Dairy Queen opens 400th branch in Thailand

Nakarintr Thamhatai, general manager of Minor DQ, a subsidiary of the Minor Food Group, said Dairy Queen Thailand generated about Bt2 billion in annual income for the group.
Nakarintr said the business grew by 5 per cent, or about Bt85 million, this year.
He said Dairy Queen had become the soft-served-ice-cream brand with the highest number of branches in Thailand, serving some 50 million customers each year.
He said the 400th branch opening was achieved with the help of the brand’s US headquarters, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. The cooperation also resulted in the launch of Dairy Queens’ green-tea soft-served ice cream in Thailand, a world first, he said.
Using premium-grade ingredients from Japan, the new flavour offers a variety of menus – green-tea Blizzard with red beans, green-tea Blizzard with almond, and green-tea Blizzard with KitKat, he said. Nakarintr said the menus had received good feedback from customers.
“For future expansion, we plan to penetrate new channels like schools, hospitals, and petrol stations in the form of franchises in order to cover consumers nationwide,” he said. “For the marketing plan, we plan to increase the number of customers with new premium products like green-tea soft-served ice cream, together with other promotions and marketing activities, with a Bt100-million advertising and public relations budget covering both online and offline media. “We are confident in the potential of Thailand’s ice-cream market in terms of sales volume and branch expansion.”