Minor International’s food division turns a corner while hotels deliver huge profit boost

Minor International has boosted its full-year profit by 137 percent, largely due to the consolidation of its recent acquisition, the NH Hotel Group.

Fourth-quarter profit of US$119.3 million, represented a 569-per-cent increase year on year, but this included a gain on sale of three hotels in the Maldives. Excluding non-recurring items, profit grew 23 percent for the full year and 53 percent for the fourth quarter.

Minor’s food division, which operates more than 2300 outlets in 26 countries trading under banners including The Pizza Company, The Coffee Club, Thai Express, Bonchon, Swensen’s, Sizzler, Dairy Queen and Burger King, recorded a mild reduction in profit for the quarter, from $8.6 million to $8.2 million.

“Minor Food continued to invest in its digital capabilities to increase competitiveness and to address the soft market going forward,” the company said in a results release. “Thailand hub’s increased engagement with third-party aggregators (as a complement to its own delivery platform), coupled with continuous new product launches, resulted in much improved same-store-sales.”

In Australia, new product launches, a digital loyalty program and a partnership with Uber Eats saw same-store sales turn into positive growth.

“Improving operations during the quarter, together with the consolidation of Bonchon since mid-November, helped offset softer performance in other parts of the operations. As a result, Minor Food’s performance is showing signs of recovery with a lower decline in its net profit in the fourth quarter compared to other quarters in the year,” the company said.

After the close of the quarter, Minor International announced a plan to privatize.

Singapore-based BreadTalk Group, which would see it take a 25.1 percent stake in partnership with founder George Quek and his associates.