The Coffee Club caters to Thai customers with more grab-and-go outlets

Nongchanok Stananonth, general manager of The Coffee Club (Thailand), said in an interview on Friday the pandemic had taught the restaurant chain a key lesson — that it needed to communicate more with Thai people.

However, instead of opening new cafe-themed restaurants as usual, she has come up with two distinct expansion concepts. The first is a large cafe house where customers can dine, while the second is a coffee club, a small store around 30-70 square metres in size, that would serve beverages and quick hot and cold dishes, such as fresh-baked croissants, brioches, sandwiches, salad and other bakery and pastries.

This year, the company plans to open two more restaurants in the downtown and tourist destination area, as well as six additional coffee clubs in office or community areas. By the end of the year, there would be 42 branches of The Coffee Club, she said.

"We have already opened two new restaurants, both in Phuket, to serve our key customers who are mostly foreign tourists. We recently opened two new coffee clubs, one in Phuket and one in Bangkok. The coffee club concept cafe is our initial idea, made for the Thai market, which can only be seen in Thailand," Nongchanok said.

She added that four new coffee clubs are still in the works, with the latest one set to open in June at the Park Silom building, an office area in Bangkok's downtown.

She explained that the coffee club concept is very appropriate for the company in order to quickly penetrate the Thai market, where a lot of cafes are already available, and that the investment to establish cafe clubs is not high when compared to large dine-in restaurants.

She said restaurants had reached their quota, so new openings this year were likely only if the location was exceptional.

The Coffee Club is already well-known among foreign tourists, so the cafe now is targeting Thai customers. Currently, foreign tourists account for 60% of its customers. Nongchanok said she hopes to change the ratio to 50:50.

Aside from focusing on coffee club-style expansion, she has devised a strategy to elevate The Coffee Club brand through catering services. This new service will be launched in April in collaboration with its parent company, Minor Group.

Meanwhile, The Coffee Club has revised its entire food and beverage menu to include only popular all-day breakfast, premium Australian coffee, and healthy beverages.

"We expect to add another 50,000 members by the end of this year, to the current 100,000," she said.

The move came after a significant improvement in overall performance over the previous three months. The increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country, combined with marketing campaigns aimed at Thai consumers, have helped raise brand awareness.

As a result, The Coffee Club's revenue in the first quarter of 2023 increased by approximately 97% when compared to the same period last year. The average number of customers also increased by 81%, with significant growth seen in popular tourist destinations such as Phuket.

This performance has given the company the confidence to move forward with its coffee club concept, she said.

The first branch of The Coffee Club opened in November 1989 at Eagle Street Pier in Brisbane, Australia. It has now expanded to over 400 locations in 10 countries around the world. The Minor Food Group has operated The Coffee Club in Thailand since 2010.

The Coffee World Thailand has grown in popularity, with branches in downtown Bangkok areas such as Withayu, Silom, and Sukhumvit, as well as provincial tourist destinations such as Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, Hua Hin, and Pattaya.