Homegrown seafood restaurant, retailer and wholesaler Greenwood Fish Market is celebrating its 23rd birthday this October, a feat for any operator in Singapore’s challenging F&B business environment.
Rather than sit on its laurels, the family-run outfit has big plans in store, starting with the opening of a new outlet at VivoCity come Nov 4. This is its first foray into the shopping mall space since it began in 2003.
Greenwood Fish Market currently operates from two physical locations — its original shop at Greenwood Avenue in Bukit Timah, and its Quayside Isle expansion in Sentosa which opened in 2015.
The opening at VivoCity will be its third outlet and first bistro concept, a departure from its two full-fledged restaurants.
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Still, regulars can expect to find roughly 50 per cent of Greenwood Fish Market’s signature dishes to be on the bistro’s menu, brand founder David Lee told AsiaOne.
“The other 50 per cent of the menu will be new items like tapas (appetisers) and small plates, and oshizushi (pressed sushi) et cetera,” he said.
According to the 70-year-old, the decision to open in a shopping mall rather than at another destination location is to offer greater convenience to existing customers.
The bistro concept also allows the brand to offer a wider range of seafood at better value, thereby reaching a new audience as well.
David is also eyeing overseas expansion plans with the move.
“This will be a test bed for global franchising,” he said, adding that he expects the global economy to improve at some point, and is carefully planning to take advantage of the opportunity when it arises.
An old-school survivor
When asked about his recipe for success all these years, David was direct in saying that he is still in survival mode.
“I would not call Greenwood Fish Market a success,” he told us. “As with all F&B, it’s regularly up and down, and I’m constantly tweaking and fine-tuning.”
“We celebrate being around and doing a good job. I am old school. I do not shoot for profits but survival.”
That said, he does do a few things differently. Other than the restaurant business, Greenwood Fish Market also sells seafood, which they directly import, via retail to consumers.
They are seafood suppliers too, and count hotels and restaurants as customers in their B2B arm.
David thinks being such a vertically integrated business has helped keep the momentum going.
“Since I started 23 years ago, I’ve maintained that there should be no middleman,” he shared.
“There’s simply no room for one. Especially not now.”
Rather, David’s take on surviving in Singapore’s F&B scene is to give better value to customers.
“With good turnover, one can succeed with freshness. With direct imports, one can achieve better costs,” he said.
“Customers need to get good food on their plates. It’s sad to pay for small quantities of poor quality products. All F&B operators need to overcome this, in my opinion. To not be profit-driven but to be survival driven.”
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dannon.har@asiaone.com
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