1. Tea is our Life
At the start of 2017, our previous 'Entreprenuer Par Excellence' award winner saw the core of his business turn on its head when La Kaffa International, the parent company of Chatime dcided to end its arrangement with Loob Holdings, Bryan Loo's company.
What followed in the weeks after was a messy and public breakup with plenty of accusations, rebuttals and counter-accusations -- a made-for-TV divorce that attracted an audience day after day.
But in less than 50 days, Bryan Loo and his organisation are bouncing back. Powered by the mantra 'Tea is our Life' Loob Holdings is taking a step into the future today with the announcement of its new brand -- Tealive.
We caught up with Bryan Loo to learn more about the last 6 weeks, and his aims with his new brand.
2. What was your first reaction when you found out La Kaffa was taking the Chatime franchise back?
We were surprised and puzzled. We were not informed ahead of time. They called us saying they were coming over, and we said ‘ok’ because it was the beginning of the new year and they were supposed to introduce their new management team. That was the original agenda.
But when they arrived, they told us that there was a pivot in the agenda: they had discussed amongst the management and agreed to serve us the notice of termination.
We were not prepared, and immediately after hearing this, we thought it was the end of the world. We were really caught by surprise.