Operator-led F&B advisory · Bangkok
Market entry is an operating problem, and we treat it as one. We bring foreign food & beverage brands into the region, and we help multi-unit operators fix, shrink or close formats that no longer pay. The counsel comes from principals who have held the P&L, not observed it.
Founding mandate: five years as principal and equity Operating Partner. Figures from portfolio management accounts.
A fixed-fee assessment and a full feasibility study establish whether the concept holds in this market, before the lease is signed and the capex is committed. Most of the money lost in this business is committed before opening day.
We run the entry through to an open, trading operation: localisation, site, team, supply chain. After that we scale only what the first unit has proven.
A straight read of underperforming brands and sites. Sometimes that means turnaround work. Sometimes it means closing sites, or a full exit while there is still capital to protect.
What we do
Most advisory stops at the plan or the deal. We stay through the first eighteen months of trading, because that is when entries succeed or fail.
For brands entering or expanding across SEA
From first assessment through to an open, profitable operation.
For multi-unit operators, owners & their investors
A straight read of the numbers and the will to act on it, including the decisions most advisors avoid putting in writing.
How we work
Engagements are staged. Each stage has to justify the next one, and you commit capital only after the numbers say you should.
A fast, fixed-fee read on whether the concept fits the market: category demand, format viability, first-look unit economics. A written go / hold verdict in one week.
The full study. Market sizing, catchment, entry route, licensing, unit economics, risk register. Fit for a board, delivered in three to four weeks.
We run the launch, from localisation and site through hiring and pre-opening, to a trading restaurant with its first outlets stabilised. Six months minimum.
Rollout once the first unit has proven its economics, and consolidation counsel when a network has grown past the point of efficient returns. Scoped per mandate.
On every major decision we present three viable routes and recommend one. If you choose a different route against our advice, we still hand you a fallback plan for it. We tell you what we think is right. If you overrule us, we plan for that too.
Each stage is a fixed deliverable with a fixed fee, plus a success component tied to the outlet stabilising at its target margin. There are no open-ended retainers. Fees are fixed for the decision stages and disclosed before we begin: we are never paid more for saying yes than for saying no.
Every engagement begins with the assessment stage, a short fixed-fee piece of work done before your capital commits. Scope and fees are shared after a first conversation.
Track record
Selected outcomes from five years as equity Operating Partner across a 20-brand, five-market portfolio. The consolidation and the exit are listed first, by choice. Protecting capital is a result too.
Figures in local currency, from portfolio management accounts; brands anonymised under confidentiality. Past outcomes are not a guarantee of future results.
Selected engagements
Consolidate, exit, scale, build — the discipline first, then the growth it protects. Each case: the brief, the intervention, the measured result.
A multi-outlet cafe network in Singapore, where the footprint had begun to outrun the returns.
Read the unit economics honestly, then consolidated the estate to the single flagship that earned its keep and rebuilt the operation around it.
Net margin more than doubled, from 8% to 17.3%. One site earning more than the network did.
A Bangkok startup running a chef-hosted private-dining platform. It had revenue, and it still lost around THB 30M over three years of repeated raises. The cost base, structure and team were wrong for the model.
Diagnosed a structurally loss-making model and made the call to wind down rather than fund another round of losses. Executed the closure without putting further capital at risk.
The loss stopped at wind-down. Capital and management moved to formats that earned, and the money another raise would have burned stayed in the group.
A distinctive Thai fine-dining concept at Central Chidlom, built on a strong regional culinary identity and launched into a slow, delay-hit opening. The format was good. Revenue had stalled near THB 3M.
Stabilised the launch and re-set the operating footing, then grew the concept into a category standout while holding premium positioning and net profit through two growth years.
Revenue scaled to THB 20M (≈ US$0.6M). Net profit rose 8% one year and 13% the next, and the restaurant held Michelin Guide recognition three years running.
A long-established Japanese tonkatsu brand, famous at home, entering Indonesia from a S$150k base. The brand equity was there. The task was translating it into profitable multi-site operations.
Tightened the operating model and the management layer, re-engineered procurement to protect margin as volume grew, and led the expansion to live sites in Gandaria City and Mall of Indonesia, with a third secured.
Revenue grew to S$480k (≈ US$370k) at +18% net profit, with both sites trading, a third in the pipeline and a repeatable template for the market.
The partners
Senior by design. Two principals, every mandate run personally, no hand-offs to junior teams.
Five years as equity Operating Partner to a multi-brand F&B group: twenty brands across Southeast Asia and Australia, direct P&L across Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and group-level oversight of expansion, operations and portfolio rationalisation. He has since vested and exited his equity position to build the advisory.
Before that he trained inside the Azumi Group (Zuma Hong Kong, Zuma New York, Roka Dubai), one of the world's leading luxury-dining operators. He holds a BBA from Les Roches, Switzerland.
Prim leads client partnerships and business development. She runs the first conversations and the commercial terms, and stays involved through to opening.
She is the point of contact for owners and investors weighing an engagement, and she holds the commercial side of the firm so the operating work stays on the P&L.
Before the firm she worked at Google and TikTok in commercial and partnerships roles.
"A credible, decisive operator whose management and judgment have consistently moved the business forward. He is not afraid to restructure a business or cut losses when necessary."
Group owner & lead investor — 20-brand SEA & Australia F&B portfolio · direct reference available on request
Perspectives
Short views from the operating side — the patterns we see repeat across entries, portfolios and exits in the region.
Opening months flatter everyone. There is novelty, there is press, and the founder is in the building most nights. The real test comes later, when the operation has to hold its margin with a local team, local costs and a menu the market orders twice. Our launch mandates run to stabilisation for that reason.
Discuss this with us →Outlet count is the number people quote. Return on the capital in each site is the number that matters. When a network outgrows its returns, concentrating on the best sites can more than double net margin. We did exactly that with a cafe network in Singapore. The hard part is reading the unit economics well enough to know which sites deserve to survive.
Discuss this with us →Direct entry keeps control and margin but demands operating depth in the market. A JV shares both. A master franchise buys speed and local knowledge, and gives up some of the long-run economics for it. There is no generally right answer. The choice depends on the brand's capital, its ambitions, and what the market's licensing rules allow.
Discuss this with us →Contact
The first conversation is thirty minutes, without obligation. You get an operator's first read on your concept and the risks we would look at first. If a fixed-fee assessment isn't worth your money, we say so on the call.
We are the right call for funded brands committing to Southeast Asia entry within twelve months, and for owners of multi-outlet portfolios facing performance decisions. We are the wrong call for concept-stage ideas without committed capital. We will tell you which you are in the first thirty minutes.