Central Restaurants Group, the operator of KFC, Mister Donut, Aroi Dee and Thai Terrace, is ramping up its Thai and Chinese cuisine business to stay competitive amid the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thai and Chinese cuisine is one of the four core cuisine business units of Central Restaurants Group, which recently completed a restructuring.
Under the business restructuring, the existing 16 brands of the Central Restaurants Group are divided into four cuisine groups: bakery and beverage cuisine; Thai and Chinese cuisine; Western & quick service restaurant cuisine and Japanese cuisine.
Each cuisine group is now handled by one top executive who is tasked with defining the business direction, sharing best practice, and sharing ingredients and raw materials within the group.
Prior to the pandemic, each restaurant brand under the group was handled separately by one or two executives.
Tanapoln Tunpasit, the company's head of the Thai & Chinese Cuisine Group, which includes Thai Terrace, Aroi Dee, Kowlune, and Somtam Nua brand, said that various marketing strategies were being adopted to ramp up the business of Thai & Chinese Cuisine and stimulate the unit's business growth in the final five months of this year.
Four brands under the Thai & Chinese Cuisine unit will also be focused on the delivery channel, he said, with the intention of growing the delivery service exponentially from now on. This will be achieved through business adaptation, including menu design that matches the delivery channel both in terms of ingredients and packaging.
The company expects delivery sales for each Thai and Chinese restaurant brand to make up 90% of the total by the end of this year, up from 68%-80% now, depending on brands.
Moreover, Mr Tanapoln said the company will utilise the vacant space of certain dine-in restaurants whose sales significantly dropped because the government tightened restrictions, to develop kitchens for other brands within the group and encourage staff to perform multiple tasks as well as try to reduce losses from raw materials.
These will help to optimise costs and operational efficiency, he said.
"We also plan to expand kiosk models in the community and temporarily stop our branch expansion at the retail malls. A majority of new restaurant branches will be open outside shopping malls until the Covid-19 situation gets back to normal,'' Mr Tanapoln said.
Currently, the Central Restaurants Group operates a total of 67 branches of Thai and Chinese Cuisine brands in Bangkok. Of the total, 17 branches are Thai Terrace, 33 branches are Aroi Dee, 10 are Kowlune, and seven are Somtam Nua. The number is expected to increase to 80 branches next year.
According to Kasikorn Research Centre, the overall restaurant business in Thailand is expected to grow by only 1.4–2.6% to 410-415 billion baht this year, compared to 5% growth in 2018. The restaurant business was valued at 430.76 billion baht in 2019 and declined by 6% to 404.48 billion baht in 2020.
Thai & Chinese Cuisine revenue was 270 million baht in 2020, with the figures expected to increase to 300 million baht in 2021, said Mr Tanapoln.