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.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling