• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:30 AM

This summer in the U.S., General Mills is introducing four dinner kits it developed under the Chinese food brand Wanchai Ferry: sweet & sour chicken, spicy garlic chicken, Kung Pao chicken and cashew chicken. Each kit comes in a package that resembles a Chinese takeout box and contains everything needed to make the meal, except the chicken and cooking oil.

The company is positioning its dinner kits as a higher-end product with ingredients that are worth paying a premium for. The spicy garlic chicken kit, for example, comes with Jasmine rice, spicy garlic sauce, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and seasoned cornstarch. The suggested retail price for the Wanchai Ferry dinner kits, which can serve five, is $4.79.

In China, Wanchai Ferry is primarily a frozen-dumpling business. In the U.S., the brand isn't being positioned as authentic Chinese food, but rather as the Americanized version found in most Chinese restaurants. General Mills says it is targeting all consumers with these products, including Chinese-Americans.

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