Zhang Yong
Singapore
Singapore
restaurants, Self Made
$14,200,000,000
224
#224 Billionaires 2019
#19 China Rich List 2018
China's richest restaurateur, Zhang Yong is chairman of Sichuan hot pot chain Haidilao, which went public in September 2018.Haidilao now has $10.4 billion in sales from 370 restaurants, mostly in China but also in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Haidilao is renowned for its spicy dishes and attentive customer service, including offering free manicures for waiting customers.Having never finished high school, the budding entrepreneur says he didn't even know how to prepare the typical Sichuan hotpot when he started.Three friends, including one who became his wife, helped with seed money, but he ran the place.
Haidilao means deep-sea fishing, or literally "scooping the bottom of the ocean."Zhang often spent the night in his first restaurant on a foldaway bed. His worst memory was breaking a $100 aquarium he had saved up for to display fresh seafood.
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