Evolution Capital set for Bt1.5-bn expansion

Restaurant and coffee-house operator Evolution Capital plans to speed up its expansion over the next four years, allocating Bt1.5 billion to establish more outlets in Thailand and Cambodia.

“Based on our established business plan, it is an optimum scale that we need to reach in order to create a successful and profitable business. Therefore we expect that by 2018 we will have seen rapid expansion of our branded restaurants, targeting 220-250 stores altogether for all brands,” said Sanjay Singh, chief executive officer of Evolution Capital. 

Singh said Evolution Capital currently operated three international restaurant and beverage brands – Domino’s Pizza, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Kyochon – as well its own bakery brand Mr Jones’ Orphanage.

“We will focus on growing our three international brands in the Thai market. Side by side, we will develop Mr Jones’ Orphanage franchises in Southeast Asia and other potential markets, such as Japan, India and the Middle East,” he said.  Singh said the company planned to franchise Mr Jones’ Orphanage in some Asean markets over the next few years. It also has the rights to run Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Cambodia; at least two will be opened by the end of this year.

“We expect to open 50 stores in Thailand under the Domino’s Pizza, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Kyochon brands by the end of this year. The number of our branded restaurants in Thailand will be 100 by the end of next year, and up to 250 stores in 2018,” Singh said.

He said the company operated 13 Domino’s Pizza stores in Thailand currently, and six more would be added by the end of the year. The number of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coffee houses will be increased from 18 currently to between 22 and 23 by year-end. 

Singh said the company had opened two corporate-owned Kyochon full-service restaurants at MBK Center and Paseo Town on Ramkamhaeng Road. Two other sub-franchised restaurants have been opened at Sukhumvit Road Soi 12 and Fashion Island shopping complex.

“We plan to open up to eight Kyochon restaurants by the end of this year, of which five will be corporate-owned outlets and three sub-franchised stores,” Singh said.

He said Evolution Capital would post Bt650 million in revenue this year, up from Bt420 million last year. The company expects its annual revenue to reach Bt5 billion by 2018, as long as the market conditions remain favourable and the investment climate in the country is stable.

“Evolution Capital invested heavily in building the infrastructure to handle the growth of our business. We spent time building the right management team and setting up the whole back-end system, and now we are ready to take the next step in expanding our stores to many branches in the next four years. The reason we didn’t expand as quickly this year was because of the political events earlier in the year,” he said.