Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 19, 2018

SYDNEY: IGB Corp Bhd is expanding its portfolio with the opening of Malaysia’s own Dave’s Deli in its Tank Stream Hotel in Sydney, Australia, yesterday.

The collaboration between Tank Stream Hotel and Dave’s Deli aims to offer a high-quality range of dishes served in under 10 minutes and at an affordable price. The philosophy is to go beyond takeaway food by providing made-to-order good value meals using fresh produce and quality ingredients, served quickly but in high-quality surrounds, differentiating the venue from food court outlets and American chain stores. Patrons of Dave’s Deli will use the hotel’s French bistro styled restaurant to elevate the dining experience. 

Dave’s Deli founder David Chin and his wife Maureen experimented and created new flavours and concept in their own kitchen before opening its first outlet in Bangsar Shopping Centre in 1989. 

“We first opened Dave’s Deli with two things in mind — to offer scrumptious meals that are affordable and have good value for money,” said David at the Sydney launch.

Dave’s Deli chief executive officer and David and Maureen’s son, Brian Chin, said the collaboration started after the executive director of IGB Tan Boon Lee had a meal at its franchise outlet in Mid Valley Megamall.

“Tan came to eat and after that, he got in touch with me. After a lot of discussion, we realised it would be a perfect fit. We have this idea of introducing fast fine food in Sydney, which is a marriage between fast food and fine dining. We did a market study as well and found that there was a huge catchment of office workers right in front of the hotel,” said Brian. 

“We understand the dynamics of consumers here. They have an hour for lunch and they want to finish their meals in 20 minutes, so that they will have time to do their banking or pick up their laundry.

“So, aside from having a good value lunch, they want it fast and that’s what Dave’s Deli can do. It offers what the consumers want and we have to respect what they want. To me, the biggest accolade would be someone telling us they want to open a Dave’s Deli franchise. That’s what we are hoping for,” said Tan. 

Tan was also instrumental in the conversion of a 1960s office building on the corner of Hunter and Pitt Streets into Tank Stream Hotel. IGB has had a long association with Sydney, having restored the Queen Victoria building and Capitol Theatre to their original grandeur. 

Dave’s Deli has 12 outlets in Malaysia and the Sydney outlet is its first international venture.

“We believe there is potential for growth in Sydney and beyond, but we also want to be realistic. We hope that the Australians will accept our food and our philosophy of serving big portion of good food at affordable prices with minimal waiting time. This is a springboard for us; we hope to expand our operations here. This is staple food for Australians, so we might do better here than in Malaysia. It’ll be like selling nasi lemak to Malaysians. We are hoping for the best,” said Brian.

Among the items on the menu are its famous ¼ roast chicken, gourmet pies and sausages. Dishes come with a choice of truffle mash, roasted vegetables, coleslaw and gravy.
 

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