TFD to help Hot Pot rebrand, expand overseas

Apichai, chairman of the executive board of Thai Factory Development (TFD), said his group would help Hot Pot’s management reshuffle their business structure to become a more premium brand as well as to expand the restaurant chain abroad, thanks to TFD’s rich experience in managing international restaurants, especially British ones.
TFD itself is confident of earning about Bt4 billion in revenue this year, driven partly by the company’s second industrial estate and the setting up of a real estate investment trust (REIT) worth between Bt1 billion and Bt1.2 |billion.
Apichai said TFD owned a 22.26-per-cent stake in Hot Pot, while he himself held another 2.24 per cent.

Flagship brands 
“This year, we will focus on the improvement of Hot Pot’s 150 existing restaurants in three flagship brands, which are Hot Pot, Daidomon and Signature Steak Loft. They will be rebranded to be more premium and their food quality improved with more select ingredients,” he said.
“We also plan to open our branded restaurants abroad, which may start in England, where we bought Italian-restaurant brand Signor Sassi and opened them [one] at Siam Paragon shopping complex in downtown Bangkok. 
“We also plan to launch Burger & Lobster domestically. Burger & Lobster is a well-known restaurant brand with 15 branches in London alone. 
“We will buy more restaurant brands both in Thailand and abroad to add to our portfolio and generate more income for the company,” Apichai said.
He said TFD last year increased its registered capital, resulting in the inflow of cash worth Bt700 million into the company. After the registered-capital increase, the company’s debt-to-equity ratio dropped from 5.13 times to only 3.42 times, and only 2.81 times for net debt-to-equity ratio. This allows TDF to be more flexible in running its business.