FranchiseCanada September | October 2017 83MEAN BAO
Franchise units in Canada: 3
Corporate units in Canada: 1
Franchise fee: $30K
Start-up capital required: $180K-$300K
Training: 3 weeks plus ongoing support
Available territories: AB, BC, ON
In business since: 2013
Franchising since: 2015
CFA member since: 2016
Millennials are everywhere these days. And it’s these
young people – aged from about 18 to 35 – that Mean
Bao has in its sights. “This is a millennial concept,” says
James Cheung, Director of Franchising for the Toronto-
based system.
Mean Bao, which sells Chinese sandwiches and dim-
sum, began in 2013 at Village by the Grange, known as
the unofficial food court for OCAD University and the Art
Gallery of Ontario in downtown Toronto. Since then, the
system has expanded to two other locations in central
Toronto, and another store opened in the city’s west end
in July. “We’re taking our time,” says Cheung. “We want
to find the right partners.” Expansion, when it comes,
will be in major urban centres such as Toronto and Van-
couver, he says, adding that he hopes to add at least two
locations a year to the system.
There isn’t a standard Mean Bao footprint. There’s
Mean Bao Express, which runs from 400 square feet to
600 square feet, and the larger premises of about 650
square feet to 1,500 square feet that compete in the fast
casual market. The cost of a franchise is from $180,000
to $300,000. Cheung is familiar with the refrain that mil-
lennials can’t find jobs and are paying off large tuition
fees, but he also notes that when they do spend money,
they want the real deal. “They want to pay for an authen-
tic product. They may not visit (Mean Bao) so often, but
they will visit.”
That authentic product, in this case, comes from a
family tradition and its own recipes. The name, Mean
Bao, by the way, is a play on words. In Cantonese, “Mean
Bao” means bread. In English, a rough translation would
be “a mean (excellent) sandwich.”
Cheung says he sees lots of young people who want to
invest with him, and notes that they see Mean Bao as a
brand they can relate to and see themselves in. But what-
ever their age, franchisees have to undergo two weeks
of training at one of the Mean Bao locations before they
open for business, and must spend two days at “Mean
Bao University.” And when they welcome their first cus-
tomers, a trainer from head office will be there to see
that they get off on the right foot.
A business background will help new franchisees,
says Cheung, and a willingness to work hard is essen-
tial. He also looks for those who share the same values
as the company. What franchisees get in return for their
investment depends on their brand delivery, he contin-
ues. If they deliver Mean Bao’s brand values, then they
will enjoy all of the usual benefits that a successful fran-
chise provides.