George Quek (nick-named "Foodcourt King") is managing director of BreadTalk and the executive director of Topwin Singapore, which runs Food Junction food courts in Singapore as well as in Malaysian cities such as Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur. He began his foray into the food business back in Taiwan, selling dragon candy in 1982, before moving into the foodcourt business in 1993.
Early life
Quek's father was a vegetable farmer and later a seaman who inculcated his son with the philosophy that "no one owes you a living". His mother was a housewife. The family stayed in an attap house in Hougang and George was the second of four boys.
As a boy, Quek was of a shy disposition and unhappy with the rigid discipline of school. His creativity asserted itself in sketches of the rural landscape around his home, winning him many awards in art competitions.
Quek entered Xinmin Secondary school and after graduation, he took classes at the now-defunct Singapore Art Academy, whilst working as a cable technician to pay his fees. He later signed-on as a regular in the army at the age of 20, before entering National Service. Army toughened him, as he went from being "soft, weak and introverted" and eventually emerged as a company sergeant-major after five years.
Upon leaving the army, Quek worked in a Hongkong handicraft shop in Parklane Shopping Mall, where he did wood carving, metal engraving and also wove dragon-beard candy.
Business ventures
In 1982, Quek left for Taiwan with the intention to further his art education at a renowned Taiwan art institute. However, economic reasons made him seek out a living and he turned to selling dragon-beard candy, a novelty in Taiwan at that time. With a loan of a few thousand dollars from his father, Quek and his wife, Katherine, set up a kiosk in a major Taipei shopping centre. He also designed his own wavy dragon signage and marketed his candy as the original Chinese Emperor's snack. Business was slow at first but after a few months of intensive marketing, improved presentation and change in pricing, his business took off and eventually expanded to five kiosks, with sales of over $240,000 a month.
Encouraged by his success, Quek next decided to introduce a typical Singaporean hawker fare, bak chor mee (minced-pork noodles) to the Taiwanese market. George invested time back home in Singapore picking up noodle making skills from a local hawker and put in a further three months to plan a chain of Singa (short for "Singapura") snack stalls in Taipei. George started with $100,000 to set up his first bak chor mee and fishball noodle outlet in a Taipei shopping mall, working from 5am to 10.30 pm everyday. Unfortunately, the stall was forced to closed down three months later due to poor business. Along with the closure, the bulk of George's savings was also lost. Undaunted, George decided to revive the idea and re-conceptualised his Singa concept after six months.
This time around, with an experienced chef and an expanded menu to include satay, Hainanese chicken rice and prawn noodles, together with an adaptation of his recipes to suit Taiwanese tastes, Singa became a huge success. By 1992, when George left Taipei and sold off the business, it had grown into a popular chain with 21 outlets.
George next went to Shanghai where he set up three successful ice-cream parlours over the next nine months until, feeling home sick, he returned to Singapore in 1993.
Instead of an early retirement as planned, within a few months of his return, George, together with a few Taiwanese partners, started the Food Junction foodcourt chain, with the first foodcourt opening at Junction 8, housing special features such as the conveyor-belt sushi, teppanyaki and a Swenson's ice-cream outlet. The chain grew to 14 foodcourt outlets located all over Singapore within the next eight years, with the addition of one each in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur. He was given the nickname, "Foodcourt King" by the media, who loved his novel foodcourts, which offered "restaurant service at foodcourt prices". George is also a major shareholder of seven Megabite foodcourts in Shanghai and one in Beijing.
His next foray into the food business was to launch his now phenomenally successful chain of BreadTalk stores in July 2000. The idea for the bakery came about from Quek's observations of the high quality bakeries in Japan and Taiwan.
Awards
May 2002 : Conferred an honorary business doctorate by the Wisconsin International University in recognition of his entrepreneurial creativity and successful career record.
10 July 2002 : Joint winner (together with Douglas Foo, 33, managing director of Apex-Pal International who owns and runs the Sakae Sushi restaurant-chain) for the Entrepreneur of the Year 2002 award given by ASME (Association of Small and Medium Enterprises).
Family
Wife: Katherine, finance director, BreakTalk.
Children: Three, currently aged nine, seven and five.
Brothers: Frankie, younger brother, abd director of BreadTalk; Philip, eldest brother, runs Quek's ice-cream parlour business in Shanghai; Albert, youngest brother, runs his own food and beverage business
Residing in a Hougang terrace house, decorated with a huge art and handicraft collection, George winds down by jogging 2 km three times a week and travels to places with beautiful sceneries.
Author
Sharon Teng
References
Long, S. (2002, June 15). When Mr Entrepreneur becomes Doctor of Philosophy. The Straits Times, Home, pp. 14-15.
Long, S. (2001, August 31). Food for thought from foodcourt king-'No one owes us a living.' The Straits Times, Home, p. 12.
Food-chain chiefs tie for top award. (2002, July 11). The Straits Times, p. 1.
The search is on for the entrepreneur of the year. (2002, April 25). The Straits Times, Money, p. 16.
The information in this article is valid as at 2002 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
