Young restaurant execs rise to Mai Tan's challenge

A Bt20-million investment located on the second floor of Siam Discovery Center shopping complex, Tokiya occupies 600 square metres and seats 192. It is expected to break even in two or three years.

The "20 Challengers" programme grew from an idea of Tan Passakornnatee, the company's chief executive officer, who wanted to recruit young executives who would become partners in the company.

The young-talent programme will help Mai Tan speed up the expansion of its Tokiya restaurants, with the aim of 30 throughout the Kingdom within three to five years. In addition to being business partners, the young talents in the "20 Challengers" programme will be promoted as managers of future Tokiya restaurants and given the opportunity to build their own teams to operate them.

"Our young talents will be rotated so that they will know everything about operating the restaurant business," Tan said.

Norapol Opitakchewan, manager of Tokiya restaurant and one of the "20 Challengers", said he and his young colleagues had received office training for three months before working in the restaurant, which opened last month.

The restaurant employs 60 staff, of whom 20 are young "Challengers".

"We have adapted the restaurant concept from our top executives who want to create a restaurant chain with excellent service and good recipes. We want to expand the number of restaurants as much as possible, reaching 30 outlets throughout the Kingdom within the next three to five years," said Norapol, who has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Assumption University.

Tan said: "We want to open two or three more Tokiya branches next year, when annual sales from our restaurants are expected to reach about Bt300 million."

Beside Tokiya, Mai Tan operates other restaurant brands for foods and snacks: Ramen Champion, Melt Me, and Izakaya Stadium.

He said Mai Tan expected Bt1.5 billion in total sales this year, of which between Bt200 million and Bt300 million would be from the restaurant business, and Bt1.3 billion from beverages.

"We want to maintain the business contribution from restaurants at 20 per cent, and 80 per cent from beverages. Restaurants are a service-based business, and with aggressive expansion, it is difficult to maintain the quality of service," Tan said.