Minh Nhat earns 40 billion from selling bread

A day in Nhat ends at 0:30 but when she gets home, the 9X girl continues to work with the lights on.

Hoang Minh Nhat is a familiar name in the culinary world. The girl born in 1991 won the title of MasterChef 2014 Champion, after surpassing many strong candidates, especially contestant Le Chi in the final round. The victory of this pretty girl at that time made many people skeptical and caused some controversy.

After the competition, Minh Nhat decided to pursue her passion for cooking, despite having previously graduated with honors from the Foreign Trade University and having a stable job at a large bank. Starting her business with 450 million VND in prize money and 250 million VND in personal savings, Minh Nhat opened her first bakery under her own brand.

Hoang Minh Nhat has developed 9 stores in 9 inner city districts.

Nhat explained the reason for choosing bread to start his business instead of another elaborate dish to be worthy of the title of Master Chef, because for a long time, Vietnamese cuisine has only been known for pho and vermicelli - which are inherently difficult for foreigners to approach - and forgot that bread is also a dish loved by many diners around the world.

Furthermore, Nhat realized that he was still young and had little experience in the restaurant industry, so he wanted to start with a small, affordable model to test the market. The MasterChef champion shared: "I chose banh mi because it is a fast food, for people with limited time. If they have a lot of time and someone is around, they will go to a big restaurant. Only when there is no one around do people think of banh mi. I want my product to be with customers, to take care of them when they are alone."

But no path is easy, especially when the 24-year-old girl runs the business alone, without investors or partners to help. She plans and implements each step herself, from choosing ingredients, creating recipes to choosing locations, designing stores, marketing... At first, Minh Nhat had to research and build the chain of stores herself, breaking down and rebuilding many times, so she spent almost all of her initial capital.

Minh Nhat's day always ends at 0:30. As the only daughter, she is always cared for and worried about by her parents. Every night, her mother waits at the door for her daughter to come home. However, when she gets home, Nhat continues to work late into the night.

Nhat said, the title of Champion brought her many things, making the initial advertising very favorable but also because of that brought a lot of pressure, people always wanted to try the Master Chef bread, whether it was worth it or not. Another reason that made her worry was that the selling price was quite high compared to a loaf of bread on the street, whether it could convince diners to come. The high price was because the imported ingredients were also of good quality, the goods were destroyed after the day was up, not being able to be reused. Moreover, in addition to the simple bread, the girl wanted to bring to diners a bread culture, with a clean loaf of bread, wrapped in beautiful wrapping paper.

After 8 months of development, Minh Nhat has established 9 retail stores in all central districts of Hanoi. On average, the entire system serves the market nearly 3,000 sandwiches per day with more than 250 employees. If the average cost of a sandwich and drink is 40,000 VND, then after one year, this 9X girl will bring in more than 40 billion VND. However, this money is then used to rotate capital. She still jokingly said that because her mother is the financial manager of the chain of stores, Nhat still receives 10 million VND in pocket money every month.

Minh Nhat is a person who has a great love for Vietnamese cuisine and always cherishes the desire to bring it around the world. Next year, she plans to expand the market to the southern provinces, then further to the regional and European markets. Nhat considers herself lucky to have found her love for the profession at a young age, so no matter how hard the job is, she still feels very happy and satisfied with the path she has chosen.

Currently, Nhat is studying an MBA at Southern Columbia University, in order to gain more knowledge to apply to business. In addition, Minh Nhat also regularly participates in culinary programs of television stations. She has been an ambassador for the campaign calling for gender equality. In May 2015, Minh Nhat was the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam at the IFEX Food Fair, Manila, Philippines (on the sidelines of the APEC Conference 2015).

Minh Nhat (left cover) is on the 30 under 30 list of Forbes Vietnam magazine.

Forbes Vietnam has just announced a list of 30 outstanding faces under 30 years old in many different fields in Vietnam. Minh Nhat was selected in the field of “business, finance and management”. In 2014, she was on the list of young people who need to be noticed by this magazine and in 2015, she was on the official list, after going through many rounds of rigorous selection and review. Minh Nhat is also the only person on the list with a startup project under a year old.

Recently, she was also invited to be an ambassador for the Happy Day Foundation, whose mission is to help disadvantaged people who have to wander and make a living on the streets between midnight and early morning.

According to ngoisao.net