KUCHING: Traditional recipes are fast becoming a thing of the past in light of today’s multitude of culinary offerings in the market.However, young entrepreneur Yeo Ing Fook firmly believes that ‘kompia’, a delicacy synonymous with the Foochow dialect, will be around for many years to come.
The business owner who has been operating his ‘kompia’ stall for five years and counting at the Song Kheng Hai Market food court was involved in the food business for the better part of eight years.
“When I first started my ‘kompia’ stall, I could only manage to sell 50 pieces per day. I was discouraged at first, but family support pushed me through those tough times,” he said.
Perseverance paid off as Yeo currently sells between 300 and 400 pieces a day on weekdays while on weekends, the numbers go up to 1,000 pieces.
The young entrepreneur obtains his supplies of ‘kompia’, coined by some as a Foochow burger, from his relatives who manually produces the items.
“My business is very much a family affair. Whilst my main menu consists of ‘kompia’, my brother also sells ‘rojak’ at our stall,” he stated.
“We have also experimented with our ‘kompia’ fillings to cheese and ham with positive feedback from our customers.”
Surprisingly, when asked on his advertising methods, Yeo replied that he did not spend much on promotion activities as most of his customers helped him to spread the word.
Some of his customers come from as far as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in addition to the locals patronising his stall.
“We are concentrating on this stall for the time being. Any expansion plans we have will need to be put on hold since we are short on manpower.
“As it is, currently, my brother and I are the only ones manning the stall, although our sister helps out on weekends when the crowd gets really big,” Yeo mentioned.
However, he did say that once the circumstances were right, he might consider setting up new stalls at food courts located at Jalan Song and the Premier 101 commercial area apart from his current location.
Yeo pointed out, “The main reason why we are very firm on this matter is that we value the quality of our products and wish to keep it that way. It is very hard to do so if we were to operate many outlets at one go.”
He also offered a word of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs that perseverance was the key to success as he had endured all sorts of challenges in his business undertakings.