Hotel and restaurant operator FDC International Hotels Corp (FDC, 雲品國際) yesterday announced it has acquired Splendor Banquet Restaurant (京采飯店), near New Taipei City’s Dapinglin MRT Station.
FDC said it hopes the acquisition will help boost its revenue this year by 20 percent.
FDC’s revenue is also to benefit from the inclusion of the food and beverage business at Chateau de Chine’s (翰品酒店) Taoyuan outlet, as the hotelier seeks to increase its share of the banquet business.
The company posted revenue of NT$374 million (US$12.38 million) in the first quarter, representing a 4.6 percent year-on-year increase.
“The scale increase would allow FDC to raise its revenue at a faster pace from this quarter,” company chairman Emile Sheng (盛治仁) told a news conference.
FDC was spun off from L’Hotel de Chine Group (LDC, 雲朗觀光), which owns Palais de Chine, Maison de Chine, Chateau de Chine, Chinatrust Hotels (中信旅館) and five more outlets in Italy.
Sheng declined to comment on the cost of the acquisition, saying only that FDC would pay 3 percent of its revenue to its unlisted parent company, LDC, the actual buyer of the Splendor restaurant.
Profit margins for banquet businesses are twice as high as that for other restaurants, explaining why the group is growing its banquet business despite intensive competition, FDC president David Ding (丁原偉) said.
After taking over the food and beverage operation of Chateau de Chine’s Taoyuan outlet, FDC is to rename it the Taoyuan Mingsheng branch of Gala de Chine (頤品大飯店), the banquet arm of FDC.
In three months’ time, the Splendor restaurant is to be renamed the New Taipei Beixin branch of Gala De Chine, allowing the 15-year-old restaurant and customers some time to get used to the change.
Under the arrangement, Gala De Chine, previously the sole banquet outlet in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), has grown into a restaurant chain that also includes seafood buffet restaurant Giardino (品花苑).
The banquet business is less vulnerable to economic cycle volatility and fluctuations in the number of foreign travelers, Ding said.
Banquet operators need only to increase temporary staff during the high season and cut headcount in the low season, Ding said, adding that FDC has rehired almost all the employees Splendor laid off on April 30.
Sheng attributed Splendor’s sale to family disputes and said he welcomed peers in similar situations to join FDC or LDC.
LDC plans to launch a new outlet in Italy and has inked a contract with a Taiwanese partner to open a new property under Maison de Chine, Sheng said, refusing to elaborate.
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