S&P sees double-digit sales revenue

The Nation

Major bakery and restaurant chain the S&P Syndicate expects double-digit growth in sales revenue this year, says Vitoon Sila-on, senior vice president for business development and restaurant marketing.

The company recorded growth of 11 per cent in overall sales revenue last year.

S&P will open 65 new bakery shops upcountry as part of plans to boost sales growth, Vitoon said.

He said despite the sluggish economy, the company wanted to open more shops to expand its market share after learning its competitors might suspend their expansion.

The company will spend more than Bt100 million to open the new shops, mostly in shopping malls and other modern locations upcountry. Five of them will be full-service restaurants, he said.

S&P opened new 40 branches last year.

The number of S&P shops in the provinces are few compared with Bangkok, and the company wants to create an upcountry network, especially in the Northeast and the South, Vitoon said.

He admitted restaurant operators could not avoid the slowdown in consumers' purchasing power and said existing shops might not experience the same rate of growth as new branches.

S&P hopes sales growth in its existing 74 bakery and restaurant shops will reach 3 per cent this year, the same as last year.

Besides restaurants and bakery outlets, S&P provides catering services and frozen and meat products.

Moreover, the popularity of germinated brown rice, or nutra-gamma amino butyric (GABA) rice, is another factor in boosting growth, he said.

S&P placed GABA rice on its menu last August, but this year the company will more strongly promote the rice to health-conscious customers, said Vitoon.

"We've created a new GABA-rice menu, including Japanese GABA sushi. Moreover, all S&P Restaurants will distribute GABA rice from the Support Foundation of Her Majesty the Queen Sirikit in 1-kilogram bags," he said.

S&P is the exclusive distributor for GABA rice from the Support Foundation. The company is researching foreign markets as export possibilities for the rice, beginning later this year.