The cost of setting up Food Opera is around 15-20 percent higher than that of an ordinary Food Republic, which has emerged as largest food court chain in HK

Taste of glory
Imogene Wong
Monday, December 30, 2013

Foodie Jenson Ong Shin-hock turned his passion into a life-long career. Now the pioneering businessman is tasting success in the food atrium business well beyond his Singapore base.“It is still lacking the flavor of the vinegar,” he commented on the Singaporean Kolo Mee, traditional dry noodles with minced pork, at Hong Kong’s first food atrium to operate under the Food Opera brand name.

He introduced the food court concept with his partner in Singapore back in 1992.

Now, as chief executive of the food atrium division under Singapore-listed food and beverage giant BreadTalk Group, Ong manages the operations of all 60 Food Republic atriums across Hong Kong, Singapore, the mainland, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.

Each atrium has around 15 food stalls with a broad range of Asian delicacies, including Chinese dumplings or spicy noodles, Singapore’s Hainan chicken rice, Japanese noodles and Vietnamese Pho. Seating is free.

Food Opera, which aims to offer more higher end choices than Food Republic, is soft launching its third outlet in Mong Kok Grand Century Place. Singapore and Shanghai has one outlet each.

The cost of setting up Food Opera is around 15-20 percent higher than that of an ordinary Food Republic, which has emerged as largest food court chain in Hong Kong.

So, the average dish price is also higher at around HK$45 per meal, HK$5 more than eateries at Food Republic.

However, there are some exclusive stalls in the Mong Kok branch, including Menza,

the Japanese noodle firm’s first overseas branch; BBQ Kim’s Gourmet, a mini-restaurant using a new Korean style grill, and a cha chan ting that serves renowned local dishes.

Ong explained the new Food Opera aims to satisfy higher expectations of food.

For example, the Kolo Mee served at one of the stalls uses lard, an essential part of the whole dish, which is rarely used now.

Food Opera aims to open up in more grade-A shopping mall. “We are very selective about the location of Food Opera,” he said.

So far, the Hong Kong business has come first in both sales and profitability despite soaring rent and operational costs, Ong said.

When he started the first Food Republic – at Citiplaza, Tai Koo Shing – in 2005, it was still a fresh concept in Hong Kong as food courts in shopping malls were mainly operated by the developer itself.

But Food Republic recorded higher- than-expected turnover and proving experience was vital to making it in the eatery sector.

Ong insists his food atriums have an edge over traditional food courts. He is proud of the transparent glass which allows people to see all food preparations.

One such client is Pepper Lunch, now one of the most popular Japanese fast-steak food stalls under his food atriums.

“It took us more than a year to convince the parent firm of Pepper Lunch in Japan to accept our idea (transparent glass) .. But their business performance turned out to go beyond everyone’s expectations.”

The group also has a central management system. It ensures the stalls open on time and collects all the money they earned, thereby monitoring their account.

“The stalls only need to take care of the service and quality of their food, while we manage the financial issues.” The rents are calculated by sales turnover of each stall.

Ong hopes to open 40 more food atriums in Asia by 2016 – increasing to 100 outlets, with prime focus on China. The firm is also exploring the possibility of tapping the much tougher Japanese and South Korean markets.

Apart from the food atrium business, Ong has opened 11 Toast Box outlets in Hong Kong since 2008.

Toast Box is a chain of cafe restaurants serving favorite Singapore dishes. He also runs a modern Singaporean restaurant called Asian Twist at IFC, and 11 Breadtalk bakery boutiques in the SAR.

“We insist on making our bread on- site in each store to keep its freshness, unlike many other local bakery shops where the bread is baked one day earlier and distributed to the stores.”

And all the local food outlets are directly owned by BreadTalk, while there are franchised bakery stores in Singapore and China.

“We have to make sure the quality remains high as Hong Kong people are very picky.” said Ong.

He was grateful to have had a good friend and great partner, George Quek Meng-tong, founder and chairman of Breadtalk, along the way.

Ong is not only responsible for taking care of the food atrium division for Quek, but he is a minor stakeholder in the latter’s businesses.

He and Quek – also nicknamed Foodcourt King – met in Taiwan in the early 1990s, when they started selling dragon beard candy, a traditional Chinese dessert, from a pushcart, and eventually opened chain stores.

Then they went back to Singapore to introduce the new food court concept in 1992.

“It only took us two weeks to prepare the presentation to introduce our food court idea at that time,” said Ong. “Coincidentally, the Singaporean government wanted to reduce the number of street hawker markets.” This inspired them to have hawker-like markets inside Singapore shopping malls.

In 1997, Quek and Ong expanded in China, opening a food court called Megabite in Shanghai. Three years later, Quek went back to Singapore to start BreadTalk, and within three years it was publicly listed on the bourse of the city state.

In 2005, they were cooperating under the same company again with Ong as chief executive.

Now BreadTalk owns more than 630 outlets across 15 countries with revenue totalling S$447 million (HK$2.7 billion) last year.

Revenue from its food atrium division in the first three quarters this year posted a 29 percent jump from a year earlier.

After working in Hong Kong for more than nine years, Ong speaks fluent Cantonese in addition to English and Mandarin.

He has noticed several changes in the eating styles of Hongkongers.

“Youngsters nowadays like food with stronger tastes. They like spicy food and also Korean cuisine,” he said.

And they enjoy a variety of Asian cuisines, unlike Singaporeans, he added.

But Singaporeans tend to go dining in food courts more. It is a must for a shopping mall to have a food court.

There are of course sacrifices to be made when one has to look after so many businesses across different countries. Ong has to travel every month.

A blessing in disguise, he can get the taste of the exotic food in each country, such as goose in Hong Kong.

In Singapore, Ong said, old people think goose is poisonous.