News

Siblings expanding Chinese fast casual brand through Canada

September 11, 2013

Siblings Peter, Dan and Rachel Ly grew up in the small town of Kitimat, British Columbia in Canada and later moved with their parents to Langley, B.C. to help them open their family-run Chinese restaurant.

When Mr. and Mrs. Ly first opened their doors to their small Chinese restaurant in Langley 18 years ago, little did they know that their kids would be taking over the reins years later and building a locally made fast casual chain — Ming & Sing Chinese Express Restaurants. The siblings opened their Surrey, Hillcrest location in 2010. Since then, they have opened three more, bringing the total units to four.

Although many things have changed since their family restaurant sold nine years ago, the siblings carry on the same principles that their late mom passed on to them, said Rachel Ly. Fresh food is prepared with quality ingredients. Food at Ming & Sing is made from scratch from family recipes. Some of the favorites include Sweet and Sour Pork and spicy Kung Pao Chicken, but the siblings have also invented their own dishes, including Honey Almond Chicken and Five Spice Pork.

Ming & Sing is now on a mission to franchise throughout Canada.

"After 20 years of experience in the food industry, seven years of developing the concept, and four successful running locations later, we are ready to go. We have built a solid foundation for our brand," said Rachel, the youngest of the three siblings. "Our experience from the ground up tremendously helped us in developing the operational systems. Chinese cooking is a bit more complicated than putting together a sandwich. Sourcing the right ingredients and training cooks to accurately execute cooking techniques was definitely a challenge. However, now we are proud that our restaurants can deliver high volume on less training hours. Since the inception of Ming & Sing, customers and investors have approached us on numerous occasions wanting to invest in our brand. We did not feel we were ready then, but we are now and we are excited about our expansion."

The investment required is $350, 000 to $450,000, depending on the size and location, Rachel said.

Read more about growth.