Secret Recipe to spend up to RM20m on new stores

KUALA LUMPUR: Secret Recipe Sdn Bhd plans to spend betweeen RM15 million and RM20 million this year, to open up new stores, namely in the Klang Valley as well as in key areas in Peninsular Malaysia.

Group chief executive and managing director Datuk Steven Sim said the company is looking at expanding its own stores as well as franchised outlets.

The company plans to open as many as 20 wholly owned stores and 20 franchised outlets this year, said Sim.

"Currently, we have 280 outlets, of which 70 are located abroad in countries like Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei and Australia," Sim said in an interview recently.

He said 30 per cent of the 210 restaurants located in Malaysia are corporate owned while the rest are franchised. "We have plans to increase the number of cafes in several other countries this year, including in the UAE and Vietnam. We signed a master franchise agreement last December with Cambodia and South India."

Sim said Secret Recipe plays a big role in promoting Malaysian cuisines abroad, especially through its master franchises, by introducing at least four to five Malaysian dishes in its menus abroad.

"That is our way of promoting Malaysian food abroad besides localising the taste to suite their taste buds.

"In China for instance, we always ensure that we change our menu to follow the four seasons. When its winter, they tend to eat more meat. In India, we have to include more vegetarian dishes so the menu changes according to the countries we are in," he added.

Sim said the company was started in 1997 along with his nephews who are expert bakers. He added that the name of the company came to him in his sleep during a trip to Hong Kong.

"I knew I was going to start a business and we were going through thousands of names and all of a sudden the name Secret Recipe came to me in a dream.

Sim, however, is mum over plans to list his company on the local bourse.

He also said the company has been clocking in a double-digit growth ever since it entered into this casual cafe business 15 years ago with only a capital of RM150,000 .

"Last year, we made a net profit of about RM26 million over a revenue of RM160 million, and this year, we expect to rake in a double-digit growth with a projected revenue of RM205 million and net profit of RM30 million," he said.

"We started with six staff and now we have more than 3,000 staff, out of which 1,000 are Malaysians. We are also looking at opening another central kitchen from the current one in Taman Mayang, Kelana Jaya, that we have," he added.

On challenges, Sim said the difficulties of finding the right people to take up the front-liner jobs in the cafes was among the main hurdles the company faced in recent years.