With my ongoing #Jomtaralerssupportlocal campaign, let me share with you what transpired during my personal meet up with Mr. Ang Yuh Yaw, the franchise owner of Subway Caltex Taman Daya Petrol Station and Subway BHP Perling Petrol Station in Johor Bahru.
Mr Ang is actually a retiree from an Oil & Gas firm in Singapore in 2015. He has been in this industry for more than 30 years. I first met him in 2017 when he was introduced to me by our Company General Manager (Mr Goh Lak Jin) during the opening of his Subway Outlet in Taman Daya Caltex Petrol Station. I hosted the said event and he was easy to work with. I would say, the event went very well.
I think I am also one of those pips who witnessed how busy they were during their opening month. The entire outlet was packed with guests lining up to buy a set of their fresh Subway meals.
3 years down the road and here we are sitting down in an unplanned setting and catching up on our life stories. We talked about some personal stuff including his business. Let me share to our discussion.
Why Subway?
According to him, being into entrepreneurship was a suggestion by his son who loves Subway. As a retiree, the idea of providing healthier and fresh value meals to Johor Bahru is something productive and exciting.
Do you love what you are doing?
With a steep learning curve at first, I was wondering if I made the right decision to venture into Subway. Eventually I discovered a fulfilling passion that I didn’t expect. I love meeting people and serving them our fresh meals. At least, I have something to focus on thereby keeping my mind, body and soul active. I enjoy meeting new friends and engaging with interesting life conversations and sharing experiences.
I also like the opportunities for Corporate Social Responsibility events where we give free Subways to Johore Cheshire Home; Co-VID Frontliners; breakfast for teachers for their sports events etc.
What was the greatest feedback you’ve heard from your customers?
When I was in a nearby petrol station, a person told me that the Subway Outlet in Taman Daya was where he had experienced really fresh bread and fresh ingredients of Subway in Town. It was an overwhelming note of appreciation. Hearing such good comments inspired me and my staff to do better in serving the community with our fresh Subway products.
What are the challenges you had faced managing the business?
With the ongoing pandemic worldwide, the business has actually been affected. But we need to do something out of it, otherwise, it will be difficult for us to survive. We have to ensure that we can generate additional sales by promoting our products to all our loyal customers and friends. We need to be competitive among other food service providers in town and we are so happy that there are customers who continue supporting us.
What have you learned about managing a business?
Managing a business cannot be learned overnight. It will take time to get used to it. In my experience with Subway, sometimes there were wrong decisions made but we have to learn from all these mistakes. Managing a business is not easy. We have to be patient and always be extra careful with maintaining product quality.
What do you think makes you different among other Subway owners?
I don’t want to compare myself to my fellow franchise owners. I know they are also doing their best on SOP and to get sales as much as they can to maintain their own outlets especially during this pandemic. But for me, what I am very passionate about is the aspiration to give our customers a great dining/guest experience. I am also passionate about ensuring the quality and freshness of our ingredients by instilling strict SOP compliance amongst the staff.
What’s new in your Subway outlet?
Subway will always be Subway. Nothing will change that. But with the changing new way of lifestyle, we have to be adaptable to the new normal brought about by this Pandemic. It is really a huge adjustment to us since we need to operate the business while following the strict protocols from the government in our fight against the spread of Co-VID19 in our workplace and on our personal life.
We have started our pickup/delivery ordering platform for the community to reach us. Customers can order directly for pick-up or delivery options. Food delivery is arranged at a minimal fee without surcharge.
Do you also do free delivery to your customer?
For both my outlets, yes, we do. The free delivery comes in within a 5-kilometer radius from my 2 outlets for our members. We may not offer this in perpetuity but are offering this for as long as we can afford to.
As a retiree, what is your advice to those who are going to retire soon?
I believe there are many other experts who can answer this better but it’s a good question. To me, when we are retired, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything to contribute. In fact, we have a lot of experiences and sometimes we also have more financial resources. We should actually use those experiences and resources to keep ourself useful. Start a small enterprise; employ and train people; and hopefully we can inspire them to be entrepreneurs too. We can try to provide jobs especially during this hard time.
We can take this opportunity to open up something that can help create employment for the society and for the younger generation to learn from us. Let us be an inspiration to others so that in spite of age, we are still capable of doing something good to ourselves and to the community.
How about the young ones, any advice?
Yeah. It’s good to encourage the younger ones to be entrepreneurs too. If there is a chance to venture into a small business, why not. It is always better to offer employment opportunities than compete for employment opportunities. Take the plunge and you will never regret.
These are what we have discussed during that meet up. I was quite during those moments while he shared his experiences. I would say, it was a fruitful discussion with this humble man who also does delivery by himself in various clinics, hospitals, and schools in Johor Bahru.
If you come to his store, you may see Mr Ang with his Subway uniform cleaning up the table in his outlet or doing delivery by himself, but actually he is the man behind the two outlets of Subway in JB which gives employment to locals during this pandemic.
I would say I think he deserve to be called as “The Taman Daya Subway Man”.