Koufu (company)
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Koufu (
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
:口福) is a Singaporean
food and beverage The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many ...
company operating a chain of
food courts A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. ...
,
coffee shops A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...
and casual eateries. Founded in 2002, the company currently operates 180 outlets of coffee shops and food courts and 12 brands in Singapore and one food court in
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
.


History

Before opening their own coffeeshop, Pang Lim and his wife operated a stall selling
bee hoon Rice vermicelli is a thin form of noodle. It is sometimes referred to as 'rice noodles' or 'rice sticks', but should not be confused with cellophane noodles, a different Asian type of vermicelli made from mung bean starch or rice starch rather ...
and
nasi lemak ''Nasi lemak'' is a dish originating in Malay cuisine that consists of fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf. It is commonly found in Malaysia, where it is considered the national dish. It is also the native dish in neighbouri ...
in a
hawker centre A hawker centre or cooked food centre is an open-air complex commonly found in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. They were built to provide a more sanitary alternative to mobile hawker carts and contain many stalls that sell different variet ...
in
Hougang Hougang is a planning area and mature residential town located in the North-East Region of Singapore. The town is the most populous in the region, being home to 247,528 residents as of 2018. Hougang planning area is bordered by Sengkang to th ...
. In 1990, Pang Lim and his wife, Ng Hoon Tien, opened their first coffeeshop, Aik Hua and expanded the business in 1992, when the government launched the Sale of Tenanted Shop Scheme, which gave business owners operating out of shops leased from the Government in the public housing estate to buy over their shops instead of renting them, resulting in more business owners renting out the newly bought shops. In 1994, the government further introduced a policy of selling shop houses at subsidised rates to help local enterprises, which enabled Aik Hua to become the largest coffeeshop chain at that time with 56 outlets across the country. In the late 1990s, as food courts became more common, Pang Lim ventured into the food court business with his first food court, Happy Times Food Court in 1996. With increasing competition from the food court industry, Pang found the management of the 56 outlets of coffeeshops difficult as each coffeeshop was run as an independent entity without much synergy to one another. In 2002, Pang Lim sold Aik Hua to the Kopitiam Group for
SGD SGD is the ISO 4217 code of the Singapore dollar, the currency of Singapore. SGD or sgd can also mean: * Saccharomyces Genome Database, a yeast database * Sargodha, a Pakistani city * Secure global desktop, software by Tarantella, subsequently bou ...
10 million while buying back three Kopitiam food courts, founding Koufu in that same year. Other than Koufu food courts, the company branched out and operates different concept food courts such as Fork & Spoon, which is a
halal ''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with ''haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification kno ...
food court, The Gallerie, which is inspired by Peranakan cuisine, 1983, which is a coffee shop selling toast and coffee and local cuisine, Happy Hawkers, which is nostalgic based, and Dough Culture for an urban experience in shopping malls' basements. Koufu also manages
Punggol Plaza Punggol Plaza is a shopping mall located in Punggol, Singapore, near Coral Edge LRT station. The mall is the oldest and one of the first to be built in Punggol to cater to the needs of the residents living there. It was officially opened in Septe ...
, a shopping mall located in
Punggol Punggol, alternatively spelled as Ponggol, is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area and New towns of Singapore, new town situated on the Tanjong Punggol peninsula in the North-East Region, Singapore, North-East Region of Singapore. The to ...
through its subsidiary, Abundance Development Pte Ltd. On 19 October 2022, Koufu officially opened its new headquarters building at Woodlands. The building housed its production factories, food processing kitchens, cloud kitchen units, workers' dormitories and its office workforce. It also included the Elemen Academy to teach its junior chef and experience running a kitchen.


Products and stores

Most of Koufu's food courts have a modern contemporary design. Other brands of food courts such as Cookhouse by Koufu has different concepts and design at each outlet, taking inspiration from the location the outlet is located in.


Brands


R&B Tea

R&B Tea is a milk and bubble tea brand. It has more than 1,000 outlets in the US, China, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.


See also

*
Food Republic Food Republic () is a food court chain run by the BreadTalk Group based in Singapore. CEO of Food Republic is Mr. Jenson Ong. The concept combines local hawker fare with mini restaurants (some of which have exclusive seating) in an open dining c ...
*
Kopitiam A ''kopitiam'' or ''kopi tiam'' () is a type of coffee shop mostly found in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Southern Thailand patronised for meals and beverages, and traditionally operated by the Chinese community of the ...


References

{{reflist


External links


Official website
2002 establishments in Singapore Regional restaurant chains Fast-food chains of Singapore Food court in Singapore Restaurants established in 2002 Singaporean brands Companies listed on the Singapore Exchange Singaporean companies established in 2002