Farm Design Japanese cafes say sayonara after 14 years in Thailand
Japanese-style café Farm Design will close its doors for good in Thailand on November 27, the business has announced on Facebook.
The closure of the last branch, at Fashion Island mall in Bangkok’s Khan Na Yao district, will mark the end of a 14-year run for the Hokkaido-based Farm Design business in Thailand under franchisee Boon Rawd Brewery.
Boon Rawd, which makes Singha beer, brought the Japanese café brand to Thailand in 2009 and marketed it as the home of No 1 Hokkaido cheesecake.
By 2019 there were 26 branches of Farm Design café in Thailand.
However, S Company (1933) Ltd, the Boon Rawd subsidiary that operates Farm Design cafés, suffered losses of 38 million, 44 million, and 19 million baht for 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively. It also failed to return to profit last year as the pandemic receded, logging a loss of 12 million baht from revenue of 90 million baht.
Thailand’s restaurant market is on the rise this year, with a 7.1% year-on-year increase to 435 billion baht in value, driven by booming tourism and government stimulus measures.
However, the demise of Farm Design in Thailand proved that not all businesses can bounce back from the Covid crisis.
Last month Farm Design Thailand announced the closure of its second-to-last branch, in Central Ladprao mall, Chatuchak district, on October 30, offering a Goodbye Promotion campaign of buy one, get one free until its last day.
