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Thanh Quoc LamThanh Quoc Lam is a successful retailer of Vietnamese-style sandwiches, pastries and noodle dishes. His company also sales baked goods and deli sandwiches to airlines, food caterers, hotels, supermarkets and restaurants throughout Hawaii. In 1979, Thanh arrived in the United States from a Malaysian refugee camp. He relocated to San Jose and decided to start his own business by organizing overnight gambling trips to Reno. On the trips, each of the passengers received: round-trip transportation, over night stay in a hotel, gaming chips and sandwiches made by Thanh. Before long, his business grew and Thanh began purchasing the sandwiches from the Ba-Le sandwich shop owned by Le Vo. Due to the increased competition in the Reno junket businesses, Thanh decided to explore other opportunities. Le Vo and Thanh traveled together to Hawaii looking for a new venture. The partners decided to lease a grocery store in the Chinatown area of Honolulu. In 1984, the first Ba-Le sandwich shop opened. It was such an instant success that local suppliers could not keep up with the demand for fresh-baked French bread. In 1986, Thanh opened a second Ba-Le shop and bought out Le Vo's interest in the business, becoming the sole owner of Ba-Le. That same year, Thanh secured a direct loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, realizing that his expanding bakery operations required new and better equipment. Ba-Le's earnings for 2001 exceeded $5 million. Thanh is always looking for growth opportunities. Currently, he's expanding his sandwich and bakery business to Japan and China. The story of Thanh is truly a remarkable business success story. www.harvard.li |
