K-Pop craze and Asian-taste fried chicken became the original ideation
For Michelle Surjaputra, CEO of PT Michellindo Food International, being an entrepreneur has always been her dreams. When she went back for good to Indonesia, she saw a huge opportunity in the fast food industry. “I noticed that practically all the fast food chains had American Fried Chicken and there was difficult to find a specific Asian Fried Chicken”, said a 26-year old-New York University Stern School of Business grad-student.
Michelle mapped out the opportunity in fast food chain with the growing trend of Korean Pop culture (K-Pop) in the country.
Then she found a sparking idea: developing a perfect product to bring to Indonesia through BonChon, a fast-food chain restaurant from South Korea that has nestled into selected shopping centers in Jakarta and continued to spread the Korean culinary craze.
Michelle E Surjaputra receives “Most Promising Category” in Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2014 and became inspiring speakers for various talk shows and seminar promoting young entrepreneurship.
“I knew that BonChon would do great because the taste isn’t too foreign to the Indonesian’s tongue and it’s still a chicken and rice base”, explained Michelle.
BonChon is a Korean name that means “original village” in English. After opening its first location in Busan, South Korea, in 2002, the franchise has expanded to several countries, such as the US, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. It’s different with other American Fried Chicken available in Indonesia. BonChon’s chicken, both the original and spicy varieties, lays the uniqueness on a thinner batter coating, blanketed by a shiny, brown soy garlic sauce.
Food business for someone with
no-cooking background
She was selecting BonChon as a product to grow in Indonesia with a simple reason. She used to go to the restaurant’s locations in New York City and loved the flavor. Her father, who helped provide the capital, trusts the chicken brand too and supported her.
Michelle worked out a 50-page business plan, which earned her an invitation to meet the CEO and Master Franchisee in the Philippines. She beat five other candidates and secured the right to be a Master Franchisee in Indonesia.
“For them, it’s more important to get someone who wants to work hard than someone who has experience. As someone who is just starting out, I will dedicate 100 percent of my time at BonChon,” she said.
Business negotiations proceeded right away and she flew back to New York City in October 2011 to get hands-on experience in running the restaurant. She works fast. In November, she started hiring professionals and transferring her knowledge. Together, they experiment a bit to account for differences in chicken size, oil and flour. The first restaurant opened in the Grand Indonesia shopping mall in Central Jakarta in January this year, followed by outlets in five other malls.
New player:
Lots of challenges, too many opportunities
There’s definitely a lot of challenges which she believes through this process comes different challenges. At first, it was a challenge to find all the ingredients to make BonChon chicken and a lot of testing process was done to standardize the chicken.
Location is also being another big challenge. We needed to identify perfect location to attract our target customer. We also had to send proposals to mall to give us proposed best spots, which was definitely a challenge since we were brand new player.
As BonChon grows as franchise business, now the challenge is to standardize their franchisees and make sure all the quality is the same.
Continue to grow, partner with trust is key
I trust DBS in growing my portfolio and that’s definitely really important. I don’t have to continuously check on the stock market and how my portfolio performs. In the case of any dramatic news, my relationship manager would always inform me and would always propose a strategy. By keeping my portfolio safe, I can concentrate on my business
To continue the business, this businesswoman that spent most of her adolescent hood in water sports and finally embarked on her first marathon in 2013 in Paris, said that she needs a partner to grow the portfolio.
Michelle has been a DBS customer for two years and she was starting out BonChon business when she was first introduced by DBS that time.
I choose DBS because it’s a very safe bank. I’m currently part of DBS Treasures and investing in a variety of equity and bond based mutual funds. Currently my portfolio is rather aggressive because I’m still young and can take the risk. Indonesia itself is a growing country and if we don’t take advantage of mutual funds, our money will depreciate very fast.
When being asked about DBS approach, she shared her opinion, “I like how DBS is a very safe and transparent bank. It provides me comfort”, ended Michelle.
Under Michellindo Group, Michelle expands the food business with Sombrero, a modern cuisine with authentic Mexican roots. She also sparking another passion for fashion with Lotuz, a high end ready-to-wear brand, encapsulates the spirit of modern women, together with her designer partner Yosep Sinudarsono.
