The exterior of Sushi King in Sunway Pyramid
GEORGE TOWN: Texchem Resources Bhd
plans to open 35 more restaurants nationwide this year, including Doutor Coffee, one of Japan’s biggest coffee shop chains.
Of them, 11 will be Sushi King restaurants, 10 each of Yoshinoya and Hanamaru Udon restaurants, and four Doutor Coffee outlets, Texchem founder and executive chairman Tan Sri Fumihiko Konishi said.
He declined to name the locations as they depended on the brands.
“For Sushi King, it would fit into smaller cities like Alor Setar, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Baru and Sungai Petani.
“For Yoshinoya and Hanamaru, we are looking at key cities in several states as this brand started to become part of our portfolio in 2015, but it depends on the availability of space at the malls.
“For a new brand like Doutor Coffee, we are looking at the Klang Valley to start with,” he told reporters after the group’s AGM in George Town on Monday.
Konishi said the group had applied for halal certification and expected it would be approved in June or July.
He said Texchem expected Malay patrons to increase to 50% in 2018.
“Generally, Malaysians know that Sushi King meets the halal requirement. Between 2013 to 2015, we had increased Malay customers from 17% to 30%, a very significant jump,” he said.
Meanwhile, Texchem president and group chief executive officer Brian Tan Guan Hooi said the group ventured into the aerospace industry since 2015 and it had contributed 1% to 2% of its revenue.
He said it started from an investment in the production facilities for heavy gauge and thick-gauge extrusion machines, which were used in medical life sciences products, as well as automobile and aerospace products.
“We’ve got an approval from an airplane manufacturing company to use our production of parts in the airplane galley. This marks our venture into the aerospace industry as a supplier.
“We’ve become a strategic supplier to airplane manufacturer for aircraft parts,” he said, adding that the group had allocated RM10mil to invest in machines from 2016 to 2018.
Tan declined to name the airplane manufacturer due to confidentiality clauses.
The group has invested RM3mil last year to expand its factory in Perai in order to include the manufacturing facility for the machines, he added. - Bernama
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