Oishi Group preparing to launch first Shabushi restaurant in Switzerland
OISHI GROUP is negotiating with a potential partner in Switzerland on franchising its flagship restaurant brand Shabushi in that country for the first time.
Pisarn Aowsathaporn, executive vice president for the food division, said Switzerland had been recognised by the group as a strategic gateway to expand its Japanese restaurants into European markets.
Oishi Group expects to increase the annual sales of its food business, comprising Japanese restaurants and chilled and ready-to-eat foods, from the Bt8 billion targeted for this year to about Bt13 billion by 2020. In 2020, about Bt1.4 billion or 10 per cent of total revenue from the food business will be contributed by chilled and ready-to-eat foods, while most revenue will still be from its Japanese restaurants.
“This will be the first time we have launched our Japanese-restaurant brand in Europe. We are conducting a feasibility study. As part of that study, Switzerland will be the first country in which we launch our Shabushi restaurant brand, because of its mixed cultures and nationalities.
“The country is one of the key tourist destinations in Europe. We will use Switzerland as a gateway to penetrate the European market,” Pisarn said.
He said the group had been negotiating with a potential partner in Switzerland for about a month. It is an operation-oriented investor that already runs hotel and restaurant businesses in the country. It is a Swiss-Thai joint venture.
Pisarn said Oishi Group also planned to expand its food business in other markets, especially Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV).
Shabushi will be the group’s flagship restaurant brand for overseas markets.
Pisarn said that over the next five years, the group would spend between Bt600 million and Bt1 billion annually on the expansion of its food businesses both inside and outside Thailand.
He said Oishi Group expected to double the number of its Japanese restaurants from 200 currently to about 400 by 2020. Between 40 and 50 restaurants will be opened every year.
JVs in Myanmar
“We have opened three Shabushi restaurants in Myanmar via a joint venture with local investor, of which two are in Yangon and one in Mandalay. We have also been negotiating with potential partners to open our Japanese restaurants in Laos and Cambodia by next year. The expansion will be may be through joint ventures or franchising.”
Pisarn said that under the group’s “2020 vision”, it expected to open about 10 Japanese restaurants in five different markets abroad, especially in the CLMV region.
“We also plan to export our ready-to-eat and chilled foods, particularly Japanese-style Oishi Gyoza, into many markets in CLMV, including Myanmar and Vietnam, probably by next year.” He added that the company was already exporting Oishi Gyoza to Cambodia.
“We have just expanded our plant for chilled and ready-to-eat foods in Ban Bung district, Chon Buri, at the cost of Bt600 million. With the expansion, the plant will have full capacity to produce up to a million pieces of Oishi Gyoza a day, and it is now running at only 30 per cent of the full capacity.”
He said that for chilled and ready-to-eat foods, the group expected to grow its annual export sales from the Bt10 million targeted for this year to about Bt500 million by 2020.
He said food sales had been behind target so far this year, but were expected to recover in the fourth quarter. Total food-unit sales this year should see an increase of 10-15 per cent over 2014, lower than an earlier target of 27 per cent.
Because of high household debts, people’s willingness to spend has decreased. Also the sluggish economies in China, Japan, the United States and the European Union had affected buyers’ sentiment, which led to a drop in exports to foreign countries, Pisarn said.
He said that the group therefore had revamped its investment strategy on marketing activities by targeting 70 per cent of them at specific customer groups, known as “below the line” in marketing jargon. This will allow individual restaurant branches to tailor their marketing campaigns and promotional activities more effectively to their specific customers.
Oishi Group yesterday launched a campaign called “Triptuentour” for its ready-to-eat products. The campaign will enable prize winners to experience a trip to Japan, and to visit several landmarks including The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Osaka Castle, and the Ninja Museum.
