LORD STOW'S BAKERY
Background
Time Line of Events
1979 Andrew Stow arrived in Macau from England. Started working for a pharmaceutical company and then for Hyatt Hotel.
1988 Andrew married Margaret Wong, a local Macanese.
1989 Andrew opened the first Lord Stow's Bakery in Coloane Island.
1992 First branch - coffee shop - opened in the business district of Macau. Named it Café e Nata ("coffee and cream" "Nata" was the shortened form of "Pasteis de Nata" - the Portuguese name for egg tarts.)
1994 Second Café e Nata branch opened in a commercial/residential area in Macau.
1995 International airport of Macau inaugurated. Hordes of Taiwanese nationals started passing by Macau en route to mainland China. Lord Stow's egg tart became very popular among the Taiwanese.
1997 Andrew and Margaret separated. Business interests were divided between Andrew and Margaret. Andrew kept the original shop in Coloane Island while Margaret took the two shops in the Macau peninsula.
Andrew Jacobs / 20070811.10D.44747 / SML Skydive
Andrew Jacobs / 20070811.10D.44748 / SML Skydive
Andrew Jacobs / 20070811.10D.44761 / SML SkydiveMargaret later added her name to the store, calling them "Margaret's Café e Nata."
Andrew attended an international congress on Franchising in Singapore.
Andrew's manpower: 9 staff, including Eileen, his sister.
Nov 1997 Opened franchise stores in Hong Kong: first in Mongkok, then in Tsim Sha Tsui.
1998 Proliferation of hundreds of copycats in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.
Aug 1998 Opened first franchise store in Taiwan.
Feb 1999 Studied the possibility of opening a store in Singapore. Decided to cancel the plan of opening a store due to the existence of copycats there.
Registered Lord Stow's trademark in Singapore.
Apr 1999 Opened two stores in Japan, in Tokyo and Osaka, through an alliance with Ken's Pass Co., Ltd.
Instead of franchising, Andrew allowed his foreign partners to license individual products -- to give them...