The Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), which operates three restaurant chains with nearly 60 outlets in Taiwan, yesterday announced its first restaurant in Shanghai will open next month, saying it plans to expand the number of Chinese outlets to 10 by the end of next year.
SIXTIETH RESTAURANT
The Shanghai restaurant is a Thai Town Cuisine outlet (瓦城泰式料理), located in the Reel Department Store (芮歐百貨) and will target customers between 25 and 40 years old with an average transaction per customer of between 100 yuan (US$16.4) and 150 yuan (US$24.6).
“This will be the group’s 60th restaurant globally,” group chairman Charles Hsu (徐承義) told a media briefing.
Hsu did not specify a sales target for the new restaurant. Citing experience in Taiwan, he said a Thai Town restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) could generate sales of NT$50 million (US$1.7 million) to NT$60 million (US$2.03 million) annually.
The group operates restaurants under three brands: Thai Town, Very Thai Restaurant (非常泰) and 1010 Hunan Cuisine (1010 湘辣料理).
It plans to launch future outlets in China in Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou, with a special focus on East China.
“Most of these restaurants will be located in department stores or shopping malls, in line with the group’s successful operation in Taiwan,” Hsu said.
The group has been preparing its expansion plan in China for the past year, having already invested NT$10 million in Shanghai thus far, he added.
The group will unveil its fourth brand in Taiwan in the first quarter next year, with a goal to expand a total of 30 restaurants under its four brands annually.
BIG 100
The expansion across the Taiwan Strait will help increase the number of the group’s restaurants worldwide to 100 by the end of next year.
The group’s consolidated sales for the first nine months totaled NT$1.72 billion, up 17.78 percent from a year ago, company data showed.
Shares of TTFB dropped 0.73 percent to close at NT$273 on the GRETAI Securities Market yesterday.
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