To-Sit restaurant on Charan Sanitwong Road Soi 92.

The first Kin-Duem ("Eat and Drink") "recreational restaurant" went up on Phra Arthit Road 12 years ago. Now Kin-Duem To-Sit Co Ltd is starting to franchise its To-Sit restaurants both domestically and abroad.

Managing director Tosit Visalset said last week that he would be in Chiang Mai for the first three days of September looking at locations. He will then fly off to Dubai for several road shows promoting To-Sit restaurants in the Gulf.

"Franchising is a good way to build on our existing restaurant outlets by spreading the business opportunities and investment to individual investors," said Tosit.

The company has six pub and restaurant outlets under the Kin-Duem and To-Sit brands - at Phra Arthit Road, Sam Yan, Siam Square, Charan Sanitwong Soi 92, the Sun Tower on Vibhavadi Road and Lang Suan Soi 5.

"We require almost 20 back-office people to look after marketing, sales and daily operations," said Tosit.

Tosit said that with large number of restaurant outlets, the company itself could not handle the business effectively. Franchising its restaurant chain will also help the company to save its own investment capital, as opening any outlet requires from Bt3 million to Bt15 million depending primarily on size.

"A typical franchise requires an initial investment of Bt3.9 million to open an 80-seat To-Sit restaurant, including Bt1 million as the franchisee fee. They have to pay 4 per cent of sales as a franchising fee and another 3 per cent as a marketing fee, but both are waived in the first two years of operation," said Tosit, adding that the investment rose to Bt8 million for a larger restaurant seating about 200.

"Our [To-Sit] selling points are friendly and romantic atmospheres surrounded with music from an acoustic pop band - which is why we call them recreational restaurants. They all provide Thai food in a contemporary style."

Tosit said that customers spent about Bt200 each on average at the restaurant. The restaurant chain has currently over 15,000 regular discount customers, many of whom are university students or on their first jobs.

"We like to create a community for those first-jobbers who can come and hang around after work," said Tosit.

He said that franchisees would probably take from two and a half to three years to break even. The company will find suppliers of both equipment and food for franchisees, who will get the same prices as those negotiated by the restaurant chain.

Tosit said the company had decided to franchise its To-Sit restaurants, as the brand was quite modern and would be easily recognised by foreign people once it had been franchised abroad.

"We expect to franchise To-Sit restaurants to many markets in the next one or two years including Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia. We also plan to franchise the restaurant to many markets in Europe including Germany, France, and Scandinavia in the next three to five years," said Tosit.

He said that the company also expected to open two franchised To-Sit restaurants in Thailand this year in selected locations such as Phuket, Chiang Mai and Songkhla. He said between 10 and 12 franchised outlets would be opened locally next year.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation