Source: Forbes | Editor: Prihastomo Wahyu Widodo
KONTAN.CO.ID – SINGAPORE. Living in a small country like Singapore, Zhang Yong successfully mastered the culinary business and became the richest person in Singapore.
Latest data from Forbes noted that Zhang Yong’s current net worth is US $ 24.2 billion or around Rp.357 trillion more. The majority comes from the Haidilao restaurant business chain that he runs. Yong also holds majority shares in Hai Di Lao Catering, Hai Di Lao International Holding, and Yihai International.
Zhang Yong, who is just 50 years old, is a Chinese-born citizen who is now a Singaporean citizen.
In a biography recorded by Bloomberg, Yong started his career as a welder in China. In fact, he just tasted eating in a restaurant at the age of 19. Who would have thought, now he could be the richest person in Singapore.
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In 1994, he left his company and started to open a small restaurant with only 4 tables in it. The restaurant is Hai Di Lao’s first branch, the beginning of its success in the culinary business.
The restaurant was started by Zhang Yong and his wife, Shu Ping, and their husband and wife partner Shi Yonghong and Li Haiyan.
His little restaurant quickly grew to become the largest hotpot restaurant in Jianyang City, Sichuan. In 1998, his second restaurant, Lou Wai Lou, opened.
After a decade of running, in 2010 Yong opened a restaurant management training school. Yong’s business started expanding to the US when he opened the first Hai Di Lao branch in Los Angeles in 2013.
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