School of Architecture, Building and Design

Foundation in Natural Built and Environment

English 2 ENGL 0205

Research assignment - Business Comparison

Group members: 1. Herbert Liew Fung Zhean (0316133)

2. Kimberly Wong Jin Siew (0315145)

3. Liong Shun Qi (0315942)

4. Sherny Liong Xin Yie (0316600)

5. Valentine Hew Hui Ling (0316236)

6. Yvonne Chin Yun Miin (0315662)

Lecturer: Cassandra Rashika Wijesuria

Submission date: 5 June 2014

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Contents

Key summary 3

Acknowledgement 4

Part 1: Company Profile

1.1 Brief Description to the Businesses 5

1.2 History of the Businesses 6

1.3 Introduction of the Businesses 8

1.4 Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ 11

Competitive Traits

1.5 Strategies and Conditions 13

1.5 New Seafood Restaurant Today 15

1.6 S.W.O.T. 18

1.7 Summary 21

Part 2: Appendices

2.1 Survey Questionnaires 22

2.2 Photos and Captions 23

Part 3: References

3.1 References 26

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Key Summary

The analytic and comparative information of the two businesses and the

competitive challenges and obstacles faced is shown in this report. The type of

business we chose was the Chinese restaurant while the two respective

restaurants we interviewed was Tsunami Village Cafe and William’s Crab

Restaurant. The Tsunami Village Cafe is located at Tanjung Bungah, Penang,

and the interview was done during the class trip to Penang. While William’s Crab

Restaurant is located in Sri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan. This report

consists of the history and introduction of both restaurants. Other than that, it

consists of the comparative analysis of the businesses’ competitive traits and

S.W.O.T of the restaurants. A brief summary of both restaurants concludes the

whole interview analysis and report. Appendices is included with the minutes of

the meetings and photos of the restaurants as preferences. Provided references

are also included in the report.

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Acknowledgement

Running a business is not easy nowadays. Not only you need to promote and

advertise your own business, but you also need to have human resources and

good public relationship with your partners, workers and even the customers, just

to boost up the popularity. Other than individual business challenges, there are

also other competitors around the area, fighting to get more customers by having

new ways to attract customers by having package promotions and refurbishing

the location and having some activities and events to encourage customers to

come regularly.

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Brief Description to the Businesses

Chinese seafood restaurants are favored by many populations especially the

Chinese. Fish is a very important Chinese cuisine which it is the symbol that

represents abundance and prosperity. The cooking of this dish is very delicate

and it is all on the cooking skills and styles of the chef of the restaurants.

Sometimes, new taste of this dish is also created by the chefs. The restaurants

will be well known by the cooking of the chefs. There are many well known

Chinese seafood restaurants allocated in Malaysia, and the peak hour of these

restaurants is from the evening till late night, which will be crowded with many

customers craving for seafood dishes. Some of the famous Chinese seafood

restaurants in Malaysia like Tien Tien Seafood Restaurant, Tsunami Village Cafe,

William’s Crab Restaurant and so on are usually packed hungry people during

the weekends. Chinese seafood restaurants around the world nowadays still

keep the tradition and meaning of the seafood dish that was originated from our

ancestors from China, which represents and keeps the Chinese seafood cuisine

culture.

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History to the Businesses

Tsunami Village Cafe

Tsunami Village Cafe is located in Tanjung Bungah, Penang where it is right

at the beachside of the island of Georgetown. This restaurants was opened since

2004 after the Tsunami incident in Penang. The founder of Tsunami Village Cafe,

Mr. Tek, had gone through a lot of hardship and was a victim of the tsunami. He

was a fisherman, supplying seafood sources to the dealers and markets around

that area. After the incident of the Tsunami, Mr. Tek decided to start a business of

his own by supplying himself with his own source of food. At first, his business

had only a few staffs, one fisherman and a chef. Everyday before dawn, he will

go down to the market to buy fresh ingredients for his restaurants dishes and

after he returns, he and his other fisherman would go to catch some fresh fishes

and shellfishes just outside his restaurant.

After the years go by, he changed his chef which this current chef has served

him for three years. Staff amount also increased and now he has 22 staffs and 3

chefs. He has never thought of doing any partnership and he does not feel stress

about it. Over the years, his chefs have invented new tastes and dishes to attract

customers from all around the place, and it worked. Even though his restaurant

has not refurbished over the years, the place is still neat and tidy, and it is located

right at the beach where you can actually feel the sea breeze of Penang.

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William’s Crab Restaurant

William's Crab, the business of two generations, which is a four year old

seafood restaurant on numerous of seafood restaurants in Selangor. Four years

seems to be short, but previously, in the first generation, they are actually joining

venture with a famous crab specialist restaurant (Fatty Crab) and it was firstly

introduced in the market at The Mines Resort City for thirteen years.

As time goes by to the second generation, in the year of twenty-eleven

(2010), they subsequently divided its business and this is when the journey of

William's Crab Seafood Restaurant started. William's Crab was created for a new

fresh look and had replaced the previous one.

At the beginning of the business when is also 4years ago, they only had like

four waitresses, two chefs and only one supervisor to run their business, people

could not recognize them at a glance, even though they are still running the

same business in the same location. To make some improvement, they tend to

cook out with the taste that are unique, special, nice and unforgettable to attract

new customers and to pull back their old customers who thought that they've

moved to another place. And for now, they have headway to 15 staffs to work for

them.

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Introduction of the Businesses

Tsunami Village Cafe

Tsunami Village Cafe was opened for business since 21st August in the year

2005, and was named after the Tsunami incident in Penang back in the year

2004. It was named after Tsunami because the owner Mr. Tek was the victim of

the tsunami. Since the background of Mr. Tek, is a fisherman himself, he provided

fresh supplies of seafood for his customers. The famous dish in this restaurant is

the Helicopter Dish - a dish of fresh oysters which is a must-have-dinner when

you are dining there. Other than that is the Fried Nestum Prawns and thumbs up

for the Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab.

Tsunami Village Cafe is currently located in 543-A Tanjung Bungah, 11200

Penang, where you can contact them at 012-4872718 or 019-4472718. They are

closed on Mondays and usually packed with people during weekends, which is

best to make reservations before dining there. They have 22 staffs and three

chefs without any partnership and has only one outlet with him supervising them

everyday. Mr. Tek is planning to retire after a few more years and thinking to pass

the restaurant on to someone trustworthy.

Mr. Tek has promoted some of his dishes from time to time. Although he did

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not spend much on advertising, customers that come over made some reviews

and shared it on the website of his restaurants locations and famous dishes

found in his restaurant. In spite of the simple but tidy and sea-view restaurant, his

individual business is still running smoothly and successfully over the years and

soon will be the 9th anniversary of the restaurant. After a few years, Mr. Tek is

planning of retiring from this business and continue his life with his own activities.

Whether passing it on to another trustworthy person and closing it down is still a

question going on in his mind.

William’s Crab Restaurant

William's Crab Seafood Restaurant, which named by the name of the founder

William. The name of the restaurant is William's Crab is because they're crab

specialist. They mainly cook and served crabs to all the seafood lovers. It is

located at No. 5, Jalan Tasik, The Mines Resort City, 43300, Sri Kembangan,

Selangor Darul Ehsan, where is before the Sapura Agency Sdn. Bhd building.

Currently they have only one branch, the manager (Mr. AJ) of the restaurant

claims that they will yet temporarily concentrate on their present restaurant.

However, in the future intend on opening a new branches are always in their

planning arrangements. For the employees, they have employed fifteen

employees, which including 3 chefs, 7 waitresses, 2 cleaner, and 3 supervisors.

Next, is the signature of William's Crab - Chili sour crabs and Steamed crabs.

Their crabs are mainly imported from Indonesia, to ensure the freshness and the

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quality of the crabs, they go to choose and pick by themselves from suppliers. In

addition to seafoods, William's Crab also have serve packages meal. Other than

food, they also provide their own website to let people know more about them.

For example, they provide their address and a map to make it easier for

customers to reach William's Crab, they also provide their telephone number for

bookings, orders, and more details. In order to prevent customers worry about

what to eat, they have put some recommended menus on their website to allow

customers to reference. In addition to the services above, they also have

promotions such as Mother's Day, Christmas, Valentines, buffets and so on.

According to Mr.AJ, they started their business under William's Crab in the

year of 2010, from an obscure restaurant, each day only have less than 10 tables

of customers, till now become a superior restaurant which each day have around

50 tables of customers come and go. Before they divided their business with their

partner, they used up roughly about RM250, 000 to rebuild a whole new seafood

restaurant, which is actually included hiring a designer to design their new logo,

new signboard, to renew some kitchen equipment, do some advertisement stuffs,

renovation and employing new employees. Compare to the past, they are now

the seafood restaurant that can be full house almost every day.

As we mentioned earlier, the name of the restaurant William's Crab is named

by the name of the founder. Throughout the interview, we found that the founder

William is a seafood lover, he said it is difficult to find delicious seafood in Kuala

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Lumpur, especially crabs. Based on his love of food, he decided to invest in a

seafood restaurant, first can give more opportunity for this seafood restaurant

and make it progress, second is that they are letting more and more people to

have nice seafood meal.

Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits

Tsunami Village Cafe

Since this is an individual business and the owner is the supplier of the restaurant

himself, Mr. Tek sees not much competition around his area but the only

challenges he faced are the government taxes and Goods and Service Tax

(GST). He has to do and check his invoice and accounts even during his only off

day on Mondays.

William’s Crab Restaurant

Speaking of seafood, there are a lot of seafood restaurants in Selangor. To do

comparison of seafood restaurant is not an easy thing to do, but to make it easier

for us to do the survey and compare, we have chosen the similar seafood

restaurants for comparison.

Competitors for William's Crab:

1. Fatty Crabs

The first seafood restaurant we are going to compare with is 'Fatty Crabs', which

everyone mistakenly thinks that they are under a same group of seafood industry.

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They were partners before, but later they divided their business to Fatty Crabs

and William's Crab. After the divestment, Fatty Crabs has moved to Petaling Jaya

to set up a new business and menu. Their menu might be slightly similar, their

restaurant is also popular for serving big and fleshy crab, but they have their own

signature dishes, Nextly, Fatty Crabs has 2 storeys, air conditioned at the upper

floor and no air conditioned at lower floor which can fit more customers.

2. S.K Seafood Restaurant

The second seafood restaurant that we are going to introduce is S.K Seafood

Restaurant, which located at Lot LMS A2001, Jalan Persiaran Serdang Perdana,

Seri Kembangan, right across the road directly facing the plaza’s main entrance.

However, this restaurant different compared to the previous two because it

serves non-halal food. They also provide live entertainment such as karaoke and

alcoholic beverages to customers. S.K seafood restaurant is more focused on

chinese cuisine.

3. Big Eyes Seafood Restaurant

The third competitor would be Big Eyes Seafood Restaurant, which located at

1120 Jalan SK 4/1 Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan. According to the reviews,

they have lack of parking space, customers have to park far away from the

restaurant, but they are famous for their fish so their customers are willing to walk

quite a distance just to taste the fish and their signature sauce.

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Strategies And Conditions Of The Business

According to the interview with Mr. Tek:

First, he chose that location because of limited choice and he rented that location

from his cousin. The location was also near to the sea which it will be more

convenient for him to catch his own supplies.

Second, at first he only had eight big round dining table but after the business

increased, he had increased the number of tables to 20 and hired more staffs

and waiters to serve the customers as the few staffs from before cannot handle

that much of customers after the years.

Third, his chef has invented much tasty dishes over the years for the customers

to try something new. Other than that, good dishes comes from good supplies,

which he wakes up at 2 a.m. in the morning to buy fresh vegetables and other

ingredients from the market and comes back in a fast pace to go fish for fresh

delicious fishes and shellfishes.

According fo the interview with Mr. AJ:

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Firstly, he chose this place because of the environment, it is facing the beautiful

lake and a nice view of the The Mines Resort City which he thinks that this place

could attract more customers and this is one of the benefits for the business.

Nextly, Mr.AJ says that building a good relationship with customers is very

important, because of that, he sustains many loyal and long-term customers who

come often to eat their seafood.

Besides that, he has a special menu of imported crabs from Indonesia. He often

creates new menus to recommend the customers to try something new. After

that, he will ask feedback from the customers to know whether the recipe is

suitable to be on the menu. He accepts challenges to improve the business and

always find a way to impress the customers.

Their customers such as tourists would go online to search for special menu for

famous restaurant would come across their website. Their website is for

customers to review and to check whether the menu is suitable for them. The

person in charge will also update about any changes in their menu or any latest

news about their promotions.

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A new seafood restaurant business today:

It is difficult to build this business in the seafood industry, because there are

many considerations and marketing strategies before this business is created.

One of the consideration they need to think about is that they must have enough

capital to set up the business.

For the first example at the back of the restaurant, they need some kitchen

equipment such as cold storages to keep the raw meats fresh, refrigerators to

keep vegetables, seasonings or sauces kind of stuff, gas stoves, cooking

equipment, plates, bowls, glasses, spoon and forks, washing basin, even a non-

slip floor tiles is necessary for the kitchen staff to work more efficiently and also to

avoid accidents happen. Secondly, for the front of the restaurant, dining tables

and chairs, refrigerators for drinks and desserts, reception counter, spoon and

forks are the basic least stuffs they needed.

In addition of those equipments stuff, the signboard is also one of the main

points of a restaurant. The signboard is like the business card, it introduces the

business to the public and prospective customers. It gives a introduction and a

creates a mental image of the identity of the seafood restaurant in the minds of

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people and customers. If necessary, they will need to find a designer for their

logo and sign board design, which is an additional cost for them again.

For the arrival of the customers, most of them won't simply patronizing on

those seafood restaurants they are not familiar with, or some of them do not dare

to try in new seafood restaurant out of their familiar one, then that is why the new

seafood restaurant need to advertise to attract new customers, but anyway, these

advertisements may not necessarily works or attract a lot of customers, so this

way of attracting customers is actually kind of an adventure that can't guarantee

as much good feedback as we expected.

In this business, customers are constantly complaining about employees

bickering with one another, serve times, incorrect orders and the foods. So the

character of the employees is one of the energy to run the whole business. It’s

important to recruit employees such as waitress who fit with the culture and

environment of a the restaurant, by creating an environment where teamwork is

one of the top priorities, restaurant can retain valued employees, increase

customer satisfaction, and exceed sales goals. Then employees will feel like

they’re part of something and be excited to come to work. Most importantly, the

boss or whoever in charge in human resources has to make the right choices

such as where to find a specialize chef who is full of experiences and who can

also create a new menu that to impress customers, because the foods can create

repeat customers.

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Throughout this section, the obstacles faced by new businesses who wish to

enter seafood industry today is quite difficult, but the key of a business running

smoothly is customers, so if the restaurant has something unique and special to

impress customers, then they will have regular customers, and also customers

will do free publicity for them.

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S.W.O.T.

Tsunami Village Cafe

Strength:

They have their famous dish of Nestum Fried Prawn, Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

and Helicopter Oyster Dish. They are right at the beachside where there is also a

floating mosque along the beach where customers can see from the retaurant.

Stunning view of the beach and natural sea breeze from the sea.

Weakness:

Not enough parking lots for customers. Customers have to park from afar and

walk over to restaurant which is very inconvenient especially at night.

Opportunity:

If the dining area can be upgraded and expanded, more customers can come to

enjoy the food here.

Threat:

Hard to do business if there is heavy rain because the restaurant is an open

space and some part of the dining area is not roofed.

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William’s Crab Seafod Restaurant

Strength:

They have their signature menu - Chili Sour Crabs and Steamed Crabs. Which

attracts new customers and regular customers. They also have a chilling

environment which located just by the lake of The Mine Resort City. There are

many live fishes in the lake so it is quite an entertainment for families to dine at

William's Crab Seafood Restaurant with such a beautiful view.

Weakness:

From the reviews of William's Crab, they need to improve their front service and

also they might need to add more parking space. Other than that, their crabs only

have 3 choices (Chili Sour Crabs, Salted Egg Crabs and Steamed Crabs) which

is actually quite little for customers to choose.

Opportunity:

They are exactly next to the lake which give a nice lake view at evening time, but

at night time is just plain darkness. They should install some lights so that

customers could view the beautiful view even it's already at night time. They can

also add some entertainment such as karaoke at the corner of their restaurant to

entertain customers.

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Threat:

Since they are seafood restaurant, they often can't avoid the natural disasters

such as storms, hurricanes, red tide and so on, and all these will cause imported

products reduced due to the nourishment of the seafoods. Besides, also because

of these natural disasters cause the product delayed sending, and causing loss

to the restaurant.

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Summary

This report is all about the interviews that we did in Tsunami Village Cafe

and William's Crab Seafood Restaurant. The interviews were basically

about how and when the business was founded, how they run their

business, what products and services do they provided, what is their

historical background and so forth. This report also mentioned what their

strategies are of running a seafood restaurant.

Other than the information of Tsunami Village Cafe and William's Crab

Seafood Restaurant, we did some comparative analysis of Tsunami Village

Cafe and William's Crab Restaurant with three other seafood restaurants in

the respective area. Also, some online feedback and reviews are inevitable

to be in this report. Last but not least, there is the S.W.O.T analysis of both

restaurants in the end of our report which all has done by the information

we got.

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Appendices

Survey Questionnaires

1. What is the restaurant’s name?

2. What does the name of the restaurant represent?

3. Who is the founder of the restaurant?

4. What inspired you to start this restaurant?

5. When did the business started? How did you start your business?

6. What type of business is your restaurant?

7. Why do you choose this location as your restaurant?

8. Do you have any partnership?

9. How much capital did you need to start up this restaurant?

10. What is your current development?

11. Where do you get your seafood supply?

12. What is this restaurant’s specialty?

13. How many staffs and waiters do you have? Do you change your chef often?

14. How long do you change your menu? What inpsired you to do so?

15. What challenges have you faced over the years?

16. What kind of promotions do you have?

17. Do you have any future plan?

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18. What is your strategy?

Photos and captions

Group photo with Mr. Tek

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Dining area of Tsunami Village Cafe

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Tsunami Village Cafe sea view

Tsunami Village Cafe

William’s Crab Seafood Restaurant

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Group Photo with Mr. AJ Yummy Famous Crab Dish

William’s Crab Restaurant

References

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Tsunami Village Seafood Restaurant at Tanjung Bungah, Penang. (2014, 13

January). Retrieved 2 June, 2014 from

http://www.whattwoeathere.com/2014/01/tsunami-village-seafood-restaur

ant-at.html

My Tasting Out Loud. Tsunami Village Cafe, Tanjung Bungah, Penang. (2012,

30 September). Retrieved 1 June, 2014 from

http://mytastingoutloud.blogspot.com/2012/09/tsunami-village-cafe-tanjun g-

bungah.html

China Highlghts. Chinese Food Type. (2014, 27 May). Retrieved 1 June, 2014

from http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-food/chinese-

food-typ e.htm

William’s Crab. (2014, 5 June). Retrieved 5 June, 2014 from

http://williamscrab.wix.com/williamscrab