Rising rent, hiring difficulties: Mark Lee shares why he sold his 3 F&B businesses

Veteran local actor Mark Lee has a special connection to Malacca.

Appearing in a recent episode of the Taiwanese variety show The Queen's Journey hosted by Regine Wu, the 55-year-old visited the city in Malaysia and shared that he used to source coffee for one of his F&B businesses from there.

"I knew it's (fellow actor) Christopher Lee's hometown and occasionally go there to eat and have fun," he said. "Later, I opened my 13 Stages chicken rice business and imported coffee from Calanthe Art Cafe in Malacca."

However, Mark's 13 Stages — which boasted seven types of chicken rice and 13 types of coffee — has since shuttered. He also sold the OldTown White Coffee chain, which he had brought over from Malaysia in 2008, and Nam Heong, an Ipoh chain.

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, he shared his reasons: "The first thing is that it was difficult to hire employees. Some of them would quit after six months and the management team would have to spend time and energy training new employees.

"Shopping malls also have restrictions. For example, we may have to raise prices due to rising rental costs, but we had to get the approval of the mall management et cetera."

He added that while business at OldTown was alright, he lost some money in 13 Stages.

From four hawker stalls to one

Mark isn't the only one who has struggled in the competitive F&B industry — local actor Shane Pow's Korean barbecue and army stew hawker chain Gogiyo suffered too.

It had four stalls at one point, but the last remaining Toa Payoh outlet is set to close in March when its lease expires.

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"Our original plan was to open 10 stalls and a restaurant later, so we went on with it and realised that it was working because it was during the Covid-19 period and people don't go out often and have limited food options," the 33-year-old shared in a podcast last year.

"But once the restrictions are lifted, it's the end."

He added that people generally liked to go to Korean barbecue places for gatherings and were more willing to spend "just another $20 to $30" to go to a sit-down restaurant with air-conditioning over a hawker stall.

"If given a chance to start a business again, I think I would sell chicken rice or bak chor mee or cai fan," he added.

Local actor Nat Ho invested in a few F&B ventures with money he earned from acting in local drama Tanglin — a bento stall, franchised Taiwan bubble tea stall Bobii Frutii and Thai cheese toast shop Say Chiizu — but lost his earnings in the process.

However, he shared back in 2021 that he didn't regret the ventures.

"I learnt a lot, especially how to do business and how to be a decent person," he added.

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drimac@asiaone.com