Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), which operates five restaurant chains led by Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理), yesterday said it plans to tap into the US market within the next three years to take advantage of a fast-growing Asian food trend.
“We see some business opportunities, as only 8 percent of the Asian restaurants in the US are chain stores,” TTFB chairman Charles Hsu (徐承義) told a news conference.
The company plans to build directly owned restaurants in New York and Los Angeles first, as customers there are more willing to embrace Asian food, Hsu said.
The company is also considering building a central kitchen in the US to ensure food quality and may seek some business partners in the US, he said.
Near term, Hsu said TTFB is scheduled to launch two new Asian cuisine brands and set up 25 outlets next year in the region.
Longer term, the company plans to launch six new cuisine chains in three years, including in the US, boosting its total number of outlets from 100 — 95 in Taiwan and five in China — to 180, he said.
Despite its aggressive expansion plans, the group would cautiously consider new restaurant sites, hoping to duplicate its success in developing Very Thai Noodles (大心泰式麵食) and Very Thai (非常泰), he said.
The company is constructing a global innovation center in Taoyuan, which is expected to help maintain quality standards across its multiple restaurants as it expands, TTFB said.
The company did not provide investment details or profitability targets for its three-year plan.
TTFB’s net profit in the first half of the year was NT$170.2 million (US$5.39 million), or NT$7.32 per share, with a gross margin of 51.73 percent and an operating margin of 10.48 percent, according to the latest company data available.
Revenue last month rose 17.04 percent year-on-year to NT$323.5 million, bringing total revenue in the first 10 months to NT$3.28 billion, up 13.57 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
TTFB shares gained 2.19 percent to close at NT$210 yesterday, while the benchmark TAIEX rose 2.34 percent.
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