Take five graduates from The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, add a sprinkling of entrepreneurial spirit, drum up an appetite for fast food with the help of social media and you have the perfect recipe for a successful burger bar.
MyBurgerLab, in Petaling Jaya, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur has generated something of a cult following since it opened on 10 July 2012. The restaurant is open for just five hours a day and in that time it caters for up to 600 customers.
The ‘BurgerLab’ boys and girls are a team of business and engineering students who have created such a successful new formula for Malaysian dining they have got customers queuing up the street every evening before the doors open at five o’clock.
Wee Kiat Teoh, who graduated in Finance Accounting and Management in 2010, is one of the three co-founders of myBurgerLab. Entrepreneurial spirit is just part of their success he said: “To be honest, the E word is just a term. It’s your actions in the end that counts. Of course you will feel afraid, fear, uncertain, with all the what-ifs flocking into your head whenever you feel like doing/creating something.”
Boosted by rave reviews in Time Out KL the team see no let-up in the demand for their fast food formula. The burgers are made fresh every day to a special recipe. The restaurant is staffed by college and university students — some from UNMC — who are given four hours intensive training to ensure a high level of service.
With signature dishes from Popeye the Sailorman and Hangover to Beautiful Mess and Chicken and Egg Dilemma they are attracting a cliental of young dinners keen to experience something different from traditional Malaysian street food.
Co-Founder Ren Yi Chin said: “I was working and travelling in the States and saw the growing demand for fast food burgers cooked to order and I thought someone should do this in Malaysia. Because none of us are cooks we had a lot of experimenting to do — hence the name myBurgerLab. We wanted to give our customers a sense of ownership so we called the restaurant myBurgerLab.”
The locals thought myBurgerLab would be a six month wonder — how wrong they were. As for their future plans — it maybe steak or pizza next.
Check out the video on YouTube and find out more on their Facebook page.
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More information is available from Wee Kiat Teoh, weekiat@myburgerlab.com; or Lindsay Brooke, Media Relations Manager at The University of Nottingham on +44 (0)115 951 5751,lindsay.brooke@nottingham.ac.uk; Josephine Dionisappu, PR & Communications on + 6 (03) 8924 8747, josephine.dionisappu@nottingham.edu.my.
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 42,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also one of the most popular universities among graduate employers, one of the world’s greenest universities, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the World’s Top 75 universities by the QS World University Rankings.
More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. The University aims to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy &sustainability, and health. The University won a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for its research into global food security.
Impact:The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest ever fundraising campaign, will deliver the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future.
Posted on 20th December 2013