Not vested
Cafe de Coral counts costsTuesday, September 21, 2010
Cafe de Coral (0341) aims to expand although it
expects a drop in customers, along with
rising food costs and rents.The fast-food chain will open new restaurants and build food- processing and logistics centers in Hong Kong and the mainland this year to ease pressure on rising costs, said chairman Michael Chan Yue-kwong.
"People worry about inflation, so they are cautious about spending, and prefer to hold more money," Chan said after the company's annual general meeting yesterday.
Cafe de Coral's
same-store sales grew less than 1 percent year-on-year in recent months, while prices at its special restaurants such as
Spaghetti House posted double-digit declines.
To ease pressure on costs, the chain plans to spend 150 million yuan (HK$173.44 million) on a food-processing and logistics center in Guangzhou, and HK$250 million on a similar facility in Tai Po.
Chan said there are plans to
open more than 10 outlets in the mainland in the next six months.
The chain expects to have
200 mainland restaurants in three years, contributing up to
40 percent of total revenue. The company, Chan said,
will not raise food prices sharply or lay off employees when the
minimum wage is introduced."We fully support a minimum wage, but we may
issue a net-loss warning in the future."
Cafe de Coral raised staff pay by 2 percent recently, allocating HK$1 billion - or
22 percent of expenditure - on salaries.Chan said the catering industry will benefit from the minimum wage in the long term as it will help reduce staff turnover and increase revenue as society's buying power increases.
BETH YE
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 00921&fc=2
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"