Renowned Singaporean Actor and Restaurateur Ben Yao Announces the Closure of his Chinese Restaurant

Singapore has become the hub of the start-ups in the last few years due to the business-friendly environment for the aspiring entrepreneurs. Similarly, it gave an opportunity for the renowned Singaporean actor, TV personality and entrepreneur Ben Yao to open a Chinese Restaurant named “Tan Xiang Yuan” in November 2022 along with four partners. His restaurant is located at Dickson road, Singapore (the most popular spot & hub for dining). After the successful journey since the start of the restaurant, unfortunately it happens to see some downfall in the last few months which made Ben announce the closure of his restaurant on Friday, January 3.

“Our mistake was spending too much on renovations. It’s very difficult to recover our start-up cost. Unfortunately, the heavy start-up costs.

While we had done our calculations, unforeseen circumstances such as limited parking, strict heritage building rules and regulations, and even the weather posed difficulties” – Ben Yao

The external factors such as consecutive financial challenges, high start-up costs, and increasing competitions has forced the young actor and restaurateur Ben Yao to close his Chinese Restaurant unexpectedly. He further told about his staff who were instructed previously regarding the closure and offered the opportunity along with the help of his networks to find & join his three other Charcoal Fish Head Steamboat Outlets. 

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These outlets are located at Kallang place, Chai Chee Place and Woodlands Avenue.

“One of the reasons for the high costs was the location being a historical building, which required extensive renovations to meet inspection standards. I would also choose a location with better parking facilities to improve accessibility for customers” Yao added.

The number of closures of the startups in Singapore has been facing rising challenges for the past two years, which includes strike-offs, uncertainty of the macroeconomy, decline of funding and more.