Sunday, March 8, 2009

STI: Toast to sweet success

March 9, 2009

the monday interview with Adrin Loi

Toast to sweet success

Electronics salesman turned kaya toast king, Mr Adrin Loi says it was all because of a promise

By Tan Yi Hui 

 

In a factory in Bedok, there is a secret room which only four people can enter. They are the ones who know what goes into a closely guarded family recipe. Only they operate the machinery inside the room.

 

Their job: making kaya.

 

Truckloads of kaya, enough to fill 15,000 jars a month. The four are responsible for making the famous egg jam that home-grown coffee-shop chain Ya Kun Kaya Toast serves up every day.

 

The boss, Mr Adrin Loi, says the four are his brother, a sister-in-law and her two daughters.

 

'Of course, I can be included, but I oversee the big picture,' he says with a smile as he sits you down with a hot cuppa, some eggs and crispy brown toast.

 

It is 3pm but take away the heat, throw in a newspaper and you might as well be having an early morning breakfast at Ya Kun's flagship outlet at Far East Square with this fatherly 54-year-old.

 

Much like the old-world charm his brand exudes, Mr Loi is polite and genteel. He is a no-frills businessman - a neat figure dressed simply in a white long-sleeved shirt, black trousers and tie.

 

He laughs sheepishly as he turns down a request to take a peek at that secret room. 'There's nothing much lah, just a lot of machinery,' he says apologetically.

 

Mr Loi is the executive chairman of Ya Kun International, the company behind the chain famous for its kaya toast, soft- boiled eggs and aromatic coffee.

 

It has won various industry accolades such as the Superbrand Award in 2004 and 2005, and the Heritage Award in 2005 under the Singapore Promising Brand Awards.

 

It was 65 years ago that his father, Mr Loi Ah Koon, started the humble Ah Koon Coffeestall in Telok Ayer Basin. Today, there are 31 outlets island-wide, a third of which are franchised. Ya Kun is the hanyu pinyin version of Ah Koon.

 

There are another 20 franchised outlets in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. According to Mr Loi, each Ya Kun stall can rake in up to $50,000 in monthly revenue.

 

Just last month, the chain celebrated its 65th anniversary, in honour of its founder, who came to Singapore from Hainan island in 1926. The patriarch married on one of his visits back to China and his wife joined him in Singapore in 1936. After learning the trade as a coffee-stall assistant, he started his business in 1944.

 

The couple had eight children, two girls and six boys. Mr Loi is the youngest.

 

In the early days, the family lived across the coffee shop, in a cramped three-storey house in Cross Street where the Hong Leong building now stands. It was shared with seven other families.

 

Long before there was a secret kaya- making room in Bedok, the egg jam was made in that house by Mr Loi's mother.

 

He says: 'She would cook the kaya in a large pot at home, every day at noon after she finished her other chores.

 

'We used charcoal and the house was filled with fumes. It was hard work. My mother died of pneumonia in 1989.'

 

The children helped by stirring the kaya and he hung out at his father's stall after school, running errands.

 

While all his siblings helped in some way, it was the patriarch and his eldest son who ran the show. But by 1998, he was in ill health and the son was nearing retirement. So Mr Loi and his fifth brother decided to take over the business.

 

At that time, the business was located at the Telok Ayer transit food market, which was closing down. They were offered a space at Far East Square and with a start-up cost of $10,000, established the first outlet.

 

Business was good because of customer traffic from offices nearby and they broke even within two weeks. Mr Loi's father died in 1999 from colon cancer and did not live to see Ya Kun's expansion.

 

Barely six months after opening the Far East Square outlet, the brothers opened a second one in Tanjong Pagar and by 2000, they were selling franchises. This was followed by their first overseas outlet in Indonesia two years later.

 

Mr Loi has an 80 per cent share of the business and his brother, Algie, 59, has 20 per cent. It was a 'mutual agreement', according to both brothers. The other siblings still work for the company.

 

He says: 'My family members are quite passive. They follow the decisions I make. We have an unspoken respect for each other. In fact, Algie wanted to give his 20 per cent to me but I persuaded him to stay.'

 

Mr Algie Loi says: 'I am not very ambitious and I am single. Adrin has a family to support.'

 

Most of the planning behind Ya Kun is done by Mr Loi and his wife Jennifer, 52.

 

It is a tricky job balancing the interests of family and staff. His siblings and some of their in-laws and children mostly work at two outlets - Far East Square and Far East Plaza.

 

He admits that sometimes, ego issues among the siblings do arise and they throw their weight around.

 

'Their friends will sometimes ask them, 'Why do you let your brother take the limelight? You should show some power too',' he says.

 

He deals with this by asking those involved into his office to talk things out.

 

He adds: 'My family members understand I have to treat everyone fairly and not show favouritism because the staff are watching.'

 

You would have to wonder where he gets his management skills from, since he worked for 15 years as an electronics salesman before joining the family business.

 

He studied at Anderson Secondary and later earned a diploma in applied electronics from the now defunct Singapore Technical Institute.

 

He says his only formal business training was a two-year private diploma in management after his national service. Everything else was picked up on the job.

 

On why he switched careers, he says the brothers made a vow to their dying father that they would continue the business. Mr Loi says: 'I was very scared when I took over, no one knew how things would turn out.'

 

His main motivation at that time was to keep his father's legacy going.

 

'I worked at the outlet every day when we started, dressed in T-shirt and shorts. Only when we got bigger did I start dressing like a boss,' he adds, chuckling.

 

They received help in the form of grants for feasibility studies from government agencies such as Spring Singapore.

 

'Of course, I faced challenges. We made mistakes in planning and lost about $60,000 once and gave credit to associates who never paid,' he says.

 

'But I am lucky to have protective staff. My operations manager, Jimmy, often tells me: Don't worry, let me deal with the complaints.'

 

Mr Jimmy Ng, 45, operations manager of Ya Kun for the last five years, says: 'I like the culture here because Mr Loi is a good boss. He is mellow, does not boss us around and is not into micro-managing.'

 

A regular patron of Ya Kun turned employee, he adds of his boss: 'When you talk to him, you feel like you are talking to a friend. We can actually call him Adrin, but I don't lah, I call him Mr Loi.'

 

Mr Loi's affinity for people relations blends perfectly with the old-school neighbourly camaraderie of Ya Kun.

 

It has also earned him many friends. In 2000, a creative director from advertising agency Leo Burnett who was a regular patron, designed three eye-catching posters free of charge. They line the walls of the Far East Square outlet.

 

And when the interview adjourns to Pizza Hut next door, the staff there call out to Mr Loi and offer free drinks.

 

'Oh, I know them. We often barter- trade. When we have gatherings, I take some food over to them too,' he says.

 

Mr Chia Boon Pin, president of Far East Food Concepts, an F&B subsidiary of the Far East Organization, says Mr Loi takes after his father, who took pride in being a businessman who kept his word.

 

In fact, it was Mr Chia who courted the senior Mr Loi to open a branch at Far East Square back in the 1990s. At that time, he was the general manager of the new mall.

 

He says: 'I knew his father very well, because as a kid I would go to their shop with my grandfather. So when I heard that the transit food market would be demolished, I said, 'Uncle, please come over to my side.' '

 

The senior Mr Loi agreed but wanted to wait, so an eager Mr Chia suggested they sign a contract. He recalls: 'He got angry. He said, 'You know me for so many years and yet you do not trust me?'

 

'That is their family's nature - honest and reliable.'

 

Home for Mr Loi is a four-room condominium in Alexandra Road, which he shares with his wife. The couple have a son, Jesher, 23, who is studying music at The Master's College, a Christian liberal arts college in California.

 

The company is looking at expanding into countries such as Malaysia and China. The newest outlet opened here last month, at Fusionopolis in Buona Vista.

 

He admits the chain has had complaints about the inferior food served at some of its franchised outlets.

 

'Some people are only interested in making profit,' he says. His managers conduct regular audits at all the outlets. He has also had to warn errant franchisees and once, threatened to revoke a franchise. They all bucked up in the end.

 

The recession has not affected business much. 'We sell cheap and simple snacks, so in hard times, customers of gourmet coffee chains actually switch and come to us,' he points out.

 

Although he says he will leave it to his son to decide if he wants to join the business, you can tell he wants Jesher to succeed him.

 

When asked about the next Ya Kun generation, he talks about nieces and nephews but the conversation always comes back to his son.

 

So if Jesher helms Ya Kun one day and he retires, what lies ahead? He seems unsure.

 

'I will probably still remain active, if not in Ya Kun, then something else. You have to keep the mind going,' he offers.

 

Outside of work, he is a council member of Northeast Community Development Council and an elder at Bethesda Hall church in Ang Mo Kio.

 

After some contemplation, however, he adds: 'I will keep going until I cannot work. Just do whatever I can now. That is the spirit of an entrepreneur - die, die also must do.'

 

tanyihui@sph.com.sg

 

My Life So Far

 

'Oh yes, my grammar is very bad, so she will do the editing and layout of all our store posters. She is good at that. It also gives some things a woman's touch'

On his wife Jennifer's contributions to the brand and corporate image. The couple are seen above with their son Jesher at Ya Kun's 65th anniversary celebration last month

 

Mr Adrin Loi (left) with elder brother Algie, who is now his business partner.

'One of my brothers working at an outlet gave away freebies and that upset a senior employee, who felt that products should be charged accordingly for every customer'

On times when he has had to step in to mediate clashes between family members and staff

 

'I intend to make every Thursday of next month a chit-chat session from 3 to 4pm, so I can get a chance to meet up with old friends and students who want to interview me. Free coffee and toast'

On finding more time to relax with age

 

'We offer a different product from others and we have a signature package. Singapore is so small, why cannibalise each other?'

On rising competition from similar chains

 

'Adrian was too common a name, so I took out one of the "a"s to make it unique. I also bought the number 107 for my car licence plate because it is actually "Loi", our family name, inverted'

On some quirky indulgences despite his straight-laced character

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