A dozen US food franchises along with several other foreign companies will flock to Thailand, which is recognised as a growth engine in Asean.
The franchises comprise Denny's, a family restaurant chain; Rita's Italian Ice; Fuddruckers (burgers and steak); The Melting Pot (fondue); Round Table Pizza; Grease Monkey Garage, an auto maintenance centre; Moe's Southwest Grill; Precision Tune Auto Care; Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory; Chuck E. Cheese's (children's amusement and pizza); Schlotzsky's (deli); Steak 'n Shake; and Honolulu Coffee Co.
Business matching between Thai businessmen and representatives of US franchises will be held at the Aetas Hotel on Soi Ruamrudee on Wednesday.
More information on all 12 US franchises will be available at the USA Fair running at CentralWorld from May 30 to June 2.
Dean Matlack, commercial attache{aac} at the US embassy, said the strong baht will benefit Thai investors by lowering investment cost.
"Thailand is in a good position to benefit from the Asean Economic Community. Thai consumers are open to US brands, and the significant growth of the franchise market here means the country is highly regarded among US companies," he said.
Franchise businesses grew by 20% here last year. There are 370 franchise brands available in Thailand, and the number is expected to jump to 500 in five years.
Of the present 370, some 85% belong to local operators while 15% remain foreign brands.
Among foreign franchise brands, there are 18-20 US brands, representing only 5% of the total foreign labels.
Apart from franchises, the US Commercial Service Department may encourage US firms in other sectors to expand their business to Thailand.
Trade between Thailand and the US was worth US$40 billion last year.
Companies from other countries also plan to expand their food businesses to Thailand. Many of them presented themselves at the Thaifex _ World of Food 2013 exhibition at Impact Muang Thong Thani last week.
Angelica Niero, a representative of Balas Boavistense SA, the maker of flat lollipops with icing tongue tattoos from Brazil, said the company is interested in expanding into Asean as part of its plan to boost its international business by 7% this year.
Balas Boavistense products range from flat and ball lollipops to jelly candy, hard candy and chewing gum and are available in 50 countries.
But in Asia the company has entered only the Chinese and South Korean markets to date.
"We are looking for people interested in distributing our products here. Our products are very competitive, because Brazil produces about 42% of the world's sugar," said Ms Niero.