BREWING AN EMPIRE

As founder and CEO of Loob Holding Sdn. Bhd., BRYAN LOO never shies away from exploring new frontiers. The award-winning entrepreneur shares with Florey D Mikil his journey in building a successful F&B empire that expands beyond Malaysian borders.

Imagine, if you will, a young child of about seven standing at the counter of his school’s canteen, staring longingly at the fried chicken on sale. RM2” the sign says, but in his hand he holds a single RMI coin. He’s RMI short; the fried chicken won't be his to savour today.

But does this little boy give up and merely wishes he could enjoy the chicken one day? Far from it. The bright Standard 1 pupil puts his thinking cap on and concocts a plan to earn more than) enough money in order to finally purchase the coveted fried food. His plan? He begins drawing comics and renting it out by volume to his peers for 50 cents apiece.

And that is the moment when Bryan Loo discovers his entrepreneurial spirit.

This anecdote is one that Bryan loves to share to illustrate his entrepreneurial journey; the story of how it all began for the little boy from Kangar who, now three decades later, would find himself serving as the CEO of Loob Holding Sdn. Bhd. a company Bryan himself founded when he was just 24.

“I was living in a three-storey shop lot, where my parents were using the ground floor for their air-conditioning business,” shares Bryan, crediting his childhood days of watching his parents run their business as the bedrock of his career. It was through this experience that he gained knowledge on how to one day build and run his own.