Danco
A fusion of ambitious vision and leading technology has enabled Danco to capture China’s soft waffle market. By keeping a tight focus on innovation and quality, the Danco brand has become a household name across the country. It is a success story deeply rooted in entrepreneurship and driven by the company’s long-term partnership with Bühler.
Burkhard Boendel, June 2025
Across China, Danco soft waffles are found in nearly every supermarket and have become a firm favorite with consumers. Today, Danco’s success may seem obvious, but 20 years ago, it took a highly visionary move to kickstart it – a move driven by entrepreneurship and focused on technological leadership. At the heart of this success is Cai Tumu, the brand’s founder and president, and it is founded is a close, long-term partnership with Bühler.
Cai Tumu’s entrepreneurial talents were already evident as early as the 1980s. As China’s then-leader, Deng Xiaoping, began driving reform and opening up the economy, Cai Tumu saw opportunities. His first focus was agriculture. With limited capital, a clear vision, and tenacity, he started a feed mill, which he developed into an industry benchmark in the region.
His pursuit of quality and technology enabled Cai Tumu to stand out in the feed industry. While his peers settled for producing products to national standards, he chose to benchmark his products against Japanese standards, deciding to raise the protein content of duck feed from 16 percent to 18 percent. Whereas his rivals relied on traditional pelleting technology, he was the first to introduce steam technology to improve digestibility.
This focus on technology, combined with persistence and the courage to be first, paid off, and his feed mill became the only company in the region to survive. However, Cai Tumu’s ambition did not stop there.
In the 1990s, Cai Tumu tried a variety of businesses, from clocks to umbrellas, but none of them worked. “I realized that you can’t do everything, but that you should master what you do,” Cai Tumu says. Guided by this philosophy and armed with his success in the feed industry, he turned his attention to the more promising food sector. This time, he spotted a gap in China’s soft waffle market.
In 2005, a key meeting took place that laid the groundwork for the new business. Cai Tumu and his team visited ANUGA Food Fair in Cologne, Germany, to get an overview of the market. At the fair, they saw the potential of the soft waffle market and, after delving deeper, decided to enter it. The numbers clearly revealed an opportunity.
According to the China Food Industry Association’s “Research Report on the Development of China’s Casual Food Industry,” in 2005, China’s snack food market was worth approximately RMB 255.2 billion. In terms of market segmentation, candies, chocolates, cookies, and pastries dominated, while the baked goods segment was still in its infancy.
My motto is: You can’t do everything, but you should master what you do. My goal is to create flavors that appeal to Chinese consumers.
Cai Tumu,
Founder and President of Danco
The snack food industry was at the nascent stage of rapid growth. “We decided at the trade fair to partner with Haas, which was acquired by Bühler in 2019. They were moderately sized with advanced technology and, crucially, they already had a presence in China,” explains Cai Tumu. “At that time, Haas had already established a branch in China, which was a significant advantage.”
To outside observers, it might have seemed like a straightforward transaction to purchase goods with available funds. However, in China in 2005, there were challenges. Although many foreign companies were eager to enter the Chinese market, communication was a significant obstacle. “I still remember the challenges vividly,” says Cai Tumu. “Since Haas had already entered the Chinese market, the communication process with Danco was much smoother.” This greatly facilitated the cooperation, and the contract for high-end food production was signed.
Looking back, Andreas Schoch, who has been working with Danco from the beginning and is now Head of Sales for the Wafer business at Bühler, also remembers the importance of this factor. “The fact that Haas already had a branch in China at that time was a huge advantage,” Schoch explains. “This meant that Danco could be sure not only that the technology was right, but also that they would have local support.”
The close relationship between Danco and Bühler remains a decisive success factor to this day – a sentiment shared by Cai Tumu. In 2006, their first waffle production line was delivered and put into operation. Only one year later Danco’s soft waffles were introduced to the Chinese market and were an immediate success. The automated line, which produced 30,000 waffles per hour, was the starting pistol for Danco’s race to increase capacity. In 2008, they ordered an additional production line. Then, in 2010, two more lines were added, and in 2012, a further two lines as capacity continued to expand. Today, Danco operates 17 Bühler production lines in two locations – the largest soft waffle production base in China and one of the largest in the world.
Danco operates 17 Bühler production lines to deliver 8 million waffles a day to supermarkets across China.
The production facilities are filled with the enticing aroma of baking butter and eggs. Danco uses on average 32 tonnes of flour and 800,000 eggs per day and delivers 8 million waffles a day to supermarket shelves nationwide. The production lines have to be finely tuned to achieve this. “Each new production line isn’t just a simple copy of the others,” says Schoch. “Waffles are delicate. They contain eggs and need to be soft, fragrant, and have a long shelf life – that is a challenge for any production line.”
Additionally, Danco wanted to create a variety of products with different characteristics to meet market demand and asked Bühler to adjust the technical parameters accordingly. “I wanted to create flavors that appeal to Chinese consumers,” explains Cai Tumu. They managed this process step by step. Initially, the product did not meet expectations – it was hard and bland. The research and development team kept tweaking the recipe until they finally achieved a waffle with a Chinese-inspired taste – soft and flavorful.
With Bühler’s control system, temperature and humidity are precisely regulated to ensure the best possible taste and appearance of each waffle. The automated control system, together with Bühler’s energy-efficient equipment, significantly boosts production efficiency and reduces energy consumption. As well as requiring very precise airflow control, waffles also have to meet high quality and hygiene requirements to ensure a shelf life of several weeks on supermarket shelves. Bühler’s advanced process expertise, along with its control and automation technology, plays a pivotal role in Danco’s success. Waffle production lines manufactured by Bühler can achieve a pass rate of 98.5 percent, which helps customers like Danco achieve cost savings.
During the product promotion process, Danco laid great emphasis on international standards and cultural inheritance, clearly demonstrating the high-end quality of its products and showcasing its outstanding ability to successfully transform core technologies into consumer language.
“Bühler is proud to have a customer like Danco,” says Xia Haiyang, General Manager of Foods Business at Bühler Greater China. “We have been working with Danco for 20 years, riding the wave of this industry together. Since our cooperation started in the Haas era, we have built up a strong friendship and trust over the years.”
In the waffle market, the focus is on health, customization, and the development of technology. Danco brings multi-dimensional brand competitiveness, and Bühler delivers innovative technology.
“We hope to jointly develop more products over the next 20 years that meet market demand,” explains Xia Haiyang. Danco has always been committed to quality. It is dedicated to providing consumers with healthy, delicious, and safe products. Danco strictly selects raw materials, controls production processes, and packages products to ensure that every waffle meets high quality standards. This pursuit of quality aligns closely with Bühler’s values, forming the foundation of their long-term partnership. With its advanced technology and stable performance, Bühler’s equipment provides strong support for Danco’s production. Currently, Danco has established a brand value system centered on innovative technology, grounded in quality commitment, and supported by scenario adaptation. Its development path serves as a model for local food companies to transition from product manufacturing to brand building. As its internationalization strategy progresses, this technology-driven and culture-empowered brand is reshaping the global competitiveness of China’s snack food industry.
Danco is once again forging ahead. Despite the vast potential of the Chinese market, Cai Tumu is now eager to guide Danco into overseas markets. “We also aim to set standards abroad,” he says. His entrepreneurial spirit is as strong as ever. Although Danco has yet to finalize which products will capture which markets, the recipe for success is clear: quality, customer proximity, and innovation.
Who: Danco
Where: Zhangzhou, Fujian, China
When: Founded in 1985.
What: Danco produces 8 million waffles a day.
Customers: The company serves customers across China.
Bühler: Danco uses a range of Bühler solutions, including soft waffle lines and flat wafer lines.
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