It was Datuk Steven Chin’s first foray into the food franchise business. He runs a company, Gammerlite Sdn Bhd, that is involved in road infrastructure projects and maintains roadways in the East coast of Sabah. “I like the challenge of starting a new business,” he said in a press interview in 2015. Datuk Chin picked South Korea’s Kyochon fried chicken franchise and opened the first outlet in One Utama Mall, Petaling Jaya in March 2014. Six years on Malaysians are still enjoying this Korean crispy fried chicken which comes with its signature soy garlic or hot & sweet sauce glazed over freshly fried chicken.

The founder of Kyochon...

Established in 1979, the Sugar Bun chain is a household name in Sarawak. Sugar Bun started as an ice cream parlour but morphed over time into what is today a unique Borneo Asian Food restaurant (since 2016)  offering its signature broasted chicken with a wide range of comfort food for its customers. See the full menu at www.sugarbun.com/menu. Sugar Bun had a successful trial run with online delivery platform Foodpanda and is expanding this new channel of service.

The chain reported a revenue of about RM49 million in 2019. Sugar Bun is open for franchising. The business is operated under a Bursa Malaysia listed company, Borneo Oil...

Cold Storage Malaysia (premium supermarket) and the Giant hypermarket chain here are part of Hong Kong based Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited Group (Dairy Farm). Dairy Farm, a leading pan-Asian retailer with an annual turnover of US$27 billion, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group. The Dairy Farm Group operates grocery retail, convenience stores, health and beauty stores, home furnishings and many other well known retail brands in the Asia Pacific region.

Dairy Farm acquired Giant hypermarket chain in 1999 from the Teng family who ran the popular TMC grocery store in Bangsar,...

The Master Franchisee for Burger King for Malaysia and Singapore is a company linked to the founder of 99 Speedmart, Lee Thiam Wah. Lee, an inspiring entrepreneur who was afflicted with polio from young, acquired the rights to the Burger King franchise from government linked investment fund, Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) in 2015 for RM74.6million. Ekuinas disposed of its interest in the Burger King franchise to Lee’s Newscape Capital with the consent of BK Asiapac Pte Ltd, the master franchisor of the Burger King brand in the Asia Pacific region as part of its exercise to exit the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) business.

Celebrating...

The family of the late Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng, a prominent miner and plantation owner in Ipoh, Perak, control two listed companies on Bursa Malaysia – Batu Kawan Berhad and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK). The Lee family owns 47% of Batu Kawan and Batu Kawan is the single largest shareholder in KLK with a stake of 47.03%. Both are oil palm plantation companies with large landbanks. Where strategically located for property development, KLK through its subsidiary KLK Land has ventured into mixed residential and commercial development - Sierramas, a FIABCI award winning residential development which was a joint venture with Tan & Tan...

The Oversea Restaurant Group began business in 1977 when founder Yu Soo Chye @ Yee Soo Chye and partners started the first “Restoran Oversea” in Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur which offered fine dining Cantonese cuisine, ala-carte dining and wedding banquet functions. Yu Soo Chye started as a kitchen helper in a restaurant in the 1950s and he learned the skills of managing the ins and outs of a restaurant. Restoran Oversea was the culmination of twenty years of hard work and savings.

In the 1980s, two brother-in-laws joined him in the business. Khong Yik Kam, now 70, was helping out with the operations of the restaurants and Lee Seng Fan,...

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Westports Holdings Berhad (Westports)  in 2019, the Gnanalingams pair of father and son, have much to rejoice about. Executive Chairman of Westports, Tan Sri  Datuk G.Gnanalingam, 76, was pleased to inform shareholders that Westports handled a record 10.9 million TEUs in 2019, which is a growth rate of 14% over the previous year’s volume of 9.5 million TEUs. The volume achieved makes Westports as the first and only port in Malaysia that handles more than 10 million TEUs of container throughput in a year. Westports has transformed Port Klang into the 12th busiest port globally and the 9th best-connected...

The popular Go Noodle House chain with more than 30 outlets to date, was founded by three friends. Lee Hon Wai, Alvin Tan Kok Meng, and Mok Wai Peun in 2014. The first outlet was opened in Jaya One Petaling Jaya and was popular from the start. Its immediate success surpassed the expectations of the trio. In late 2018 Go Noodle House, opened with success at the corner of Exhibition and Little Bourke Street, Melbourne (operated by a licensee called Lawrence Lee). In November 2019, Go Noodle House opened at 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Rd, Singapore.

The three entrepreneurs struck on the idea of opening Go Noodle House when they fell in love...