As some of you may have read, I had a previous post about Suelynn of Bangsarbabe as a Haig Club influencer. Haig Club Whiskey is a single grain scotch whiskey made to taste supposedly sweet and light with a hint of caramel and toffee taste. Some says it has a tang of coconut to it.
Together in collaboration with english entrepreneur Simon Fuller and sports celebrity David Beckham, the drink was developed by the global leader in beverage alcohol Diageo.
As a successful entrepreneur and particularly more well known among Malaysians for his business brand “Chatime”; a popular bubble tea chain store widely available in Malaysia as well as many other countries including Canada and Australia, Bryan Loo was invited by Haig Club London to come onboard as an influencer on Malaysia’s part together with Suelynn.
Mr. Bryan Loo has so kindly spared some of his time to share with me his side of the story.
What had inspired you to start up a bubble tea business; why particularly bubble tea?
It all started 5 years ago. After graduation, I was working in a biotech company for 3 years. It was stressful, and it came to a point where I felt really de-motivated and didn’t have the mood to carry on. I decided that at the age of 24, I want to come up and do something on my own. I wanted to take charge of my own destiny.
I made my first decision to venture into F&B. I found out that I had 2 choices – bakery or beverages. After discussing with my father, I told him that drinks would be a better choice for the Malaysian market, because first off, our weather is hot throughout the year. Cold beverages would be ideal for our Asian market. And when I did more research on the market, I found out that there was no tea representatives in the industry, but when you look at coffee, there are many brands.
From there, we decided to go to Taiwan. It was really eye opening for me because I found out that there are bubble tea outlets everywhere – about 25,000 outlets nationwide, to be precise. My vision then was to bring the modern tea culture into Malaysia. Initially, I wanted to bring the top 10 brands from Taiwan into Malaysia, but they all rejected me. My cousin then hooked me up with his Taiwanese friend. His friend asked me if I had approach this brand called Chatime. I called the owner up and explained to him about my business plans. Everything went well and I opened my first outlet on August 2010.
If it weren’t for modern tea business, what other possible businesses would you look into?
If I didn’t do tea, I’d sell char kuey teow or whatever – and I will do it passionately. My passion is always about business. So I found modern tea as coincidence. I found it as my calling, as the beginning of my whole entire career journey.
To me, it is never about the subject in the business, it’s always about content of the business. Even when I was a kid, I drew comics as a business, because I wanted to get this delicious fried chicken in my school which cost RM3, and at that time I only had RM1 of pocket money. To me, that business was also equally passionate. Now I found Chatime, which is as passionate. And then we moved on to Tino’s Pizza, which is also equally passionate.
Left- Suelynn of Bangsarbabe; Right- Bryan Loo
What is your attitude and style to approaching your career in life?
I’m literally a positive guy. Anything to me is possible. It’s how we would do it. When people tell me that something is impossible, to me it will be possible. You’ll get me even more excited to proceed because I want to make the impossible, possible.
No matter what, I always believe there’s an opportunity even when people say no. It’s about being “less average” than the others, in a way. Average people will tell you that you can’t do this and that. This for me, I think is good. If everybody can do it, then everybody will be doing it. So for me, if I believe in it, I will go all the way up regardless of what people say about it. The main thing about being successful is about always believing in what you do. It’s the belief of being extremely positive in things I believe and see.
Where do you see your business in 5 to 10 years time?
Consumer products and everything else – that is my vision. That will consist of different portfolios from overseas that will give me opportunity to introduce different cultures to Malaysia. Another thing that I want to do is also introduce Malaysia to other parts of the world.
How did you come about being chosen as a local influencer for Haig Club?
It was quite out of nowhere, actually. I had no idea until the day I received an invitation. It was a dinner for 10 people, but after then it shortlisted to 2 people, which both would get to travel to UK to join David Beckham for dinner and also to mingle with other Haig Club influencers from around the world.
They wanted someone to represent the industry. It started off with Jimmy Choo but along the way; they decided that Haig Club should be catered more for and introduced to the young people, those who would appreciate whiskey and appreciate the lifestyle of drinking whiskey. I’m truly humbled that they’ve asked me.
Could you explain your role as an on ground ambassador for Haig Club?
I would not consider myself as an ambassador. I’m more of a key opinion leader.
Opinion leaders have been something that’s quite widely used lately in the PR scene because they want people to represent the industry; they want people whom are not celebrities but people who portray themselves in certain ways. They’re looking for someone to represent the branding of Haig Club, to carry the positioning and more.
Do share with us, what was your experience like on attending the event?
It has been interesting. By far, the most interesting part would be meeting David Beckham. We had a very intimate dinner. It was fantastic and the excitement continued all the way to London when I met him for the second time.
By then we were much closer and our conversations blossomed into friendship. We had talked about our families. I had previously told him that I have two daughters and he actually remembered, and asked me how they were.
We also discussed a little bit about me opening Malaysia’s biggest speakeasy bar in August. We took the opportunity to invite him to Malaysia. I told him that Haig Club would be one of the main anchor for that concept.
Her From December 