Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), which operates six restaurant chains including Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理), yesterday said it is to launch its seventh brand by the end of this year.
“The new brand featuring Southeast Asian flavors is in line with TTFB’s multiple-brand strategy,” chairman Charles Hsu (徐承義) told a news conference in Taichung, adding that the company plans to launch another five new cuisine chains before 2020.
TTFB plans to increase its domestic outlets from 104 to 125 by the end of the year, including increasing the number of Thai Town Cuisine branches from 60 to 65 and Very Thai Noodles from 21 to 28, Hsu said.
The restaurant operator also plans to add two or three outlets of Rice Bar (時時香), its sixth brand, which was launched in January, he said.
Given a saturated market in the nation’s major cities, the company is eyeing second and third-tier cities to avoid stiff competition, he said.
TTFB is also planning to increase the number of outlets in China from five to 11 by the end of this year and is hoping to expand its footprint in the US market within the next three years, he said.
“There are more than 6,000 Thai-style restaurants in [the US], but the majority of them are locally owned enterprises,” Hsu said, hinting at potential opportunities in this sector.
To help maintain food quality across its multiple restaurants, the company said it has secured land for its planned global innovation and logistics center in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢).
The facility, which is expected to cost more than NT$400 million (US$13.23 million) in total investment, is to start construction by the end of the year.
TTFB’s first-quarter net profit was NT$87.6 million, edging up 1.23 percent from the same period last year, with NT$3.77 in earnings per share, company data showed.
First-quarter gross margin was 52.83 percent, up from 51.45 percent a year ago, but operating margin slipped to 10.45 percent from 10.58 percent.
Revenue last month gained 8.51 percent year-on-year to NT$326.17 million, bringing total revenue in the first four months of the year to NT$1.37 billion, up 5.69 percent from a year earlier.
TTFB shares were unchanged at NT$249 in Taipei trading yesterday, beating the benchmark TAIEX, which edged down 0.44 percent to 9,969.45 points.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS