Tofu Restaurant Co (豆府), the largest chain of multibrand Korean restaurants in Taiwan, plans to open seven new stores and introduce Vietnamese food for the first time in the fourth quarter, it said yesterday.
As store expansion continues to be a growth driver for the company and consumers have a rising acceptance of foreign cuisines, Tofu said it would open two Vietnamese, one beef noodle and four new Korean restaurants at popular department stores and shopping malls.
“We realized that the local market is not yet saturated and the rising number of immigrants has helped expose locals to the taste of foreign cuisines, such as pho,” a Tofu official said by telephone.
Established in 2008, the company operates 38 stores under various brands: 18 Dubu House Korea (涓豆腐) stores; nine Hanok Tofu (北村豆腐家) outlets; six Han Jeong Sig (韓姜熙小廚房) restaurants; and five BBQ Bronze (銅盤韓式燒烤) shops.
Dubu House accounts for about 60 percent of total revenue, while Hanok Tofu contributes about 20 percent, the official said.
The company aims to cater to customers with differing budgets through its multibrand strategy, she said.
The first of the two new pho restaurants, called Pho Tau Bay (越南飛機河粉), is to be launched in Taichung next month, while a high-end beef noodle restaurant, Ada Beef Noodle (阿達師牛肉麵), is to open later this year, she said.
The company also plans to introduce a Thai food restaurant in the nation in the first quarter of next year and expand in Vietnam, where it opened a Gotchicken fried chicken shop in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this year.
Tofu Restaurant is to moving from the smaller Emerging Stock Board to the Taipei Exchange today, with a debut price of NT$105.
This company is issuing 2.4 million new shares, which would boost its paid-in capital by NT$190 million (US$6.13 million) to NT$960.63 million.
The company posted a net profit of NT$59.46 million in the first half of the year, or earnings per share of NT$3.16. That compares with a net profit of NT$51.01 million in the same period last year.
In the first eight months of the year, revenue totaled NT$911.59 million, up 27.49 percent year-on-year, company data showed.
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