The Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團) saw its net profit for the first half of the year reach the highest level ever on the back of its expansion efforts.
The company saw its shares rise by 3 percent to close at NT$240 on the GRETAI Securities Market yesterday, compared with the overall market’s 0.61 percent drop.
Tai Tong — the operator of three restaurant chains with 50 outlets — posted NT$139.18 million (US$4.65 million) in net income for the first six months, an increase of more than 60 percent from the NT$105.77 million recorded during the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
TTFB’s earnings per share in the first half reached NT$5.98, higher than the NT$4.88 it posted the previous year, despite increasing its number of shares by 30 percent in the second half of last year ahead of its listing on the GRETAI.
“Increasing our number of outlets has boosted the company’s sales and profitability by achieving economies of scale and better costs control,” the statement said.
The group, which operates three brands — Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理), Very Thai Restaurant (非常泰) and 1010 Hunan Cuisine (1010湘辣料理) — said it will continue expanding its outlets this year.
TTFB plans to increase its outlets under the three brands to 55 by the end of this quarter, while aiming to have 70 outlets — including under a planned new brand — by the end of the year.
The group is aiming to launch the new restaurant brand — its fourth — by the end of the quarter, which it expects to fuel sales.
In terms of new markets, the company is looking to enter the Chinese market by launching its first Thai Town outlet in Shanghai later in the quarter.
In addition, it plans to launch a food court brand across the strait in partnership with the Hong Kong-listed Golden Eagle Retail Group (金鷹商貿集團) and Taiwan’s largest disperse dye manufacturer, Allied Industrial Co Ltd (中美聯合實業).
The first food court is to be opened in Golden Eagle’s new department store in Nanjing’s Xinjiekou District in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.
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