腻害！前普华永道咨询师转行卖沙拉！年收入超4000万|马来西亚_新浪财经

来源：四大新鲜事儿

Dylan Lee来自马来西亚Perak州的Sitiawan，他曾就读于马来西亚诺丁汉大学，并以一等荣誉学士学位毕业。他主修财务、会计及管理三个专业。Dylan后来在普华永道新加坡分公司担任并购咨询团队的高级助理。

Image Credit: Salad Atelier

Dylan表示，当他在普华永道工作时，沙拉和健康食品被认为是午餐的主食，甚至是晚餐的主食。大约在同一时间，他看到了一篇文章，说马来西亚人的肥胖率是亚洲最高的国家之一。就在那时，他知道该做点什么了。

Image Credit: Salad Atelier

10年前，Salad Atelier在The Weld的一家不起眼的店铺里开始了它的创业之路。这个想法一开始很简单，就是大家可以自己制作沙拉。

Dylan称“那时我意识到我们有发展潜力。我的下一步是聘请一名营养师帮助策划大众熟悉的菜品，比如Nasi Lemak SA。”慢慢地，他们的店铺数量在不断增长。

Image Credit: Salad Atelier

到2015年，Salad Atelier已经发展到四家分店。2017年，Salad Atelier通过他们的一位客户与他们的主要投资者建立了联系。

在投资者的指导下，Dylan成立了MBFE Sdn Bhd公司， MBFE代表“多品牌食品帝国”。此后，Salad Atelier已发展到35家门店以及其他垂直行业。该公司现在还为企业提供食品供应、海上船舶支持、办公楼和国际学校的自助餐厅运营以及餐饮服务。

Salad Atelier的35家门店全部由MBFE经营。在巴生谷、新山和槟城都有门店。Dylan还表示，该团队正在考虑在2025年在马六甲市、怡保、雪兰班开设分店。

Dylan：“我们与MBFE的目标是为餐饮企业提供一站式解决方案，包括健康讲座和咨询。”

团队现在有20名厨师。主厨在菜单设计方面有20年的经验，现在在内部营养师的帮助下掌管研发部门。

如今，Dylan声称MBFE是马来西亚最大的健康食品连锁店。

他说:“正如之前提到的，我们只提供DIY沙拉，这只吸引了一小部分观众，我们想要向马来西亚人传播我们对健康食物的热爱。”

因此，多年来，该团队开始扩大他们的大米餐，并提供藜麦等替代品。

他们也在寻求进入快速消费品业务，在那里他们将销售自制调味品以及他们自己的即食食品。

对Dylan来说，餐饮行业是最难进入的行业之一，尽管一开始看起来很容易。Dylan称，当你涉足餐饮行业时，你需要做好心理准备，在看到一些成功之前，你需要忍受至少五年的艰辛。

经历了这一切，这家成立10年的公司现在正朝着在2024年突破3000万令吉（约合人民币4,893万元）收入的目标迈进。他们还希望在2025年赚到5000万令吉（约合人民币8,156万元）。

回想起早期，Dylan说他在2014年以23万令吉的资金创办了Salad Atelier。其中15万令吉来自他的个人储蓄，8万令吉来自个人贷款。

详细如下：

He left PwC to start Salad Atelier, now it’s on track to breaking RM30M revenue this yr

Hailing from Sitiawan, Perak, Dylan Lee had a bright future ahead of him.

He had attended University of Nottingham Malaysia, graduating with First Class Honours in BA (Hons.) Finance, Accounts, and Management. That’s right, he was a triple major.

Dylan went on to work at PwC in Singapore as a Senior Associate in the M&A Advisory team.

“While I was there, salads and healthy foods were considered lunch staples and even eaten for dinner,” he said. “It was around the same time that I came across an article that talked about Malaysians’ obesity rate being one of the highest in Asia.”

That was when he knew something needed to be done.

With that, Salad Atelier got its start 10 years ago in a humble shop in The Weld. The idea was straightforward at first—just salads that you can create on your own.

“I realised then we had potential to grow. My next step was to hire a dietitian to help with curating ala carte meals that are familiar to the masses, like Nasi Lemak SA.”

“Slowly but surely, we grew in numbers in the office and in location,” Dylan said.

Establishing a food group

By 2015, the business had already grown to four outlets. It was through one of their customers that Salad Atelier connected with their main investor in 2017.

With the investors’ guidance, Dylan went on to set up MBFE Sdn Bhd with MBFE standing for ‘Multi Brands Food Empire’.

Under MBFE, Salad Atelier has grown to 35 outlets as well as into other verticals. The business now also does food supply provisions to corporates, off-shore vessel support, cafeteria operations in office buildings and international schools, and catering.

“Our goal with MBFE is to provide a one-stop-solution for F&B businesses, including health talks and consultations,” Dylan elaborated.

All 35 outlets of Salad Atelier are being operated by MBFE. There are stores in Klang Valley, Johor Bahru and Penang. Dylan also said that the team is looking at opening outlets in Malacca City, Ipoh, Seremban, and eventually East Malaysia in 2025.

The team now has 20 chefs under their wing. Their Head Chef has 20 years of experience in menu creation and is now helming the R&D division with the help of their in-house dietitian.

Beyond Salad Atelier, MBFE is also home to two other brands–Med Mex and Lettuce & Rise.

While Med Mex serves healthier alternatives to the usual Mexican-Mediterranean foods, Lettuce & Rise mainly serves healthy rice bowls with local flavours.

Both were born during the pandemic.

“At the time, we were reluctant to let go any of our staff and were finding ways to retain them,” he explained. “We decided to pivot and made sales through the two brands as cloud kitchens and we rode the hype serving different ‘looks’ to healthy foods.”

Keeping true to the vision

Today, Dylan claims that MBFE is the largest chain of healthy food restaurants in Malaysia.

He shared that the team had not strayed from their philosophy over the years, but instead have grown in their offerings.

“As mentioned earlier, we had only served DIY Salads which appealed to a small section of the audience, and what we want is to spread our love for healthier foods with Malaysians,” he said.

Hence, over the years, the team began expanding their rice-based meals and providing alternatives such as quinoa.

“We still believe that healthier foods are for everyone, and it’s always been our goal to make it affordable for students, working adults, and uncles and aunties,” Dylan said.

The team is able to lower the cost of their meals thanks to economies of scale. This means their prices can actually compete side-by-side with non-healthy foods.

Keeping true to this sentiment of affordability, MBFE aims to expand its footprint across Malaysia.

On top of that, they’re also looking to enter the FMCG business where they will be selling homemade dressings as well as their own ready-to-eat (RTE) meals.

Sustaining a business

To Dylan, F&B is one of the most difficult industries to tap into, even though it seems easy at first.

“The real cost of running an F&B chain kicks in when you have five or more outlets,” he shared. “Many F&B entrepreneurs overlook that, hence why there are many restaurants that find it hard to survive their first three years.”

He added that when you set foot in the F&B industry, you need to be mentally prepared to endure the hardships for at least five years before seeing some success. “Expect it to get messy before it gets better,” he said.

Having experienced that, the 10-year-old company is now on track to break the RM30 million revenue mark in 2024. They’re also expecting to make RM50 million in 2025.

Recalling the early days, Dylan said he had started Salad Atelier with a total of RM230,000 in 2014. RM150,000 was from his personal savings, while RM80,000 from a personal loan.

“When we opened our fourth Salad Atelier outlet, I was at a loss because I was still paying myself RM2,500 per month to run the business as a founder,” he said. “I started questioning myself if quitting a high-paying job in Singapore was worth it.”

But then, someone told him, “Dylan, your business will have many legs that can be developed.”

“It was a turning point for me because someone had more confidence in the business than I did,” he said. “I stopped doubting myself and went all in and never looked back.”

（转自：四大新鲜事儿）