As part of its aggressive efforts to for shop expansion, food and beverage chain La Kaffa International Co. Ltd. plans to open 22 new shops this year for “Kingza”, one of its subsidiaries. Chatime and ZenQ, another two brands owned by the group, are also expecting 12 new shops or so in Taiwan. In the meantime, “Bake Code”, La Kaffa’s bakery brand, will officially launch its operation in Taipei today. According to Wang Yao-hui, Chairman of the La Kaffa Group, the revenue for this year is expected to increase by 40% to 50% as a result.

For last year, La Kaffa reported a revenue of NTD2.5 billion, an increase of 19.25% from a year earlier. The net profit after tax was NTD185 million, and the EPS was NTD5.02. The Group also reported an impressive performance for the first quarter of this year. The revenue of Q1 was NTD793 million, an increase of 50.81% from the same period of the preceding year. La Kaffa’s closing price today is NTD95.2, a drop of NTD6.8.

La Kaffa announced today that Bake Code, the group’s bakery brand, will launch its first shop in Taipei on April 28. The new shop is located opposite to the MRT Xihu Station. Except for the store in Hsinchu area, this is Bake Code’s first point of presence in Taiwan.

Specialized in artisanal breads with European/French and Japanese flavor, Bake Code targets at urban white-collar bakery lovers at the age of 25 to 40. The average consumption per customer is estimated at NTD150. The friendly image of the food brand is helpful for its entry into the major markets. It also demonstrates La Kaffa’s ambition in developing its bakery brands.

Wang expressed that Bake Code’s goal is to open thirty shops around the world within three years. Five more shops will be opened in the next year. For the shop in Taipei, the revenue for a single month is expected at NTD2 million. For this year, the revenue is expected to grow by 50% as a result of the shop expansion plan. The overall performance will be better than that of the previous year.

Under the Kingza brand, a total of 22 new shops are planned for this year, including 10 to 12 shops for “Osaka Ohsho”, 3 shops for “Duan Chun Zhen beef noodle” and 6 to 7 shops for Ikingza Japanese-styled pork cutlet.

Wang further indicated that, for Chatime, the number of shops will grow at a speed of 20% each year. Eight more shops will be opened in Taiwan this year. ZenQ, on the other hand, will launch four to five new shops. The hand shake tea brand of Re Light in Hangzhou, in which La Kaffa holds 60% of the shares, will establish 600 more shops this year. The total number of shops is expected to reach 1,700.

Kingza, one of La Kaffa’s subsidiaries, reported a revenue of NTD740 million last year. The group estimated a growth of NTD1.1 billion to 1.2 billion this year. The total revenue of Re Light was CNY150 million last year, and the profit was CNY10 million or more.

2018-04-26 19:15 Economic Daily News, real-time report by Journalist Han Hua-yu

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