TCRS to maintain 20% revenue growth

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6, 2013): TCRS Restaurants Sdn Bhd, owner and operator of The Chicken Rice Shop restaurants in Malaysia, expects to maintain its 20% growth in turnover this year with the opening of its 10 new outlets and new promotions, said TCRS Restaurants CEO Wong Kah Lin.
"We are looking at sustaining our double digit growth like what we did last year, which was close to about 20%. We hope to maintain the growth this year. In terms of turnover of sales, last year we did close to RM90 million," she told reporters at the launch of its 'Visit The Chicken Rice Shop 2014 Passbook' and the unveiling of its new 'Golden Treasure Chicken' yesterday.
She said it has allocated at least RM2 million for the 'Visit The Chicken Rice Shop 2014 Passbook' promotional activities and has plans to open 10 new outlets this year, bringing its total number of outlets to 70 by year-end.
"We are opening 10 outlets this year, mainly in smaller towns. We'll also be carrying out refurbishments on some of our (existing) outlets. We have 60 outlets now and last year, we opened four outlets," she said, adding that the cost of opening an outlet ranges from RM500,000 to RM750,000 depending on the size of the outlet.
The first new outlet will be opened in Seremban by end of this week, followed by Miri next week.
Wong said the company is looking to expand further overseas and is eyeing the Indonesian market. Besides the 60 outlets it owns and operates in Malaysia, it also has two outlets in Singapore.
"We have recently engaged a business development person for our international market and he's aggressively looking at markets for our expansion. One of the challenges for us in opening in overseas markets would be to find a suitable partner…We've had numerous enquiries but we're just a bit more selective," she added.
However, there are no plans for listing in the immediate future, she said.
TCRS Restaurants is also the owner and operator of Sweet Chat and Dubu-Dubu, and is the co-owner of Pancake House International.
Wong said this year, it plans to open three outlets for Dubu-Dubu and one to two outlets each for Sweet Chat and Pancake House International. The cost per outlet is about RM400,000.
There are currently five Dubu-Dubu outlets, five Sweet Chat outlets and four Pancake House International outlets in Malaysia.
According to Wong, The Chicken Rice Shop contributes between 80% and 90% to its overall revenue.
"The Chicken Rice Shop has been around longer, it's a more recognised brand so naturally it will be one of the better brands within the group because the other brands are still very young. Other brands have been around for two years but The Chicken Rice Shop has been around for 14 years," she said.
She added that despite the hike in electricity tariff, which is expected to affect its bottom line, the company has no intention of increasing prices of its products.