Quick-service food firms expand 

S Khonkaen Food (SORKON), a major producer and supplier of processed meat products, has announced a significant expansion of its delivery service, while food-delivery company Foodpanda and Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing company, announced a partnership. 
SORKON chief executive officer Charoen Rujirasopon said his company had hired professionals to strengthen its management team and improve its QSR business to prepare for an aggressive upcoming campaign. 
He added that 2016 was SORKON’s year of investments as the company prepares for an aggressive expansion in the QSR segment next year.
According to research by Euromonitor International, the total market value of QSR in Thailand is estimated at more than Bt34 billion, with growth of at least 10 per cent every year.
Charoen said: “We have appointed professionals to our team to assist us in business planning. And we have upgraded our system to enable us to increase [the number of] franchisee restaurants efficiently, and relocated some existing restaurants to more promising locations. These, we believe, will allow us to post exponential growth for the QSR segment.” 
Meanwhile, Alexander Felde, co-founder and managing director of Foodpanda Thailand, said the company had been working hard over the last couple of months on lowering its delivery times to an average of 36 minutes in central Bangkok. 
“With Grab’s rider network and experience, we will be able to drag down delivery times further. Always putting customer experience first, we are excited to have Grab as [our] local partner in Thailand.
“We are planning to explore more partnership options on the tech and marketing side in the future,” he said.
Cheryl Goh, vice president for marketing at Grab, said Thai food culture was renowned and the wide variety of international and local cuisine available enticing. 
“We are pleased that our large GrabBike network of delivery riders can help Foodpanda customers get their meals as quickly as possible. Grab’s priority is always to [serve] our customers and provide the most convenient user experience,” Goh said.
The two major players in their on-demand fields say they are combining their deep market understanding in Thailand to enter a strategic partnership targeted towards improving operational flexibility and expanding the respective services to reach even more customers in Thailand. 
It is hoped that the partnership will continue to reduce delivery times for Foodpanda orders significantly, by combining Foodpanda’s delivery fleet with Grab’s rider network of several thousand motorbikes.
 To celebrate the partnership, Foodpanda customers can enjoy free delivery of their food orders until the end of this year.