BANGKOK (Manager Daily) - Black Canyon (Thailand), the largest Thai owned coffee and restaurant chain soft-opened its outlet in Yangon on Thursday (Dec 9) to become the first foreign coffee and restaurant chain in the Southeast Asian country.
Smart Holiday Co., Ltd., which owns the restaurant under a franchise agreement with Black Canyon (Thailand), said it is preparing to open up more branches in Myanmar’s capital as well as other tourist destination cities.
Smart Holiday Manager Director Seksan Setthavorapan said a grand-opening for Black Canyon’s first branch in Myanmar was planned on Dec 16.
The full coffee-restaurant branch is set to penetrate into the mass market in Myanmar after finding that more and more local people have turned to freshly brewed aromatic cups each year, Mr. Sekson told “Manager Daily” on Thursday.
There are a number of locally owned coffee outlets in Yangon, some air-conditioned, but none was franchised or was operating in a brand name chain, he said.
Smart Holiday has planned to open up 2 more branches in the next 2 years in the tourist destination cities of Mandalay and Bagan north of Yangon.
Black Canyon (Thailand) said earlier it planned to appoint Smart Holiday the master franchiser of Black Canyon brand in that country. The company has a long business background in Myanmar as a leading fishery group catching tunas in Myanmar territorial waters.
Black Canyon has already had a number of franchised branches in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia while planning more branches in Indonesia, Malaysia and India on license agreements with different investors.
The company said this week it has planned to serve freshly brewed aromatic cups of ‘organic coffee’ at Esso and Jet refill stations countrywide, starting next year. The new product is hoped to help expand the chain’s customer base in light of fierce competition in domestic market.
Black Canyon (Thailand) is among the first coffee and restaurant chains in Thailand but in recent years faced challenges from dozens of newcomers to the local market.
Another home-grown coffee maker, Banrie Coffee, is among fast growing coffee restaurant chains with a large number of branches at refill stations countrywide.
Black Canyon said negotiations have been underway with Esso (Thailand) to open up new outlets at the service stations. Coffee beans selected from plantations using only organic fertilizers in growing, will be used to make the organic cups.
Black Canyon said 30-35% of the populations of 60 million are coffee drinkers. The number is expected to increase to 40% next year.
The company recently opened a new outlet, to be the 123rd of the chain at Bangkok Central Railway Station with a plan to have around 140 branches in 2005 mainly at refill station.
Each new outlet will cost about 800,000 baht with the capability to sell some 200 cups a day. Black Canyon currently sells its freshly brewed cups between 50-60 baht a cup.
“The coffee market will grow further next year and the organic coffee trend will play and important role,” said Mr. Pravit Jitnarapong, Black Canyon (Thailand)’s managing director.
Black Canyon recently introduced three new cooled coffee formulas: Honey Sweety, Honey Chocolate and Honey Banana, each of 49 baht per at its restaurants.
The total value of domestic coffee market is over 10,000 million baht per year with annual growth rates of 15-20%. Black Canyon is expected to net 825 million baht in combined sales by the end of 2004; the figure represents a 10-15% increase.
Smart Holiday Co., Ltd., which owns the restaurant under a franchise agreement with Black Canyon (Thailand), said it is preparing to open up more branches in Myanmar’s capital as well as other tourist destination cities.
Smart Holiday Manager Director Seksan Setthavorapan said a grand-opening for Black Canyon’s first branch in Myanmar was planned on Dec 16.
The full coffee-restaurant branch is set to penetrate into the mass market in Myanmar after finding that more and more local people have turned to freshly brewed aromatic cups each year, Mr. Sekson told “Manager Daily” on Thursday.
There are a number of locally owned coffee outlets in Yangon, some air-conditioned, but none was franchised or was operating in a brand name chain, he said.
Smart Holiday has planned to open up 2 more branches in the next 2 years in the tourist destination cities of Mandalay and Bagan north of Yangon.
Black Canyon (Thailand) said earlier it planned to appoint Smart Holiday the master franchiser of Black Canyon brand in that country. The company has a long business background in Myanmar as a leading fishery group catching tunas in Myanmar territorial waters.
Black Canyon has already had a number of franchised branches in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia while planning more branches in Indonesia, Malaysia and India on license agreements with different investors.
The company said this week it has planned to serve freshly brewed aromatic cups of ‘organic coffee’ at Esso and Jet refill stations countrywide, starting next year. The new product is hoped to help expand the chain’s customer base in light of fierce competition in domestic market.
Black Canyon (Thailand) is among the first coffee and restaurant chains in Thailand but in recent years faced challenges from dozens of newcomers to the local market.
Another home-grown coffee maker, Banrie Coffee, is among fast growing coffee restaurant chains with a large number of branches at refill stations countrywide.
Black Canyon said negotiations have been underway with Esso (Thailand) to open up new outlets at the service stations. Coffee beans selected from plantations using only organic fertilizers in growing, will be used to make the organic cups.
Black Canyon said 30-35% of the populations of 60 million are coffee drinkers. The number is expected to increase to 40% next year.
The company recently opened a new outlet, to be the 123rd of the chain at Bangkok Central Railway Station with a plan to have around 140 branches in 2005 mainly at refill station.
Each new outlet will cost about 800,000 baht with the capability to sell some 200 cups a day. Black Canyon currently sells its freshly brewed cups between 50-60 baht a cup.
“The coffee market will grow further next year and the organic coffee trend will play and important role,” said Mr. Pravit Jitnarapong, Black Canyon (Thailand)’s managing director.
Black Canyon recently introduced three new cooled coffee formulas: Honey Sweety, Honey Chocolate and Honey Banana, each of 49 baht per at its restaurants.
The total value of domestic coffee market is over 10,000 million baht per year with annual growth rates of 15-20%. Black Canyon is expected to net 825 million baht in combined sales by the end of 2004; the figure represents a 10-15% increase.