Three major listed restaurant operators posted record quarterly sales in the July-to-September period, bolstered by their continuous expansion and strong seasonal demand during the school summer vacation.
Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團) posted NT$782.79 million (US$25.72 million) in consolidated revenue in the third quarter of this year, a jump of 27.5 percent from a year earlier and its highest quarterly sales ever, the company said in a statement on Thursday last week.
TTFB, which operates five restaurant chains with a total of 66 outlets in Taiwan and China, attributed the strong year-on-year growth in consolidated sales to its store expansion, following the group’s plan to launch two new chains each in Taiwan and China this year.
The economic recovery in Taiwan this year also encouraged more consumers to go shopping in department stores and further boosted TTFB’s sales, as most of its outlets are located in major department stores and shopping malls, the statement added.
Consolidated sales for last month alone totaled NT$226.89 million, up 25.22 percent from a year earlier, but down 23.07 percent from a month earlier, the statement’s statistics showed.
Similar drivers led Wowprime Corp (王品集團) to see consolidated sales reach a record-high of NT$4.63 billion last quarter, up 20.57 percent from the same period last year, according to a company statement released yesterday.
Wowprime, which operates 15 restaurant chains with a total of 407 outlets in Taiwan, China and Singapore, has continued its store expansion plan long term, with its first restaurant in the US set to start operation in the first half of next year.
JPMorgan Securities Taiwan Ltd maintained a softening short-term earnings outlook for the company, due to a saturated Taiwanese market, with the restaurant operator’s exposure in China set to be its long-term catalyst for growth.
Gourmet Master Co (美食達人), which operates the 85°C (85度C) bakery chain — with outlets in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Australia and the US — reported NT$4.74 billion in consolidated revenue for the third quarter of the year, up 18.5 percent from a year ago and hitting its highest level ever, according to the company’s stock exchange filing.
Consolidated sales for last month alone totaled NT$1.52 billion, an increase of 1.16 percent from a year ago, but down 33.71 percent from a month earlier, statistics said.
Gourmet Master attributed the rise in consolidated sales to growth momentum in China, which accounted for more than 70 percent of company revenue.
The company saw its same-store sales in China show year-on-year growth for the 15th consecutive month last month, as its strategy of store renovation has effectively raised average customer spending, the company said.
JPMorgan kept a conservative attitude toward the bakery chain, saying Gourmet Master has suffered from margin pressure and declining profits over the past four years.
“We believe the [company’s] scale of a possible operating recovery over the next four to six quarters will fall short of relatively robust expectations,” the brokerage house said in its latest report.
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