DATIN CHRISTINE BONG 35

Managing Director & Co-founder, Brickhouse Group

It was her love for cafés and restaurants that ignited Datin Christine Bong’s interest in setting up her very own F&B outlet. When an available space cropped up on the grounds of

MAHSA Avenue, she and her then-boyfriend Dato’ Sharon Haniffa seized the opportunity and thus, Brickhouse Group was born in 2014. Now business partners and a happily married couple, the duo had faced plenty of ups and downs in their nearly a decade of running their business but, of course, persevered through it all.

Datin Christine recalls how they were earning next to nothing in the early days of the business. Six months into the establishment of their first outlet, The Glasshouse Café, she had decided to quit her full-time job in property development to focus on it. She drew in RM500 in half a year, probably not a salary she foresaw earning as a law graduate. “When you know you’re drawing a salary that’s less than when you first graduated, you begin asking yourself, ‘What are you doing?’,” she shares with a laugh.

She recounts shopping for ingredients at midnight with her mother or Dato’ Sharon, hauling everything back to the café and getting help from their staff to bring everything in. Her and her team’s perseverance paid off and soon, the group began operating cafés in other universities. Their business grew exponentially after going into the government-linked MaGIC, and now operates various outlets such as Pokok and Daun while also offering events and catering services.

“If you think that F&B is something that you just invest your money in and then you watch it grow, it doesn’t work that way. You need to put your heart and soul into it,” advises Datin Christine. Best to heed this advice, as she’s proven that with this mindset, she’s succeeded not only in F&B but also the other ventures that she’s branched out into. Her auxiliary businesses include Tiger Lily, an all-in-one florist, gift shop and home-living concept store, and Lampu, which specialises in customised neon lights and signs.