True expanding coffee house business into China

True Corp is penetrating the coffeehouse market in China after the successful launch of two True Coffee franchised outlets in Vientiane.

"We expect to open our first True Coffee franchised outlet in Shanghai in the second quarter of this year," Papon Ratanachaikanont, an assistant to True Corp's president, said yesterday.

"The franchisee is also committed to opening at least 15 coffee houses in the first year with total investment of at least Bt50 million," he said.

The local investor in Shanghai, which recently signed a fiveyear franchise deal, has a strong base in the food and beverage industry.

China is a huge market, but the company needed some time to undertake a feasibility study of its potential.

Cambodia and Burma are next in line for True Coffee franchises.

"We have positioned ourselves as a centre for the 'convergence' lifestyle aimed at completely catering to any lifestyle of today's consumers. It will be the third place where consumers can get together, sip coffee and surf for information on our highspeed Internet," he said.

In Thailand, the company will spend Bt70 million to Bt80 million to open 1520 coffee houses this year, or Bt3 million to Bt5 million for each unit.

There are now 56 True Coffee branches, of which 43 are companyowned and 13 franchised.

True Coffee's sales perked up 45 per cent to Bt300 million last year, of which about 15 per cent came from the overseas business.

Sales are targeted to increase by 20 per cent this year, Papon said.