Today we’d like to introduce you to Wen Qin.
Hi Wen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Always wanted to open my own business, and be the employer I never had myself. When I encounter the fresh cold-pressed juice business in 2013, it is like I know that’s it for me. Then I developed so much passion in healthy food, real food. Over time, not only my passion stays in healthy beverages but also developed into food being that I am in the hospitality industry since 1998. It completely changed my view of healthy food, the processed food I learned after I came to the US is not the food I should eat anymore, the food and beverage we should consume are the food made with high-quality natural ingredients and made from scratch without any ingredients we cannot read or pronounce. It is becoming a lifestyle for me just like our juice bar is offering, a lifestyle store, not just a beverage store anymore. Going through the pandemic, I partnered up in a small local bakery business making gluten-free and lactose-free baked goods, I am expanding the concept and turning it into a bakery factory and soon opening up a full on Gluten-Free bakery cafe where we will also roast good coffee beans, and promote our local friends. Serving the most real ingredients, better quality, everyday food that nourishes your body. Leven Baking Company and Leven Bakery Cafe will be 100% gluten-free and also lactose-free, and offer a good variety of everyday made from scratch health food. This expansion will be able to offer many customers including the juice bar customer base who lives a healthy lifestyle. Leven Baking Company, Leven Bakery & Cafe, Sustain Juicery, and JuiceWell, together we will offer Houston fresh cold-pressed juices, dairy-free smoothies, acai & pitaya bowls, well-sourced coffee roasted in house, tea, baked good, healthy breakfast lunch and dinner, all made from scratch in house. I am also working on food as medicine program to educate people on how to adapt to a healthy lifestyle, as I found that many people want to adapt to a healthier lifestyle, but they just don’t know how and where to start in their already busy working lifestyle.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not a smooth road, if it is, then what is there to cherish. The tough journey is what makes us better every day. As a local small business owner, we wear many different hats, the struggles can be from many different areas such as cash flow/finance, HR/employees, Customer experience/service recovery, locating quality ingredients, having to make all ends meet on a daily basis. We all have seen what this pandemic has done to many businesses.
As you know, we’re big fans of Leven Baking Company/Leven Bakery & Cafe/Sustain Juicery/JuiceWell. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I have multiple businesses/concepts in the hospitality industry, but they are all food and beverage catering to a healthy lifestyle. Using real ingredients, made from scratch, my entire team stands behind our product, I don’t like to serve any product I cannot serve my friends and family on a daily basis. I have been in the hospitality industry starting in Shanghai, China since 1998, I am an owner/operator, and I enjoy what I do so I literally work every day. I want to make sure our customers receive the best product and service we can offer, I cannot promise you a problem will never happen, but I can ensure you we will take care you if there is a problem. We don’t want to compare ourselves to anyone else to say who is better or worse, we offer real ingredients, 100% transparency on the ingredients list, make the product ourselves, make them daily, eat and drink them daily, so we are proud to serve our local community what we make.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I have had many friends/mentors in the industry and out of the industry, it will be too much to list, I think all of them play an important role in my life, can’t really determine who does more or less. I love learning from people, through the business, I have made many friends, I enjoy the journey I had with them, and learning daily from people is the benefit I enjoy from operating my businesses.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@juicewellonline.com | info@levenbakingcompany.com
- Website: www.juicewellonline.com | www.levenbakingcompany.com
- Instagram: juicewellhouston | levenbakingcompany
