TiffinLabs bites into MY with Loob Holding tie-up, to launch in 100 locations

Singapore-based food tech company TiffinLabs has partnered with Loob Holding to bring several of its new virtual restaurant brands into Malaysia. Loob Holding will eventually deploy up to 100 kitchens to introduce TiffinLabs’ virtual restaurant brands into the Malaysian market. According to Bryan Loo, Loob founder and CEO, the team has short-listed several locations where its kitchens will soon offer these virtual restaurant brands. 

TiffinLabs is a global food service platform that creates and owns virtual restaurant brands that enable F&B operators and food ingredient producers to capture the fast-growing food delivery services segment through its proprietary virtual restaurant brands. The company has developed over 20 virtual restaurant brands across cuisine types currently serving consumers across four states in the US and in Singapore. Among them are La Takorea (created on The Apprentice: One Championship Edition), RBL Burgers, Phat Fingers Korean Fried Chicken, Publico Italian Kitchen, and Southern Soul Fried Chicken.

According to Loo, the Malaysian market is ripe for such virtual restaurant brands as people have come a long way from pre-pandemic days, with everyone accepting delivered food as the norm now. "We will also decide, jointly with TiffinLabs, which brands to roll out first,” he said. As a regional player specialising in the premium quick-service segment, working with TiffinLabs to launched its delivery-optimised virtual restaurant brands in its kitchens is a good fit into Loob Holding's corporate plans, Loo explained. 

Loo told A+M that this collaboration marks the aligning of the vision of what both companies see the future of delivery-based restaurant food to be in the coming months. As such there’s no firm commitment on total investment from both sides. Loob Holding will deploy its existing resources to roll out brands relevant to the market demands at its chosen locations.

"We will be using food tech and enablers to support our business optimisation and accelerate our virtual performance. With this collaboration, we are able to scale up immediately and lead market innovation in this segment," he added.

TiffinLabs' debut in Malaysia comes months after it beefed up its leadership ranks late last year, hiring Jason Koven to lead head of operations. The Business Times reported previously that Koven is experienced in franchising and operations across Southeast Asia and China. According to his LinkedIn, he has worked with brands such as Tony Roma's, Morganfield's, and Teh Tarik Place.

On the marketing front, it also brought on board Connie Sun as head of marketing to drive brand and product development. She previously worked in growth strategy at Kopi Kenangan and helmed the manager role in marketing analytics at Burger King for close to two years. 

TiffinLabs’ co-founder and president for Southeast Asia, Phuminant Tantiprasongchai, said Loob was an ideal launch partner as evident from its trail-blazing record in the highly-competitive lifestyle tea segment.

“We have seen how Loob has grown its Tealive brand to more than 700 stores in under five years. We see many opportunities in combining Tealive’s depth of market understanding and penetration with our expertise of developing and growing delivery-first virtual restaurant brands to fully capture the rapidly growing food delivery demand,” he said.

Tantiprasongchai looks forward to unleashing the synergies of the two companies through this collaborative partnership, and will also begin introducing Halal-certified plant-based protein products as part of the menu to serve the rapidly-growing alternative protein segment.

“With Loob as our major launch partner, we envision our virtual restaurant brands and solutions to also be licensed to other Malaysian F&B businesses and operators, particularly in the SME space, to boost their delivery revenues from food delivery by 200% to 300% while continuing to focus on regaining dine-in volumes,” he added.

Meanwhile, Loob Holding has been growing from strength to strength. 

Last December, it snapped up a 35% stake in kombucha (fermented tea) brand WonderBrew as part of its plan to be the largest drinks portfolio company in Southeast Asia. WonderBrew, a home-grown lifestyle beverage brand that specialises in kombucha, is owned by Wonder Group. Before that, private equity firm Creador acquired a 30% stake in Loob Holding. The latter was chosen for its substantial revenue growth and having over 650 stores in less than five years. Last month, Tealive expanded into Manila and Loo told A+M that the company has plans to expand by 30 outlets by year-end and double its store count every other year.

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