PETALING JAYA: Techna-X Bhd (TechnaX) has announced its latest plan to expand its technological-driven food and beverage (F&B) division to acquire Chaswood Restaurant Management (Beijing) Co Ltd, which has the rights to operate and market restaurant brand TGI Fridays in Beijing, China.
TechnaX, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Craveat International Sdn Bhd, is currently the operator of the franchise brand TGI Fridays for Malaysia as well as the proprietary owner of the Teh Tarik Place brand following the acquisition of Craveat in October 2019. This is part of the group’s strategy to acquire world reknown brands to complement its digital platform rollout while showcasing how its technologies will be able to enable the growth of brick-and-mortar business models.
The Beijing acquisition will put TechnaX in total ownership of two TGI Fridays outlets currently in operation in Beijing as well as expanding its Teh Tarik Place brand in China.
TechnaX executive director Datuk Jared Lim said this will be its first step towards its F&B business expansion into China not just with TGI Fridays but also its Teh Tarik Place franchise model.
“With the development of the various technologies and analytics to support the growth of our technologically driven F&B model, we are right on track to achieve our business goal to expand our reach into new markets such as China. TGI Fridays is recognised as the leading American casual dining brand in Beijing. Acquiring this now gives TechnaX the opportunity to work on this brand and its success in the metropolitan with two outlets already in operation for over the past 20 years,“ Lim said in a statement today.
At the same time, the acquisition also serves as a platform for TechnaX to introduce its other F&B brand Teh Tarik Place into this robust market.
“I am particularly excited about being able to do this in China as it is a market that has really embraced our Malaysian food culture,” said Lim.
To take advantage of this growing market potential, TechnaX plans to open new outlets over the next three years. In Beijing, TechnaX plans for three new TGI Fridays outlets while in Malaysia, the group has its sights on opening 10 new restaurants in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor and Sabah.
“Currently, we already have our renewable energy storage division, the super-capacitor manufacturing business in Guangxi, China. This acquisition will accelerate TechnaX’s efforts to expand beyond Malaysia’sshores and is a step closer to achieving the 100 outlet, RM100 million revenue target within the next three years for the F&B division.”
With the completion of this acquisition, the management is confident that it will contribute positively to TechnaX group’s upcoming financial performance.
