2 Food Chains in Thailand Want to Expand - by Frances Garnett

Because protesters have now moved away from the major commercial areas in downtown Bangkok, especially the tourist areas, the Burger King and Black Canyon (one of Thailand's largest coffee/restaurant chains) chains are both planning to open up several new branches. Burger King will open about 10 new ones this year, half of them in tourist destinations and the others where locals can have easy access to them. Since more than half of their business relies on tourists, the company is trying to focus more on local customers since there was a sales drop when the protests occurred downtown and tourism decreased. Currently Burger King has about 33 branches across Thailand. Business was also slightly down for Black Canyon, but the company remains optimistic as food spending starts to increase again. They have 260 branches all over the country and plan to open 20 more local ones. Meanwhile, they have 53 international branches in countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore, Laos and the UAE, and plan to increase that number to 100 over the next 5 years.

While I'm glad that a Thai company is doing so well, I wish that Burger King wasn't going to open up any more restaurants. While the Thais typically have a healthier diet than people in the United States, fast food is becoming increasingly popular there, so their very low obesity rate is starting to increase, which is really unfortunate and sad. On the other hand, this still is a good sign that Thailand is starting to recover economically from its recent turmoil. I actually think, from a profit perspective only, that Burger King's strategy to target locals is very smart, because with the airports being shut down a few years ago (which stopped so many people from leaving the country) then the protests downtown (I actually remember getting a call from a friend saying that one of the popular malls, CentralWorld, had been set on fire), and the even more recent protests, tourism isn't faring well. And the floods a couple of years ago didn't help, especially since they caused so much destruction and even some increasing crime rates. Still, even though their strategy is good, I don't think more Burger Kings are a good thing in anyone's future. There are still so many more affordable places to eat in Bangkok, like small family-owned restaurants and even street vendors, that I hope people still frequent, because it helps peoples' health, but also doesn't put those places out of business.


Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/408241/food-chains-step-up-expansion-plans