The Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (瓦城泰統集團), which owns three brands and 40 chain restaurants in Taiwan, aims to develop into a global food-and-beverage giant by increasing its number of outlets to 100 in 2014, a company official said yesterday.
The group, which focuses on oriental-cuisine restaurants, also plans to launch its first outlet in China in the first half of next year — the company’s first venture into an overseas market.
The group — whose brands include Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理), VeryThai Restaurant (非常泰) and 1010 Hunan Cuisine (1010湘辣料理) — is set to list on the GRETAI Securities Market on Sept. 17.
Underwriter Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said a reasonable offering price for the group’s shares may be between NT$200 (US$6.67) and NT$220 per share, based on an evaluation of its recent price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio and other related information.
“We will launch the expansion plan by focusing on multiple brands and markets after the share listing,” group chairman Charles Hsu (徐承義) told a media briefing after the company held an investors’ conference yesterday.
The group plans to issue 5.5 million shares for the GRETAI listing and is to use the money raised to fund business expansion.
Hsu said the group wants to open 10 new outlets in major urban regions in Taiwan by the end of this year, taking its total number of restaurants to 50.
As for its first overseas outlet in China, it will be in a city located in the eastern region of China in the first half of next year, with Shanghai, Suzhou or Nanking possible locations, Hsu said.
The group is to employ its strategy of launching restaurants in local department stores in its China expansion plan, Hsu said, adding that the group has been contacting several local department stores, as well as Taiwanese brands which plan to open branches in China, for further cooperation.
Expansion into other markets, such as the US, also forms part of the group’s plans, as it aims to have a global network of 100 outlets in 2014, he said.
Starting from next year, the group plans to create at least one brand every year, hoping it can have 20 brands within the next 10 years, he added.
Tai Tong posted a profit in the first six months of this year of NT$86.51 million, or NT$4.87 a share, up 8 percent from a year earlier, the company’s data showed.
With vegetable prices driven higher by inclement weather, Hsu said the group would use logistics arrangements and substitute materials to cut costs, while maintaining gross margin and profitability.
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