Trusted providers to top retailers and food operators

Red Gum is a family owned, private company founded in Singapore in 1989. We are proudly HACCAP A Grade approved facility, and experts in the field of food manufacturing and distribution. We ensure a secure supply chain and production floor at all times, overseen by our own in-house Quality Assurance team, ensuring fresh quality products for our customers.

We’ve cultivated decades-long relationships throughout the entire industry.

Our reputation has been built on healthy dining long before it was in vogue. We have our own chefs on staff so we can provide top quality and exciting products backed by excellent customer service.

50+

Employees

Our Team consists of skilled and dedicated individuals committed in the preparation and delivery of high quality products for our customers. As a collaborative team we ensure we are highly confident in our brand – always keeping our skills relevant, listening to our customers’ needs, and being forward ready through innovation.

32+

Years and counting

Providing top quality and exciting products backed by excellent customer service since 1989

300+

Individual products

Fresh salad leaves, antipasto, dressings, salads, dips, to name but a few.

Meet the founders of Red Gum and the team who make it happen.

Master Chef / Director

Roland Scherer

A Certified Master Chef with 31 years’ experience in hotels and 10 years as executive chef - his culinary artistry has taken him around the globe giving him considerable experience in food selection and preparation.

Director

Elena Scherer

Has been with Red Gum since the very beginning. Over the years she has developed considerable knowledge of and expertise in the food supply business.

Executive Production Manager

Chef Allen Foo

A veteran of Red Gum, Chef Allen oversees the kitchens and staff to ensure a seamless production and manufacturing chain. An important member of our R&D team.

Financial Controller

Cheryl Kam

Dedicated to her role in the company, she ensures financial soundness and effective fiscal management for all stakeholders.

Executive Materials Manager

Carol Discaya

Our key to great quality products – it all starts with the produce we buy. She is our link to our global base of suppliers.

Executive Secretary

Lydia Inglis

Personable and passionate, her keen eye for detail keeps everything on track. Constantly keeping up with the latest requirements for customers she ensures smooth running of the business.

Quality Assurance Executive

Myra Agulto Aunzo

In charge of the Quality Control Department which is the critical element to ensure we create products which are not only delicious, but safe.

Logistics Manager

Mohammad Iskandar Bin Ahmad

Organises deliveries, truck maintenance, and helps get our goods to our customers. He is very proud of his team of dedicated drivers who make that happen.

Supply Chain and Logistics Manager

Saleh Bin Hamid

Our longest standing employee, he is dedicated to his job and always looks to ensure our customers are delighted with the products and service they receive.

About Red Gum

The Ryan family arrived in Singapore in April 1988, with Terry Ryan being a senior pilot for Qantas and shortly afterwards a Captain at Singapore Airlines. The entire family, consisting of Terry, his wife Margarita, daughter Elena, Hagar the German Shepherd, and Emily the cat, moved to Singapore!

Prior to Singapore, Margarita worked as a caterer for a stockbroking firm, where she had access to the best food Australia had to offer – the freshest seafood, prime meats, a massive selection of gourmet cheeses, organic vegetables and an incredible array of herbs. She quickly realized Australia had been keeping their amazing products secret as none of such produce was available in the Singapore market.

Thus the idea for Red Gum was born – red being auspicious in Asia, and gum trees being ubiquitous in Australia! Initially the company was a simple import and distribution affair. One of Red gum’s first customers was Movenpick, which ordered salads and baby vegetables. Martin Fassler was the chef at the time (who has since set up Fassler Gourmet), and upon seeing the freshness of Red gum’s produce, introduced the company to other Swiss chefs in Singapore - namely Ernst Huber (who later created Huber’s Butchery and Otto Weibel, who went on to launch Black Marble. These early customers gave Red Gum the chance to prove itself and their endorsement was a welcome boost in the early days.

The Scherer family

Building the business

Over the next 20 years, Red Gum specialized in only Australian products, bringing in fresh baby vegetables for kitchens like Maxim’s de Paris and five-star hotels, including the Raffles Hotel, Oriental Hotel, Mandarin Hotel and Hilton Hotel.

Red Gum was the first to use chiller trucks for vegetables at a
time when open air trucks were the norm. Our first hire - Saleh bin Hamid – was so proud of his brand-new delivery truck, and remains our loyal employee till today. Red Gum became well-known for importing King Island cheeses, crackers, Australian Native Herbs and Spices and more. These items put us on the map as they were gourmet, creative, and in the case of the herbs and spices, unique.

By 1991, Red Gum began reaching out to the wider Singapore public, by selling its produce in Cold Storage. Head lettuce was the first range, followed by loose salads like rocket, spinach and mesclun mix. Later, Red Gum’s products entered the deli section with the beautiful King Island cheeses and not long after that antipasto delights – olives, sundried tomatoes, chargrilled vegetables, all of which were new to the Singapore market. Singaporeans have always loved their food, and are willing to try new things. This passion for great quality food fuelled Red Gum’s success.

The next generation takes over

As a teenager, Elena spent a lot of her time, helping out in the family business. She quickly became familiar with clearing cargo at Changi (at 5am no less), and then heading out for deliveries to kitchens around the island. As one of the team, she built up a strong sense of camaraderie with Red Gum’s drivers, helping out whenever needed.

In 1999, while on a delivery to the Shangri-La Hotel, Elena met the new Executive Chef of the Shangri-La Hotel, Roland Scherer. Sparks flew - despite Elena failing to convince Roland to buy her salads - and shortly after the two were married in Florida, while Roland was Executive Chef of the Palm Beach Ritz Carlton.

In 2001, Terry and Margarita were looking to retire back in Australia, they broached the idea of Roland and Elena taking over the reins. The timing was perfect, as Roland was looking to get out of corporate life, and Red Gum passed on to the next generation. At this time, Roland and Elena were working from home, but after a few years of running the business this way, they realized the need to have a proper office with chilled storage space. Red Gum moved to a shop house at Eng Kong Crescent.

The business takes off!

The company (and family) both began to show some serious growth. Elena was pregnant with their first child, Kieran, and was getting to the point where she couldn’t handle deliveries. So a second driver was hired. Less than two years later, Red Gum moved to a new larger location in Bukit Batok. With the additional space available, Roland took a hard look at the produce being
imported and decided that rather than bringing in products like chargrilled vegetables, it would be possible to chargrill Australian vegetables in Singapore. With this change, customers could purchase freshly-made products, at a more reasonable price and Red Gum could make products to order. It was a win-win scenario!

Soon, Red Gum was purchasing olives direct from Greece instead of buying Greek olives via Australia, resulting in significant cost savings that were passed on to the customers (plus it was far more environmentally-friendly). Marinating olives, creating salad dressings, and exploring ready-to-eat-products became the mission of the day. This where Roland’s. experience as a chef and creativity in developing new products allowed Red Gum to shine!

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Despite never hiring a sales manager, Red Gum experienced a strong growth of 10% year on year, simply by word of mouth. Time flies when you are having fun, and soon, child number 2, Conor and number 3, Jamie joined the team.

With its food production business continuing to expand, Red Gum needed to move again – this time to a food factory in Senoko. The move allowed Red Gum to consolidate three locations (a chiller storage unit, a production kitchen
and an office) into one, making operations far more efficient.

The next steps

And just as everything was looking rosy, COVID-19 hit, and like most industries, Red Gum was faced with a shortage of workers, social distancing issues and affected supply chains. But the show must go on, and people still need to eat, even in a pandemic. Red Gum has emerged from COVID-19 stronger than ever.
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Fortified by their dedicated, loyal team, Red Gum is ready to handle new innovations, dynamic market expectations, demanding partners and hungry foodies!