Actor Andie Chen joins brothers in F&B, takes over Creative Eateries with brands like Bangkok Jam, Suki-Ya
Chen and his two brothers, together with their business partners, have acquired Creative Eateries, under which comes many familiar restaurant brands. It could be a midlife crisis, Chen quipped.
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Andie Chen, like many actors before him, is going into F&B. He’s not opening a new joint, though. Instead, he and his brothers – older brother Ash and younger brother Adam – and their business partners have acquired Creative Eateries, it was announced on Monday (Nov 17). The homegrown restaurant group comes with a host of well-known brands such as Bangkok Jam, Suki-Ya, Tanglin Cookhouse, Barossa Steak & Grill and even a catering arm.
The brothers’ company, founded by Adam, is called Asia White Knight Group and already owns the franchise rights to Singapore’s six Joe & Dough outlets, where Adam gained operational experience in the F&B scene over the last few years. A serial entrepreneur, Adam is a self-proclaimed “platforms guy” whose previous projects include building and running entertainment platform Effro.
It was Adam who approached him to join the team, Andie, last seen in the drama Fixing Fate, told CNA Lifestyle.
Apart from acting, Andie also does production work and “for the past six years, I’ve been enjoying giving money and opportunities to creatives and people I feel are capable. This is the same thing. We are trying to build the back engine so we can support F&B people with concepts that might not be able to play with the big players, but who have ideas and are very passionate. Why don’t we help them with procurement, building volume, rental, marketing and media, so they can focus on what they are good at?”
Why did they decide to make such a big leap into restaurants? Adam said: “The F&B market is going through a transition. The market might look like it’s going very badly, but we see that with transitions come opportunities. There is a space for people like me who specialise in the optimisation of operations, systems and processes, to come in and do a bit of shaking up.” To move businesses into the future, he added, he anticipates a “fundamental shift in how F&B is being managed”.
Creative Eateries was a platform that attracted him, Adam said, because it offers a chance for “a marketing and data driven approach to F&B. They are doing everything so well, but because of how the market is transitioning, sometimes, it takes more than one or two management teams to be able to do this. You really need a full leadership team.”
As for Andie, he’ll be assuming the role of Chief Marketing Officer. “I’m in a crash course to learn how to run the marketing department,” he divulged. “There are many aspects that are quite similar to my producing work, but there are also a lot of elements and specific knowledge I have to learn, like SEO and working with PR companies.” Still, “I would say the principle is pretty similar to what I’m doing.”
The company currently employs about 250 people, and the brothers intend to bring more resources in.
But even with his new job, Andie asserted: “I will always be an actor first. That will not change. I think it’s going to be quite apparent that I will be even more selective with the projects I take on. To be honest, it has been that way for many years now, so it has become more quality than quantity for me. Now, I’ll just be even more selective.”
He quipped: “I’m 40 this year and maybe it’s a bit of a midlife crisis. I’ve been telling myself that from this year onwards, I will open myself to whatever comes. With other opportunities that came up, most of the time, I have said no, because I’ve been very focused on becoming a good actor.” Now, “I kind of need to let life happen.”
