Restaurant chain operator TTFB Co Ltd (瓦城泰統集團) yesterday offered a positive outlook for the second half of the year, after revenue last month grew 96.86 percent from a year earlier.
A substantial increase in dine-in customers combined with a steady recovery in the local food-and-beverage market, as well as the arrival of the traditional high season for restaurants, are expected to boost the company’s sales in the coming months, the nation’s largest Thai food and full-service restaurant chain operator said in a statement.
TTFB operates six restaurant chains — Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理), Very Thai Restaurant (非常泰), 1010 Hunan Cuisine (1010湘), Very Thai Noodles (大心新泰式麵食), Ten Ten Hunan Bistro (十食湘) and Shann Rice Bar (時時香) — as well as new cuisine brands Yabi Kitchen and Thai BBQ.
Photo courtesy of TTFB Co Ltd
As of the end of June, the company operated 135 stores in Taiwan and four in China, it said in the statement.
TTFB this year continued to develop new services and expand its sales channels, even as COVID-19 flare-ups discouraged many people from gathering outdoors in the second quarter.
With bleak sales in the April-to-June quarter, TTFB’s revenue for the first half of the year dropped 6.01 percent year-on-year to NT$2.06 billion (US$68.7 million), while it reported a net loss of NT$28.45 million, or a net loss per share of NT$1.24.
That was a 127.06 percent decline from net profit of NT$$105.11 million a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$4.59, company data showed.
First-half gross margin fell to 47 percent from 51.36 percent a year earlier, it said.
The company’s operations in China posted net losses of NT$23 million in the first half, as strict COVID-19 lockdown measures in Shanghai severely affected its headline figures, it said.
As sales started out strong this quarter after last month’s revenue hit NT$430.66 million, up from NT$311.95 million in June, the company said it is optimistic about its outlook for this quarter and next quarter, citing the business potential of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ten National Day and year-end banquet season, the statement said.
TTFB launched four new stores in Taiwan in the first half of the year, and aims to retain a double-digit increase in new store openings this year, as the company expects a larger scale of operations and a wide variety of restaurant brands to further boost sales, it said.
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