La Kaffa International Co Ltd (六角國際事業), which operates five food and beverage brands in more than 20 nations worldwide, is set to accelerate its expansion in Western markets next year, after its planned listing on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market on Jan. 20.
La Kaffa is to start trading shares on the GRETAI board after being listed on the Emerging Stock Market — a preparatory board for the nation’s two main bourses — for more than two years.
With registered capital of NT$266.2 million (US$8.38 million), the company is to debut at a tentative initial public offering price of NT$110 per share.
La Kaffa saw its shares climb 2.11 percent to close at NT$145 on the Emerging Stock Market yesterday.
Trading on this board is restricted to securities firms by means of negotiation.
“With Taiwan serving as the company’s headquarters and human resources training center, La Kaffa will focus on expanding its foothold in the US, Canada and Europe next year,” chairman and founder Henry Wang (王耀輝) told a news conference before an investors’ conference yesterday.
La Kaffa runs more than 1,000 restaurants, cafes and tea houses under five brands worldwide, with bubble tea chain Chatime (日出茶太) performing as its most well-known brand, executives said.
Southeast Asia is La Kaffa’s major region of development, they added.
Eyeing the huge potential of the tea market in Western countries, the company plans to accelerate its growth in the US, Canada and Europe next year, aiming to raise the proportion of sales generated from that region to 20 percent, Wang said.
La Kaffa has been operating in Australia for years, with Neil Gill — who had an important role in developing Gloria Jean’s Coffees into the biggest coffee franchise in the nation — set to be the company’s chief executive officer Down Under.
Adapting its business model for Chatime’s development to fit Western markets and make the chain’s products attractive to consumers in the region will be Gill’s primary task over the next three years.
“Tea is the new coffee,” Gill said, adding that an increasing number of Westerners see tea as a healthier alternative to coffee, which indicates the potential for Chatime and La Kaffa to be hugely popular.
Overall, the company is to expand its total number of outlets worldwide to 1,200 over three years — aiming to launch 150 new outlets next year — through section agents, joint ventures, subsidiaries or acquisitions.
The company reported a net profit of NT$81.44 million, or NT$3.47 per share, in the first three quarters of the year.
For the whole of last year, its profit was NT$134.64 million, or NT$7.17 per share, company data showed.
Consolidated sales totaled NT$1.25 billion in the first 11 months of the year, up 19.04 percent from the same period last year, data showed.
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