by winston » Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:00 am
Chain reaction to high by Natalie Leung
Cafe de Coral (0341) will continue to sell affordable meal sets at HK$30-HK$30.50 each that partly helped the local fast-food chain attain record high profits.
Chief executive Sunny Lo Hoi-kwong said yesterday the chain is speeding up the opening of 30 new outlets in Hong Kong in the current fiscal year and 20 branches in the mainland.
Net profit in the year to March 31 rose 8 percent to HK$581 million with turnover up 9 percent to HK$6.99 billion. A final dividend of 51 HK cents is recommended.
Lo remains optimistic about future performance. But he noted it was difficult to forecast same-store sales growth, which rose 9 percent from the previous fiscal year..
Its Hong Kong operations, which are the key driver of the group's profit, contributed about 80 percent of turnover, recording a 10 percent growth to HK$5.59 billion.
Food costs rose 10 percent last year, Lo said. But he insisted it will be offset by a 20 percent boost in production, after the chain's central food processing plant in Tai Po became operational in April. The group's five outlets in Mong Kok saw customer levels fall in line with a decline in mainland visitors since last year.
But Lo said the group's business would not be affected drastically by government plans to curb the number of mainland tourists as the chain relies mostly on locals.
The group now operates 153 Cafe de Coral fast food outlets, 32 Super Super Congee & Noodles shops, 20 Oliver's Super Sandwiches stores and 22 The Spaghetti House branches in Hong Kong as at March 31.
The group aims to add more overseas brands such as those from Japan and South Korea to Hong Kong's dining scene as part of its next five-year plan.
Meanwhile, revenue growth in the mainland slowed to 10 percent from 15 percent.
The group also saw a 15 percent drop in revenue from its North American operation.
But Lo said the group has no plans to exit from North America, althought it will close some branches there.
Source: The Standard HK
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"