in the late 1990s, as food courts became more common, pang lim ventured into the food court business with his first food court, happy times food court in 1996. with increasing competition from the food court industry, pang found the management of the 56 outlets of coffeeshops difficult as each coffeeshop was run as an independent entity without much synergy to one another. in 2002, pang lim sold aik hua to the kopitiam group for sgd10 million before founding koufu in that same year. other than koufu food courts, the company branched out and operates different concept food courts such as fork & spoon, which is a halal food court, the gallerie, which is inspired by peranakan cuisine, 1983, which is a coffee shop selling toast and coffee and local cuisine. koufu also manages punggol plaza, a shopping mall located in punggol through its subsidiary, abundance development pte ltd.