Bangkok--10 Apr--IR PLUS
NPPG welcomes BreadTalk Group as a strategic partner after the Group completes the acquisition of 15% of NPPG shares from a group of selling shareholders. Together with this, BreadTalk Group will be sending its Group CEO Henry Chu and Group CFO Chan Ying Jian as the board members to co-manage NPPG with its existing board of directors and realise its full potential through cross-synergies.
NPPG currently has both packaging business and food business – holding key brands such as A&W, Kitchen Plus, and Dean and Deluca. NPPG also has a mass business producing frozen and chilled ready-to-eat meals with distribution into key CVS and hyper market channels. This recent partnership with BreadTalk Group is a key milestone for NPPG, where BreadTalk's core competencies in running and expanding food and beverage business fully complements with NPPG's strengths in production and distribution on a mass scale.
NPPG's Executive Committee Chairman, Mr Chirdsak Kukiattinum says, "BreadTalk Group is a highly respected company and leader in Asia in the food and restaurant business. Its growth trajectory over the past few years was nothing short of extraordinary. It was able to produce healthy profitability in a highly competitive sector, and we believe that NPPG has a lot to learn and synergise with BreadTalk Group. As we are now expanding our Dean and Deluca footprint, BreadTalk's expertise and experience in the retail food and beverage (F&B) space will enable us to grow faster and stronger. Currently, NPPG's balance sheet is fully capable of supporting a rapid growth and expansion strategy. Our partnership with BreadTalk will surely enable us to realise the benefits from our turnaround efforts quicker and at a more substantial scale."
Chairman Chirdsak comments further that NPPG is currently completing its turn-around initiatives and looks forward to healthy financial performance and rapid strategic growth. The focus is on ensuring return on investments in all the quick service restaurant businesses – moving towards efficient/ effective investments that will produce quick pay-backs. Furthermore, NPPG is evaluating a rebuild of its frozen/ chilled food factory to support rapid demand from customers, where continued accelerated growth is expected.
Finally, NPPG's packaging business has tie-up with key strategic partners that will ensure long-term recurring orders to produce sustained healthy margins. The Company has gone through key cost-saving initiatives to increase first line profitability, and these initiatives are starting to yield results in the coming quarters. And as the company is sitting on cash, top management is evaluating a few acquisition opportunities that can complement the Group's packaging business, and enable synergies both in terms of cost rationalization and product range expansion to customers.
Mr Henry Chu, Group Chief Executive Officer of BreadTalk Group shares, "Thailand is one of our key strategic focus markets, and we find that NPPG has a lot of hidden assets whose intrinsic value could be realised with the right management and expertise. Our acquisition of this strategic stake in NPPG will provide us with a valuable beachhead in the Thailand and potential Mekong-region markets. NPPG's access to a wide coverage of convenience stores in Thailand will offer the Group a ready distribution network for our products in future. Its strength in the food packaging and frozen food businesses will also be complementary to us. We are both excited about the prospects that this strategic investment would bring and confident of the many synergies that could be unlocked through our active involvement and collaboration with NPPG, as well as its other key partners in Thailand."
About BreadTalk Group
Founded as a bakery brand in Singapore in 2000 and listed on the SGX in 2003, BreadTalk has rapidly expanded to become an award-winning F&B Group that has established its mark on the world stage with its bakery, restaurant, food atrium and 4orth food concepts footprints.
With close to 1,000 retail stores spread across 16 countries, its brand portfolio comprises direct owned brands such as BreadTalk, Toast Box, Food Republic, Bread Society, Thye Moh Chan, The Icing Room and partner brands such as Din Tai Fung, Nayuki, TaiGai, So Ramen, Song Fa Bak Kut Teh and Wu Pao Chun Bakery. The Company has revenue of S$600 million, net income of S$19.9 million, and with presence in 19 countries. BreadTalk Group's business in Thailand includes BreadTalk brands of bakeries, Din Tai Fung and Song Fa Bak Kut teh brands of restaurants, as well as Food Republic brands of Food Courts.
About NPPG
NPPG (Thailand) Public Company Limited was founded on 17 September 1987 with registered start-up capital of 4.2 million baht and the objective to produce and distribute flexible plastic packaging for various types of consumer products PET bottle (PET: Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottle) for drinking water. The company has been granted a permission to be transformed into a public company and then listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 1993. At present, the company has paid-up capital amounting to 1,899 million baht.
NPPG Group has subsequently expanded the business scope to food and restaurant and has acquired major brands such as A&W, Kitchen Plus and Dean and Deluca.