Blue Elephant soldiering on despite pinch

Average normal growth rate is 10 per cent at least, said vice president Thaviseuth Phouthavong.

The company, established 28 years ago, has 12 restaurants worldwide. Those in Europe and the US have witnessed obvious economic slowdown while economic performance in Asia is still impressive.

Yet it has no plans to accelerate expansion in Asia to boost sales, Thaviseuth said, as it wants to focus on quality at each branch rather than high revenue.

Early this year Blue Elephant opened a branch in Indonesia, investing $2 million.

Thaviseuth admitted that it was harder to increase revenue as a whole than during normal economic conditions, so cost control and careful analysis of profit and loss at all branches were necessary.

Its branch in Thailand has also seen a slight decrease in revenue, especially early this month, when customers decreased from 100 to 80 a day. However, spending per person since early this year has increased to Bt1,800 from Bt1,650 last year.

Although the company does not expect impressive performance this year, it has not abandoned its expansion plan. It recently announced the establishment of a joint venture called Papadum with hotel operator, machinery importer and textileindustry player Fico Corporation to establish a Bt150million restaurant complex on 12 rai in downtown Phuket with three restaurants and some retail outlets in three twostorey buildings. A Bt30million second Bangkok branch should be ready to open next year.

It is also studying business poten¬tial in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China proper, with at least two branches on the mainland.

Blue Elephant is also working on a quickservice business model targeting mediumrange to lowend consumers worldwide, exploiting its reputation and network to diversify the business. Thaviseuth did not say when this would take off.