Fong Chi Chung: Putien restaurants make dining out more affordable

In a year where diners made themselves scarce - preferring to spend their strong Singapore dollars overseas, and leading restaurant owners and chefs to despair over empty dining rooms - this power lister made a power move that others in the industry are watching closely.

- Tan Hsueh Yun

Mr Fong Chi Chung, 56, founder and chairman of the Putien Group, which has 22 restaurants in Singapore, announced in August that all 19 Putien outlets, two Uncle Fong Hot Pot Restaurant outlets and Sam Leong St Chicken Rice would waive the 10 per cent service charge and absorb the 9 per cent goods and services tax (GST).

Not for a spell. This looks to be a forever move that essentially knocks a fifth off what his diners pay.

Prices, he tells The Sunday Times, will not change, and neither will portion sizes. What makes the decision possible, he says, is that over 24 years, the group has grown to have enough scale and purchasing power.

The gambit worked.

Footfall at his restaurants went up by 30 to 40 per cent, The Business Times reported in September. Diners, it would seem, can resist everything but the promise of a less expensive meal.

Cynics might say Mr Fong - who parlayed one Pu Tien in Kitchener Road, serving Heng Hwa food from his home town of Putian in China's Fujian province, into the Putien empire spanning Singapore, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines - is doing damage control or service recovery.