The company is also looking for opportunities to expand the BreadTalk business outside Thailand, to cash in on the Minor Group’s strong global network.
Banyat Athiyutkul, general manager of BTM (Thailand), said the Singaporean company operated 19 bakery houses in Bangkok under the BreadTalk brand before entering into a 50:50 joint venture with Minor Food Group in the fourth quarter of 2014 to run the business.
“We opened a few new BreadTalk stores in 2015. However, in 2016, about 12 new BreadTalk bakery houses were opened by BTM (Thailand), ending the year with a total of 34 stores. We plan to have 50 BreadTalk stores in operation at the end of this year, and 100 stores in the next three years,” said Banyat. Each BreadTalk store requires an investment of about Bt7 million, he said.
“Our aim is to run up to 200 BreadTalk bakery houses in Thailand in the next five to seven years,” he said.
BreadTalk, which began in Singapore, currently runs more than 800 branches in 17 countries around the world, including China, Brunei, Malaysia, Kuwait, Oman, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand. BreadTalk recently expanded to Myanmar, opening its first bakery house in May.
Banyat, who has worked with Minor Food Group for almost 30 years, said the BreadTalk business in Thailand offers a great combination of good and delicious bakery products from Singapore with more than 100 different bakery items in its portfolio, backed by the Minor Food Group’s operational excellence, strong support team, and professional execution.
Before taking charge of BreadTalk in Thailand, Banyat ran Sizzler as operations director for and then served as general manager of Coffee Club for one year.
Minor Food chain
BreadTalk is another food chain of Minor Food Group, one of the largest operators of branded restaurant chains in Thailand. Restaurant brands under the Minor Food Group include: The Pizza Company, Thai Express, The Coffee Club, Swensen’s, Sizzler, Dairy Queen, Burger King, and BreadTalk.
“We have seen great potential for BreadTalk in Thailand, thanks to the change in the lifestyle of consumers who now prefer bakery products due to the time pressure in their lives,” said Banyat.
He said the company achieved 100 per cent year-on-year growth in sales of BreadTalk bakery products last year, and has achieved 70 per cent growth so far this year.
“Our existing BreadTalk stores also enjoyed an average growth of 30 per cent year on year,” he added.
Banyat said the company last year expanded the brand upcountry for the first time with the opening of the first BreadTalk stores at The Mall Korat and Blueport Hua Hin in the fourth quarter. The company also opened the first BreadTalk branch in Pattaya in the first quarter of this year. Currently, two BreadTalk bakery houses have already been opened in Pattaya and the third store will be opened in the city next month. The company recently opened the latest BreadTalk outlet in Phuket on April 12.
“We aim to open 100 BreadTalk bakery houses in Thailand in the next three years, half of them in Bangkok and the rest upcountry,” said Banyat.