A FEW years ago, Bryan Loo was on holiday in Taiwan when he stumbled upon Chatime and decided to take up the master franchise for Malaysia. After more than three years, and with 110 Chatime outlets in Malaysia now, Loo admits that he initially did not want to grow the brand in the country through franchising. He is not a big believer in the franchise model, preferring to own all the Chatime Malaysia outlets if he could. But out of necessity, he had to compromise. Loo’s father had given him RM500,000 to kick-start the business. That amount could only fund one outlet. After opening his first outlet at Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur, he came up with a strategy to make the best of his financial limitations. “My strategy was to sell two franchises so that I could get enough investment to open one direct outlet. So I did that until I achieved five direct outlets that generated enough cash flow for me to sustain my expansion,” he explains. According to Loo, a standard Chatime outlet’s startup cost could go up to RM500,000, but this depends on the store’s size and location as rent deposit and renovations are a big part of the initial investment. In the early days, most Chatime outlets broke even after six months of operation, but now it takes about one to two years. This is because there are more outlets around town as well as a myriad of competitors. Today, the company doesn’t offer any more franchising opportunities in Malaysia. As soon as Loo had enough cash flow to sustain the expansion on his own, he stopped selling the franchise licences. At its peak, there were 18 franchised Chatime outlets that weren’t owned by Loo. But over time, this has been whittled down to 12. Loo directly owns the other 98 Chatime outlets in the country. “I don’t want to sell any more because I always believe that people don’t treasure your brand as much as you do,” he says. He