Thai Beverage Plc (ThaiBev) is confident enough in the country’s restaurant market to spend more than 400 million baht to expand its food business this year.
Nongnuch Buranasetkul, the company’s Senior Vice President, said the entire outlay is to open 40 restaurants this year, up from 24 eateries opened last year.
Of the total budget, 250 million baht is allocated for the Oishi brand, with the remainder used for the expansion of KFC under QSR Asia, one of the operators of KFC in Thailand, and Food of Asia, the operator of So asean Cafe & Restaurant, Man Fu Yuan Kitchen, MX cakes & bakery, Cafe Chilli and Hide & Seek.
“The company keeps investing because it believes the food industry will be better this year,” said Mrs Nongnuch. In addition, she said opening new restaurants increases the company’s opportunities to continue learning about customer behaviour. “During the pandemic, we put much effort into studying consumer behaviour. We thought at first consumers would resume their normal lives after the government relaxed the tight lockdown measures, but they have not.”
