Cuscapi clinches Ajisen China contract worth RM152mil

Cuscapi Bhd's first in-house developed interactive tablet, REV.

KUALA LUMPUR: Cuscapi Bhd expects to receive 250 million yuan (RM152mil) in service fees following a six-year agreement to deploy and manage REV self-ordering tablets for all of Hong Kong-listed Ajisen China Holdings Ltd’s current and future restaurants in China.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the food & beverage business management solutions provider said its unit Cuscapi Interactive Technology (China) Pty Ltd had on Monday sealed a deal with Ajisen’s wholly owned subsidiary Shanghai Lead Food and Restaurant Management Co Ltd.

“The company expects to deploy up to 25,000 REV self-ordering tablets for the current Ajisen restaurants in China,” it said.

Besides the 250 million yuan in service fees, Cuscapi expects “significant media-related revenued” to be generated through selling REV self-ordering tablets’ media airtime.

According to Cuscapi, the REV self-ordering tablet is a new product and service offering for restaurant chains that enables customer self-ordering, product promotions and upselling, as well as automation of payment processes, based on an outsourcing and revenue share business model.

“It is the culmination of a major three-year product development and pilot project effort undertaken by the company to help restaurant chains improve operating costs and achieve higher average revenue. The REV self-ordering tablet is also designed to be a media channel to improve customer interactions by delivering multi-media contents to a chain restaurant’s customers,” it said.

Cuscapi said Ajisen (China) Holdings Ltd, through Shanghai Lead Food and Restaurant Management Co, was one of the leading fast casual restaurant chain operators in China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Since its inception in 1996, Ajisen has been selling Japanese ramen and Japanese-style dishes under the Ajisen Ramen brand by incorporating Chinese people’s culinary preferences and the essence of Chinese cuisine.

Ajisen currently has 634 restaurants in China and reported sales of HK$3bil (RM1.56bil) from its restaurant operations in financial year 2015. 

Cuscapi shares closed unchanged at 12 sen on Monday with 335,400 shares changing hands.