telegraphic (TT) fees, and they can pay suppliers and employees faster.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: It’s Difficult and Time-consuming to Set Up Overseas Bank Accounts

Hey! Chips’ rapid international expansion to four countries within four years would not have been possible if they had chosen to work with traditional banks. Most banks overseas aren't as efficient as the Singaporean banks. For foreign companies, it typically takes a few weeks to months to get a business bank account set up – owners or directors are required to make trips down to local branches and submit the documents. Imagine how much time and effort is spent on each new market entry? Businesses could have spent the time strategizing and working on the growth of the company.

Solution:

With Airwallex's Global Account, wholesale and e-commerce businesses like Hey! Chips are able to create foreign currency accounts (in 11 currencies like USD, CNY, EUR etc) instantly, allowing them to pay employees and suppliers just like a local business. This helps them build trust and improve relationships with their suppliers, as they won't have to worry about lag time of money transfers.

Emily Chu

Co-founder of Hey! Chips

“With Airwallex, we are able to move very seamlessly in the whole international expansion. There's almost no lag time. In a week or two, we actually get it done. Because of Airwallex, we're able to set up new business accounts overseas very quickly.”

Challenge 2: High Telegraphic (TT) Fees

For Hey! Chips, most of their overseas suppliers want to receive local currencies. Without local business bank accounts in the countries that they’re operating in, they had to do international bank transfers and incur high TT fees. 

Solution: 

Airwallex's Transfer helps Hey! Chips to bypass the SWIFT network and make payments with zero transfer fees and market-leading FX rates. Companies can save up to 90% on TT & bank fees for international payment with us.

Challenge 3: Difficulties Sending Money to China Suppliers

Hey! Chips engaged printing services in China and when they needed to pay these print vendors in China, they had very limited options for payment and could only pay via cash. As such, they were looking high and low for a solution.

Solution: 

Hey! Chips’ payments to their print vendors are made so much easier with Airwallex's Transfer. With Airwallex, companies like Hey! Chips can set up a Chinese Yuan (CNY) account in a matter of minutes and pay these Chinese printers locally in CNY.

Emily Chu

Co-founder of Hey! Chips

“Airwallex's Transfer is fast and reliable. It’s difficult to send money to China and Airwallex helps us solve this problem well.”

Challenge 4: Payroll was Highly Inconvenient

Solution:

At the end of every month, Hey! Chips can do a batch transfer by uploading a CSV file to Airwallex’s website, instead of doing each transfer one by one.

Emily Chu

Co-founder of Hey! Chips

“We use Airwallex for overseas payroll. And it’s so seamless that you don’t have to actually TT the employees every single time.”

What's next

With Airwallex, Hey! Chips has managed to expand quickly to four countries within just four years, including Singapore, the US, and UK, and they are looking to expand the business to more countries.