For Thanh Quoc Lam, every smart business move should be matched with an act of aloha.

Many years ago, as a struggling entrepreneur with a young family and few assets, he vowed that, if God helped him to succeed, he'd help others.

Lam came to America from Vietnam in 1979, penniless and with few skills. Today, he is president and chief executive officer of Ba-Le Inc., a wholesale bakery with $7 million a year in sales, two production plants, 23 Ba-Le Sandwich Shop franchisees, 100 employees and customers that include airlines, hotels and restaurants.

Even as he adds a new layer — a line of hearty artisanal breads of the sort popular with high-end and health-oriented customers — he and his wife, Xuan Thiyen Chan, are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary with a gift not to each other, but to the community.

This week, the Lams reopen the retail bakery that fronts the Ba-Le production plant at 2242 Kamehameha Highway in Kalihi, selling new artisanal breads, pastry and cakes, Vietnamese sandwiches and phô. Now through Monday, all the sales from this shop, plus a 100 percent match from the Lams' own pockets, will go to charity: 50 percent to Catholic Charities Hawai'i, 25 percent to Helping Hands Hawai'i and 25 percent to the University of Hawai'i business school, where the Lams' two sons, Trung and Brandon, are students. "If I sell $10,000, I give $20,000," Lam said.

And everybody who drops by gets a free pastry, whether they buy anything or not.

In 2002, Lam was recognized by the Small Business Administration as the National Small Businessman of the Year — a picture of the Lams flanking President Bush (the elder) hangs proudly in the hallway leading to his upstairs office. The first photo in the group shows Lam's family — mother, seven brothers, in-laws and fiance — the day before they crammed aboard a fishing boat to escape Vietnam.

After months in a Malaysian refugee camp, Lam landed in San Jose, Calif., in the home of a sponsor. There, he and Chan were married. He points to a snapshot of a group of people at a picnic table; Chan made their wedding clothes and a backyard picnic was their reception. "We have no money for wedding cake," says the man who would one day own a bakery.

Lam eventually partnered with a baker named Le Vo and moved to Hawai'i where immigrants like themselves would serve as a ready customer base for Vietnamese-style French bread sandwiches. Their Ba-Le Sandwich Shop — the term is Vietnamese for Paris (Pa-ree, Ba-Le) — opened on North King Street in Chinatown in December 1984.

The first year went all right, but Vo wanted to move on. Lam needed $70,000 to buy his partner out, but two banks refused him. So he turned to a man who was known to lend money privately. The man agreed to a loan at a steep 18 percent interest, then raised the figure to 20 percent on the day Lam was to sign the contract.

With no other alternative, Lam signed. But, he recalls, "it hurt." Afterward, he told his wife, "If God help us to make money, whoever I loan money to, no interest." He routinely makes such loans to employees now.

Despite his lack of formal education, Lam's business acumen has proven itself. Ba-Le's sales have increased every year, even in 2001, when 9/11 hit the tourist industry hard.

In 1986, he opened a second Ba-Le store and bought a $17,000 industrial oven to supply not only his own shops but other customers. In 1987, a favorable review in Honolulu magazine brought his bread to the attention of non-Vietnamese customers. Business mushroomed.

Lam sold Ba-Le franchises to loyal employees so they could build their own businesses. His work force is about 50 percent Filipino, 45 percent Vietnamese and many are recent immigrants, he said. He pays higher than minimum wage and allows flexible scheduling for those who are in school or studying English.

Lam switched his focus to the wholesale side of the business in the '90s. In 1996, he bought the 18,000-square-foot production plant and marketed the business aggressively to hotels, who were outsourcing pastry operations to save labor, space and the costs of increasingly expensive and sophisticated baking equipment.

Three years ago, Lam bought a second building down the block which is accommodating a new venture — not only mixing the dough for Papa John's Pizza, but distributing the company's meats, cheeses and other ingredients. The new plant also solved another nagging problem, providing parking for Ba-Le employees so that Lam was able to reopen the retail bakery, which he had reluctantly closed 15 months ago after watching too much double-parking and fender-bender madness in their small lot.

Three years ago, Lam hired Rodney Weddle, a self-trained pastry chef with considerable hotel experience, and asked him to develop a line of artisanal breads. They researched, bought and installed a $55,000 Italian deck oven — an ultra-hot, steam-injected device with a stone floor on which the bread is baked, capable of turning out 1,500 to 2,000 loaves of bread a day. "The oven makes a huge difference," said Weddle, who said the direct heat and well-timed injections of moisture create the chewy thick crust that characterizes these country-style loaves.

Weddle came up with the idea of test-marketing the breads at the Saturday Farmers Market at Kapi'olani Community College. The first day, they sold 240 loaves in four hours, and they have sold out every Saturday since. A second oven will be ordered and Lam hopes to see Ba-Le artisanal breads in grocery stores around the state soon.

As to what's next, again Lam twins a corporate goal with a community one: He'd like to land the Norwegian Cruise Line as a new customer. And he'd like to use his new businesses to pay down debt so he can buy a condominium development and sell units to his employees at low cost and no down.

"We are very lucky, we have such good employees," Lam said. "They work so hard, it touches my heart. I would like very much to help them."

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.