Chaophraya Leeds: Secrets of family-run Thai restaurant celebrating anniversary after 'rollercoaster' 20 years

Reaching a 20-year anniversary is a notable achievement for any business but perhaps particularly so in the notoriously tough restaurant trade. There are no shortage of stark statistics available which demonstrate how difficult it can be to keep a restaurant operating but to give just one example, last year saw a 45 per cent increase in the number of venues going bust in the UK as more than five a day closed.

So it is little surprise that those who do succeed want to mark their milestones - and that is undoubtedly the case with Chaophraya in Leeds which has not only endured and expanded but also proved to be the springboard for a national chain now made up of 16 restaurants and over 600 staff across the country.

Founded by local businessman Martin Stead and his Thai partner Atcharaporn Kawwkraikhot - who is known within the business as Khun Kim - the wider company is now called Thai Leisure Group and has six Chaophraya restaurants and 10 street food style venues called Thaikhun to its name.

In the run up to its 20th anniversary of opening on December 6, 2004 in a former furniture store in Leeds city centre, the original Chaophraya is running a ‘superfan’ competition giving away 20 special prizes in the next few months including a trip to Thailand and Kim coming to a winner’s home to cook for them.

A celebration party is planned at the venue in late November while The Yorkshire Post has been invited to the restaurant in advance of that to meet the gregarious managing director of the group Ian Leigh for lunch.

Leigh orders us both a Pad Ka Prao, which turns out to be a delicious basil fried rice dish topped with a fried egg.

He says Martin, Kim and himself have been very keen that the anniversary is properly marked.

“That’s a huge milestone for us - to get to 20 years in this business you are going to have to have ridden a little bit of a rollercoaster,” he reflects as we sit down at a table to chat.

Leigh says his involvement with the business came about through something of a “sliding doors” moment.

Kim had run a Pad Thai cart business in Thailand and moved to Yorkshire in the late 1990s after meeting Martin, who had been part of a family power tools business in Normanton called Abbey Industrial Solutions. Leigh had got to know him through being a consultant to Abbey Industrial Solutions.

He explains: “This is our flagship and we still consider it our spiritual home. This was the brainchild of Martin and Kim.

“At the time Leeds was nowhere near as cosmopolitan as it is today. But they thought if this was brought to the streets of Leeds people would surely buy into it.

“I’ve known Martin since 1999 and I saw the inception of this restaurant and was involved as a consultant with his other company. But there is something about Martin and Kim. I was doing ok in a different walk of life but something drew me to them and that’s why I left and moved over progressively to this role which is amazing and incredible.”

Leigh came on board officially as director of group operations in 2010 before being made managing director in 2012.

“The hope wasn’t UK domination or anything like that. It was to make this restaurant the best it could be. When I really started getting involved was when Martin said we want to expand this group and turn it into a nationwide brand.”

The Leeds site expanded into its basement while new venues were opened up and down the country and the Thaikhun arm of the business started operating in 2013, with its current locations including Meadowhall Shopping Centre.

Leigh says the firm is in a relatively unusual position within the restaurant sector in that its growth has not come through a private equity buyout.

He says the firm’s strategy has instead been based on investing profits into new sites, combined with lending support from banks.

“I believe we are the only fully family owned Thai restaurant group in the UK. We’re very proud of that.

“It is hugely important because one thing I’m passionate about is the values we live by that the owners and I helped create. They have remained a constant throughout. They are all about caring from the heart, pride and passion and teamwork.

“We always make sure the restaurants are in the best state they can be before we look at expanding more.”

Nevertheless, in common with many restaurant chains, it has not always been smooth sailing. In recent years Chaophraya restaurants in Manchester and Liverpool have closed their doors, along with a Thaikhun site in Guildford. The Covid pandemic, which was a major hit to the hospitality industry, also meant a number of planned new sites never came to fruition.

Those challenges are reflected in the company’s latest results for the year ending January 30, 2024 which dryly notes that ‘uncertainty is ‘business as usual’’ in the restaurant game. For the last year the group recorded turnover of £32.5m, gross profit of £13.8m and profit of £800,000 once expenses are taken into consideration.

Leigh says the restaurant closures felt “tragic”.

“You get to know the teams and customers - there were tears shed, it was terrible. It was an almighty bump in the road,” he says.

“I don’t think there’s any sector that is as exposed to the economic environment like this one. Anything that is impacting consumers and hitting their pockets impacts us. But we have become resilient to it and we are mentally equipped to deal with all sorts.

“We’ve learnt to be highly adaptable and that is one reason we are here today. We are constantly looking at what’s going on and constantly thinking about how customers are feeling. We feel it and we take it very personally. If things are not right, it hurts.”

He says the company is now structured around a “doughnut model” with a core management team of around 20 in the centre and the outer ring of the business made up of the two brands.

“What we have learned is to focus on what we have got, make that perfect if we can and when that works, push it out.”

The company is considering new locations but Leigh keeps his cards close to his chest when asked if any Yorkshire sites are under consideration.

“In terms of expansion, when the conditions are right which we hope are soon, I would like to think we could open another Chaophraya next year. We are open-minded on location, our radar is out. We are very energetic and want to do stuff."

He reveals the firm has an “intense” method of scouting out new sites, which not only involves analysing expert data but in-person stakeouts.

“If we find a location, we will watch it for days to see what is happening. We will camp out opposite in a local coffee shop. I’ll do it as well. We will see how many people are walking past, where are they going from and to, what are their patterns and what are the local hotels, shops and other restaurants.

“No matter how much you do, when you open it is heart in mouth time because that is the acid test.”

Another example of the firm’s attention to detail comes with Leigh’s “obsession” with feedback scores from diners. They ask recent customers over email whether they would recommend a restaurant to family and friends and divide the scores by ‘promoters’ against ‘detractors’ with an aim that at least five times as many people are in the positive rather than negative category.

Leigh says: “There’s no better way to do it. You can spend a fortune on PR and marketing but nothing comes close to word of mouth. It is all about trust.”

He adds: “One of my favourite pieces of feedback for Thaikhun we ever got was in Manchester where someone wrote, ‘10 years ago to the day my now-husband proposed to me in Thailand. Last night we went back there… but in Spinningfields’. That really warmed my heart.”

While the company’s empire has grown since its first days in Leeds, Leigh says the original restaurant very much has a “special place” for him as a flagship venue.

“My heart is in here because of the journey. It is not just the business journey, it is the events that have been in here - monks’ blessings, wedding celebrations, funeral wakes. It is intrinsic to who we are and the flag is very much here. I get emotional talking about it, it is more than a restaurant, it is a personality. Long may it continue.”