SPONSORED: Mr Happy Restaurant: A family business that keeps customer satisfied

Tonye Bakare

When Kingsway Rendezvous morphed into Mr Bigg’s in 1986, the Nigerian fast food industry took a giant leap forward in creating a definite space for itself in the often stifling business environment.

Tantalizers, which opened in 1997, added extra filip and competition to the industry. Like Mr Bigg’s which has the financial power of publicly-traded UAC behind it from the beginning, Tantalizers later changed public liability company in spite of it initially being a family-owned business.

The need to have more funds to compete with its rivals was one of the reasons the latter became listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

But in Canberra, Australia, a restaurant has remained a family-owned venture for more than 50 years. Mr Happy Restaurant did not just become the go-to Chinese restaurant for residents of Canberra. The family-owned business has been around since 1962, serving traditional Chinese cuisines to the people.

Currently owned by Gavin Chan, whose great-great-grandfather came to Australia for the Gold Rush in the early 1900’s, Mr Happy is a licensed restaurant that easily caters to people with special dietary needs, including a great selection of vegetarian meals.

The restaurant came into being as a necessity, Gavin pointed out.

“I do remember my grandfather saying that there was basically no Chinese, no Asians around then,” he said in a video published by BON Cloud.

“For him to come over to Canberra and open a restaurant was quite brave actually, I don’t think I could have done it.”

The name of the restaurant was also originated by Gavin’s great-great-grandfather although it was done in a non-verbal and in an unintentional manner.

“The origin of the name Happy came about when my grandfather actually moved to Canberra,” continued Gavin.

“His English was very broken. A lot of the time, he would just smile, laugh, giggle. Everyone just started calling him Happy. It stuck. It ended up going on his passport as Happy.”

In spite of Gavin’s reverence of his great-great-grandfather, he is today saddled with the task of keeping Mr Happy’s teeming customers not only satisfied but also truly happy. The introduction of a Tsingtao beer, brewed in China, was one of the ways of doing just that.

Fortunately, Tsingtao, introduced in 1997, has become a hit with the customers, owing largely to its nice taste.

“I have been coming to Happy’s now for many, many years. I drank whatever beer was going back in those days,” said Robert Dyball, who has been Mr Happy’s customer since 1980.

“But, in 1997 they introduced the Tsingtao. And I just loved the way the two flavours went together.

“The spiciness of the Szechuan Chicken and the crispy cold, but multi-layers of the Tsingtao beer just made this wonderful fusion,” he added.

Ninety percent of the restaurant’s customers today order Tsingtao beer whenever they visit, Gavin noted.

Regardless of how much he has done to keep the restaurant going, Gavin still believes his grandfather, Mr Happy’s grandson, deserves praise.

And just like those before him, Gavin dreams of passing on the ownership of the restaurant to his young daughters who sometimes handle “money and card transactions” and make most of his non-alcoholic beverages.

“Hopefully, they want to take over from me one day,” he said.

“I don’t know if they want to do it or not. But, as it is, the fourth generation is out and working. It is very important for me and my family to have that connection with customers,” he added.

Would Mr Happy have survived if it to be a Nigerian business? There are family-owned businesses in the country that have been in existence for decades. But in a country where companies with deep pocket have packed up, it is hard to tell.