Boon Rawd Brewery Group, the country's leading beverage company, has committed to revamping its food retail business either through product development or acquisitions, aiming to raise revenue earned from the segment by five times to 15 billion baht over the next five years.
Piti Bhirom Bhakdi, chief executive of Food Factors, a subsidiary of Boon Rawd Brewery, said Boon Rawd Brewery Group has been restructured over the past two years and plans to focus on six growth pillars.
The six pillars encompass beverages (beer, soda and drinking water); packaging products; regional business under Singha Asia Holding Company; real estate business under Singha Estate; supply chain under Boon Rawd Supply Chain; and food business by Food Factors.
Mr Piti said to elevate the business operation cycle from upstream to downstream in the food business, the group is emphasising operations synergy in the business group to create broad-based growth.
He said the company expects to spend 5 billion baht to expand its food business over the next five years, starting from this year.
Of the total, about 1.5 billion baht was spent to acquire an 88% stake in KT Restaurant, the operator of Santa Fe restaurant. The remaining 3.5 billion baht will be invested in expanding business and developing 2-3 new food brands over the next three years and more acquisitions, especially restaurants that have high brand reputations and good quality to expand both domestic and international markets.
Mr Piti said the acquisition of Santa Fe restaurant is an essential step for Food Factors to achieve its sales goals in the future. KT Restaurant Co has sales worth 1.2 billion baht per year.
"We expanded into food because we are no longer confident our beer business will be sustainable in the long term. Moreover, the food retail business in Thailand has experienced tremendous growth the past 3-4 years, thanks partially to urbanisation," he said. "Having Santa Fe restaurant plays an important part in enhancing the group's food retail business.
"We will use Santa Fe restaurants to test the market response for the group's new product development and as a distribution channel for Singha's beverages such as drinking water and beer, as well as Pundee packed rice.
"Steak restaurants are a popular food choice among Thais and small steak players in the market. This creates a huge opportunity to expand the business to other Asean countries in the future, starting in Cambodia."
The restaurants under Food Factors' umbrella consist of Farm Design, Kitaohji Japanese Restaurant, and EST.33 by EST.