When Tekla Vancleynenbreugel (30) opened the vegan restaurant Lento in Hasselt in September 2018 together with her husband Yolan Bamps (33), nothing suggested that today she would lead a company with branches in Hasselt, Antwerp and Leuven and would provide work. to seven permanent employees.
Apart from some holiday jobs in the catering industry and a passion for good food, the couple had little experience in the restaurant business. She studied law and had a managerial position in a communications agency, he was a soldier in Leopoldsburg for seven years, with a mission to Afghanistan on his record.
Corona
Through friends they discovered that you can also eat delicious food without products of animal origin, but the decisive factor was Tekla’s mother’s illness. “Several publications have linked dairy products to certain cancers,” says Vancleynenbreugel. “Vegan cuisine makes it possible to cook healthy and animal-friendly.”
When it opened in 2018, the menu of the Hasselt restaurant Lento mainly contained a number of simple dishes. The corona pandemic gave the couple the opportunity to take vegan cuisine to the next level. “We have taken advantage of the mandatory closure to develop our current concept,” says Vancleynenbreugel. “The culinary vegan restaurant was a gap in the market. At the same time, we launched our take-away concept, so that we were not really affected by the corona crisis.” While Yolan is the creative brain behind the restaurant, Tekla ensures that the numbers are in order.
There is now also expansion, with the opening of the bistro in Antwerp and the vegan chip shop in Leuven. The chip shop has been a resounding success, and Tekla hopes to open a second chip shop this year.
© Karel Hemerijckx
Have you encountered the ‘glass ceiling’?
Vancleynenbreugel: “As an independent entrepreneur, I am less confronted with this. It is striking that when we go somewhere together, my husband is often the first to be addressed. As a woman you are a bit involved. This is the case, for example, with suppliers and banks, while I am the one who handles the figures.”
Why should women do more entrepreneurship?
“Women have qualities that are complementary to those of men. Women are generally more empathetic and that is especially an advantage when dealing with employees. Men mainly look at performance, while women look more at the person behind the employee. I think women are also much more resistant to stress. That comes in handy when you have to run a restaurant in combination with a family with three children.”
Why could you be the Best Entrepreneur in Limburg?
“We are more than happy to be in this wonderful company. But if we can add a feather in our cap, it is that we built this completely from scratch. We do not come from an entrepreneurial family and were not born with the entrepreneurial virus. Moreover, Lento was also completely new as a culinary concept. When we knocked on the banks’ doors at the time, we were just shy of being laughed at.”
You can vote until March 3 via made-in.be/strafste-ondernemerster.