11:48am Thursday 4th February 2010
RESTAURANT owner Peter Wu is expanding and is looking to grow his successful Chinese Buffet business into a North West chain to threaten the fast food multi-nationals.
Mr Wu opened the Chinese Buffet in Bridge Street in 2006 and has seen turnover and customer numbers grow over the years.
Within the next five years he wants to create a branded chain of up to 18 Chinese Buffet restaurants and also plans to introduce an express version in major city centres.
He is acting now because he sees rival companies from the Midlands and the South gearing up to move into the North West and he wants to keep the upper hand.
His pioneering fixed price all you can eat buffet at lunchtime and evenings has made the restaurant a good destination for those who like to keep an eye on what they are spending on a night out.
Mr Wu, aged 31, who lives in Little Lever, said: “To keep ahead you have to keep improving what you offer to your customers.
“We have made the decor classy and welcoming and we have smaller narrow serving dishes which means the food is never stale as the chef has to keep refilling them. I have invested £50,000 in introducing Japanese sushi, creating a teppenyaki station where the chef will cook what customers want as well as noodle and pancake stations, opening later this month.
“Bolton was our first restaurant and we have a second, bigger one in Wigan where we also plan to start a food production line so we can have quality control for food, taste and sauces and so on and we are negotiating to open a third buffet.”
He is optimistic about how he plans to expand the brand — he will eventually rename it TCB instead of The Chinese Buffet and the express versions will compete with the likes of Subway and other fast food places in city centres.
Mr Wu hopes his production line will eventually supply the whole restaurant chain and in the long term he wants to see TCB foods and sauces on supermarket shelves.
In 2006 he spent £300,000 opening The Chinese Buffet in Bolton which seats up to 280 and he has just forked out £600,000 opening the 340-capacity Wigan site.
His encouraged him to go to university but one day he saw a Chinese buffet style restaurant and thought he could do better and hasn’t looked back since.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/trade_directory/