Benny Leung

With a passion for good coffee and excellent customer service, hospitality-industry veteran Benny Leung set up NOC in 2015. What started as a 350 square-foot space in Central is now a fully fledged lifestyle brand with 10 locations. In 2018, NOC was honoured by Wallpaper* as one of the world’s 10 best-designed coffee shops; the following year, Big Seven Travel included it on its global list of the 50 top coffee shops.

Raised by his grandparents in Tianjin, China, Leung is heavily influenced by his grandfather, a hydraulic engineer whose attention to detail was impeccable. “I learned from a young age the importance of paying meticulous care to everything I do,” he says. “This is why I named my brand NOC (Not Only Coffee); we brew an excellent cup, but we offer so much more than that. Providing a seamless and memorable experience to our customers is my top priority, so in addition to perfecting our coffee, we put a lot of thought into our style of service, rotating food menus and unique retail products to satisfy the varying needs of guests who come through our doors.”

Every member of the team, irrespective of their function, undergoes comprehensive training and talent retainment programmes. “Not only does this approach guarantee our service quality, but it also cultivates a nurturing work environment that encourages growth,” Leung explains. Long-serving former baristas are now working as branch managers, while pastry protégés who showed promise now manage the central kitchen. The brand’s approaching eighth birthday will be marked by events designed to thank customers for their support; once the celebrations are over, it will be back to the drawing board for Leung and his team – whom he calls his family – to plan NOC’s international expansion.