Successful restaurateur heading back to Australia
Despite the success of his restaurant business in Thailand, within three months Kritsada Sarakoon will return to work in Australia as he promised his wife three years ago.
"My wife prefers to live and work in Australia, where she can earn an attractive salary," said Kritsada, 34, the marketing director of Sushi Boy Co, a growing kaiten zushi (conveyor-belt sushi) restaurant chain in Thailand.
Three years ago, when Kritsada and his wife decided to come back to Thailand from Australia, they had two business choices: car wash and Japanese restaurants. Kritsada had gained a lot of experience in both businesses in Australia.
However, the car-wash business did not offer a great business opportunity for Kritsada, as he had planned to set up premium car wash facilities like those in Australia. He noted that small and medium car-wash shops could be found in every corner of Bangkok. In addition, Thai car owners don’t want to spend more than Bt200 for the services, as the average cost here is Bt100. As a result, he had to drop this idea.
Turning to the alternative, Japanese restaurants, Kritsada conducted a market survey, as there also were a lot of Japanese restaurants in the market. The survey result encouraged Kritsada to differentiate his restaurants from others, as his research found that conveyor-belt sushi had only one strong brand in this market.
Kritsada did economics from Thammasat University and followed up with a master of business administration in marketing from a university in Australia. In addition, his 10 years of experience in Prakit Holdings and FCB advertising agency encouraged him to achieve cost efficiency and correct marketing strategies when starting a business.
He invested Bt3 million, all from his savings, in the first restaurant. It was set up at Lotus’s Town-in-Town store, a community mall where Kritsada foresaw a business opportunity. At the beginning, Kritsada had to work very hard on everything from interior design to chef duties to ensure everything came out as expected. After six months of the first shop’s operation, Kritsada believed that the business had the opportunity to grow, and he set up the second restaurant.
Don’t be surprised to see Kritsada walk around serving customers from table to table, as he wants to learn directly from customers and introduce new menus.
Opened for three years, Sushi Boy’s business has grown step by step instead of expanding quickly like its rivals. The sushi chain operates three branches, and the latest outlet, at the Central shopping complex on Rama II Road, will open soon.
To serve business expansion in the future, the company is establishing a central kitchen. The plan is designed to ensure food quality and standardisation; in particular, core ingredients and sauces will be produced there.
Kritsada has differentiated his restaurants from others by creating set menus together with some
