How a former property agent went from chance investor to founder of a fast-growing F&B group

SINGAPORE – Mr Lukas Teo’s sidestep into the food and beverage industry began with an investment in

home-grown bakery

cafe Rise Bakehouse in 2023. He saw it as a side hustle alongside his work as a property agent specialising in shophouses, but fresh opportunities soon came his way.

Within 10 months, he was opening four F&B outlets with four different partners. Today, the 43-year-old runs The Gourmet Factor, a fast-growing multi-brand group behind concepts such as Oud Restaurant and Shin Katsu.

Mr Teo entered the sector with no formal training. He grew up in a single-parent household – his parents are divorced – and, while his mother worked the night shift, his maternal grandmother raised him.

To earn extra pocket money, he started working part-time. At age 12, he became a cashier at his aunt’s candy store at Ginza Plaza – now known as West Coast Plaza – and at 14, a server at deli chain Delifrance Singapore.

After finishing his A levels at Jurong Junior College, he continued working part-time as an undergraduate in Australia.

He spent 20 hours a week at Super Chicken, a small family-owned fish and chips shop near his school The University of Queensland, handling kitchen work and being a cashier for A$10 an hour.

Mr Teo recalls wryly: “The part-time roles did not spark my interest in F&B, as I was mainly working to support my living expenses.” He had stopped taking pocket money from his mother at age 19 after enlisting in national service.

During his teenage years, he read American author Robert Kiyosaki’s personal finance book Rich Dad Poor Dad, which inspired him to build a scalable business. “We were not financially comfortable, so that spurred me to be successful when I grow up.”

Still, his early career followed a practical trajectory. A Ministry of Defence study award allowed him to obtain his bachelor’s degree in commerce from Australia in 2005, and he later served as a staff officer, handling logistics planning and manpower allocation.

He married in 2006 and, when his daughter was born in 2009, moved into real estate in a bid to earn more.

His 30s were marked by experimentation. He invested $50,000 in a tuition business in 2011, but exited a year later over differences with his partner. The stint taught him cost management and business fundamentals.

In 2013, while undergoing a divorce, he worked in advertising as an account manager, gaining experience in events and campaign planning. After two years, he joined Cycle & Carriage, where he sold Mitsubishi cars.

“Within the first year, I managed to clinch the No. 1 top sales award,” he says. He stayed among the top three performers for the next two years.

Then Covid-19 hit. When certificate of entitlement prices surged after the circuit breaker period, car sales slowed. He returned to real estate in 2022, joining PropNex Realty and specialising in shophouses under his brand, Shophouse Collective.

“Being in commercial real estate exposed me to negotiations for tenancy leases, contracts and understanding the market rates for restaurant space,” he says.

His entry into F&B started with him being an investor in Rise Bakehouse, when the cafe in Potong Pasir needed funds to open a second outlet at 111 Somerset in 2023, followed by a third in Chinatown in May.

Taking a chance

The next brand he invested in,

Oud Restaurant, a Muslim-friendly restaurant in Kandahar Street

, was a leap of faith.

While marketing a restaurant space, he met two chefs whose investor had backed out at the last minute. He stepped in with more than $100,000 of his savings and helped to launch their wood-fired restaurant in September 2023.

In May 2024, he also invested in Ipoh Town Kopitiam at Jewel Changi Airport. That same month, he entered a joint venture with Italian chef Egon Marzaioli to open Fortuna in Tanjong Pagar.

Many deemed his decisions hasty and unwise in a saturated F&B market. But he pressed on.

His property background informed key decisions made by the joint venture. For instance, he advised setting up Fortuna at 7 Craig Road because its location offered footfall from offices, hotels and nearby residences. During negotiations, he managed to lower the rent and secured a fixed-rate renewal clause for the subsequent three-year term – an uncommon concession.

“The successful negotiation was also partly because I knew the owner of the shophouse through my earlier property work,” he says.

Growing the group

By mid-2024, with so many growing investments and partnerships in F&B, he saw the need to consolidate and decided to leave real estate. The same principle that once led him to specialise in shophouses – concentrating on one market rather than juggling several – guided him towards building a scalable restaurant group.

What struck him the most when he stepped into the industry was the breadth of knowledge it demanded. Beyond food and recipes, he had to learn marketing, finance, human resource management, licensing systems and daily operations. “It was very challenging for someone new to F&B,” he says.

After investing in four outlets, it was no longer enough for him to be a passive partner. He wanted a structure that unified operations, lowered costs and supported new concepts. He incorporated The Gourmet Factor in August 2024.

In March, he opened a corporate office and hired five people. The team has since grown to seven.

To date, The Gourmet Factor has invested more than $2 million in the F&B concepts and has an annual revenue of $6.5 million. 

The company operates across three structures. First, it owns and manages

tonkatsu restaurant Shin Katsu

, Oud Restaurant and the newly created catering arm, Oud Catering.

Second, it has a strategic joint venture with the Fortuna Group, covering Italian restaurants Fortuna, Fortuna Terrazza and Medusa Osteria Romana, which opens in South Beach Avenue in January 2026.

Third, it invests in promising brands such as Ipoh Town Kopitiam, which has an outlet at Jewel Changi Airport.

For strategic joint ventures, he undertakes site evaluation, lease negotiations, corporate structuring, fund-raising and overseas expansion planning, as well as puts in place internal systems.

Mr Teo describes the company as a dual-engine aircraft, where the kitchen is one engine and the backend is the other. The backend covers payroll, staff scheduling, finance reporting, pricing strategy, human resource processes and inventory control.

He uses an inventory platform driven by artificial intelligence. It integrates invoices into accounting software, allowing his team to track food costs and adjust manpower efficiently.

He is also expanding the group’s marketing arm, Socials.sg, which focuses on performance-driven work rather than just content. The team tracks sales patterns down to hourly data to plan promotions around low-traffic periods and prepare seasonal campaigns several months in advance. Socials.sg now offers this suite of services to external F&B brands.

Among its owned concepts, Mr Teo says Shin Katsu was the most challenging to set up.

He met chef Matsubayashi Masato, 45, at a martial arts gym which both of them frequent. As chef Masato had no experience running a business, the team had to spend more time setting systems and procedures in place.

The restaurant has since become one of Mr Teo’s regular pit stops.

He cites two favourites: Chicken Katsudon Set ($22.80++), rice topped with chicken cutlet, egg and sauteed onion, and Shin Katsu Combo Set ($34.80++), which includes fried prawn, Canadian pork loin cutlet and Canadian pork tenderloin cutlet.

Of his ventures, Fortuna delivered the biggest surprise. The restaurant broke even in under five months – far earlier than projected – by providing quality Italian food and service excellence, along with a fun casual vibe.

Pushing forward

But Mr Teo continues to wrestle with operational challenges. In September and October, sales at Oud Restaurant dipped by about 20 per cent.

The team acted quickly. Within two weeks, they pivoted from a la carte dining to a buffet costing $68++ a diner. “The first weekend was a big hit and our sales increased by 35 per cent,” he says.

He maintains a routine that blends structure with flexibility. He starts his day around 10am, meeting partners, management staff or vendors, and sets aside late afternoons for networking or investor discussions.

Mr Teo does not cook at home and eats out daily, preferring hawker food.

The hardest part of his business, he says, is market discipline – balancing a chef’s creative instincts with the brand’s concept and market positioning.

If a chef wants to use premium or costly ingredients, his team first assesses whether they fit the brand’s price point. The team then works backwards from what the market can support.

“Food costs should ideally be between 20 and 30 per cent, depending on the cuisine or dish,” he says, citing industry norms.

Expansion plans are under way. He has visited Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia to explore overseas opportunities. He is also looking to franchise the Shin Katsu brand overseas.

A Straits Chinese eatery concept is scheduled for the second half of 2026, alongside a Shin Katsu express model for heartland locations. He aims for The Gourmet Factor to open three to five outlets yearly, for the next three years.

He attributes his progress to grit, determination and creativity.

“I enjoy working with visionary founders who are down to earth and always looking to do better than yesterday. The moment anyone thinks he or she is the best, there is no further room for improvement,” he says.

As someone who is not a chef, his advice to newcomers is: “Do not enter F&B simply because of your passion for cooking. Make sure you understand the full aspects of the business. Leverage partners who can cover what you lack.”

What keeps him motivated, he says, are his daughter, 16, and son, 13. “I want to give them a better life than I had growing up,” he says.

The goal of building something lasting also matters.

“Success means customers come back more than four times, even without promotions. Typically, for me, the magic number is three times. That would mean our pricing strategy is right, food and service are consistently good, and marketing campaigns and loyalty programmes are well received.”