PASTAMANIA

PASTAMANIA! has arrived in Brunei and hopes to change the way Bruneians
enjoy pasta with its competitively priced Italian dishes and quick casual
dining concept. The award-winning Singapore franchise made its debut in
the Sultanate last month and the business has been experiencing brisk
sales just within a month since its soft launch.
The Brunei Times had the opportunity to speak with the man behind the
thriving franchise business, Rashid Hassan, the chief executive officer of
PastaMatrix International Pte Ltd, who came to Brunei to oversee the
operations in Times Square last week.
The PastaMania! brand has proven a great hit both in Singapore and
internationally. How did you come up with the franchise?
We started in a food court in the basement of a popular shopping centre in
Orchard Road, Singapore. That was in 1998. At that time we were looking at
the market and wondered why Italian food had to cost so much and why its
environment has to be formal. So we decided to change that perception,
and came up with the concept of PastaMania!, with the aim to make Italian
dishes accessible to everyone so that everybody can enjoy pasta.
Eventually we saw this opportunity in Singapore and we immediately
started expanding from a kiosk concept into a full-fledged restaurant, and
the rest is history. Today, we have 24 outlets in Singapore, and we are
already in six other countries all over the world, including Malaysia, Dubai,
Kuwait, Syria and Egypt.