Wuttisak's Evolution venture

Wuttisak's Evolution venture

Wuttisak Clinic has teamed up with Evolution Capital Plc, the operator of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Domino's Pizza, to run a food venture in a move to expand into the hospitality business.

Wutthisak Limphanit, founder of Wuttisak Clinic (2nd left), and Krit Srichawla, chairman of Evolution Capital, shake hands on a new food venture.

Wutthisak Limphanit, founder of Wuttisak Clinic, recently spent 150 million baht to gain a 10% stake in Evolution Foods (Thailand) Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Evolution Capital.

Evolution Capital merged three subsidiaries, Fenix Pizza Co, Kyochon Co and Fico Coffee Co, into Evolution Foods.

Evolution Foods now holds the exclusive franchise for Domino's Pizza, Kyochon Chicken and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Thailand.

Evolution Foods also owns a 65% stake in a joint venture in Cambodia developing the Domino's Pizza franchise in the neighbouring country.

Previously, Mr Wutthisak expanded into the food business by buying the franchise of San Francisco-based Osha Thai restaurant last year.

Apart from the food business, Mr Wutthisak is also negotiating with hotel operators to form a business partnership.

Mr Wutthisak said he is interested in expanding into the food business because both food and beauty clinics are part of the retail business. With 14 years helming Wuttisak Clinic, he said he could utilise his marketing and production management experience at Evolution Foods.  

In addition to 120 Wuttisak beauty clinics here, there are 11 branches in other Asean countries.

Sanjay Singh, chief executive officer of Evolution Capital, said it had signed a partnership agreement with Mr Wutthisak to jointly invest in Evolution Foods (Thailand). Mr Wutthisak is now the director of Evolution Foods.

"The investment by Mr Wutthisak is a huge vote of confidence. We offer a unique business model that is positioned to tap the very large consumer market in Asean. His investment will further accelerate our expansion not only in Thailand but also in key regional markets," Mr Singh said.

Currently, Evolution Foods (Thailand) has sales of 460 million baht. It plans to spend 400 million baht to open 28 new branches of its three food and beverage brands, bringing the total number of branches under Evolution Foods to 75 by the end of this year. The company expects sales this year to increase to 1 billion baht.

Mr Singh said that the company had earmarked 1.2 billion baht to expand over the next three years, bringing the total number of all three food brands to 125 branches with sales of 3 billion baht.

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