WAS Café & Events: Operational Expansion in Vietnam
How WAS expanded beyond tailoring into F&B operations, event hosting, and cross-border entrepreneur gatherings in District 3.
Case Study 05 — WAS Café & Events
Ho Chi Minh City, D3 — F&B Operations & Community Building
Expanding the Ecosystem
The WAS ecosystem was never designed to stop at tailoring. As the business established itself in Ho Chi Minh City, it became clear that the physical space, the client relationships, and the community forming around the brand had potential far beyond garments.
That potential was channelled into a deliberate expansion: café operations, event hosting, business networking sessions, and cross-border entrepreneur gatherings. A single location became a platform for connection.
F&B and Events from the Ground Up
Expanding into F&B and events in Vietnam required navigating a distinct set of operational demands. Each one had to be solved from the ground up.
Operational Expansion, Not Theoretical
WAS Café & Events is not a concept paper or a pilot programme. It is a functioning venue in District 3 that has been licensed, staffed, and operated. The F&B side runs. The events happen. The community shows up.
The network effects that grew out of this space, connecting Singapore entrepreneurs, local Vietnamese business owners, and cross-border operators, were not planned on a whiteboard. They emerged from building something real and letting the people find each other inside it.
Operational expansion means making decisions, absorbing costs, solving problems daily.
This is what it actually looks like to build in Vietnam.
Why This Matters for Tour Participants
Vietnam's F&B licensing requirements are layered and location-specific. Understanding how to navigate them, what approvals are needed, in what sequence, and through which channels, is knowledge that takes months to acquire without a guide. Tour participants gain direct insight into how this was done at WAS, not as a cautionary tale but as a completed process.
Beyond licensing, WAS demonstrates how a physical business space can double as a community-building engine. For entrepreneurs considering a Vietnam presence, seeing how a venue becomes a hub for cross-border networking, entrepreneur gatherings, and ongoing business relationships offers a practical model that goes well beyond the mechanics of opening a shopfront.
The operational realities covered here, staffing, vendor relationships, cost discipline, and daily management, are the same realities every entrant to the Vietnam market will face. Having seen them managed at WAS means arriving prepared, not surprised.
Your Expansion Story Starts Here
The tour puts you inside these experiences — not just reading about them, but meeting the partners, visiting the sites, and building your own network on the ground.