TiffinLabs, the Singapore-based food tech startup and virtual restaurant group, is set to strengthen its business in Thailand by expanding both food delivery and its own restaurants this year.
Phuminant Tantiprasongchai, co-founder and chief executive, said the company will expand its virtual restaurant franchising model this year, following a successful launch in Thailand in March 2022.
The company plans to partner with more small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) restaurants and kitchen owners to license and operate TiffinLabs' proprietary restaurant brands from their existing kitchens to generate additional revenue and profits without additional investment in manpower, equipment and rent.
TiffinLabs aims to have a total of 500 SME restaurants and kitchens in Thailand by 2025, up from 100 stores last year.
"Thailand is one of Southeast Asia's most attractive markets and has an enormous opportunity to partner with kitchen owners. There are 530,000 restaurants across the country," said Mr Phuminant.
Southeast Asia's food delivery market is estimated at 525 billion baht, 117 billion of which is from Thailand, ranking second after Indonesia with 147 billion.
TiffinLabs established its business in Singapore in 2020 and expanded into Thailand in early 2022. It has 20 food brands in its portfolio and six virtual restaurant brands on major food delivery applications in Thailand.
"Food delivery has been ubiquitous in people's lives for 3-4 years. While the food delivery market has grown exponentially, many SME restaurants still face challenges in capitalising on this trend," he said.
SMEs are missing out on significant opportunities to generate incremental revenue and profit because their marketing, products and economics are not optimised for online delivery, said Mr Phuminant.
"This is the problem our virtual restaurant franchising model solves. We allow our kitchen partners to license multiple TiffinLabs brands and focus on what they do best, operating kitchens, while we drive the brands' marketing, product development, supply chain and partnership with food delivery platforms to maximise their profits," he said.
TiffinLabs operates in three countries -- Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia -- with 120, 100 and 30 stores available for delivery in those respective markets. By 2025, the company expects store numbers to reach 800-1,000.
The six brands launched in Thailand comprise: Phat Fingers, which sells Korean-style fried chicken; Southern Soul, American-style fried chicken; Pasta Table, comfort food-style spaghetti; Potato Lab, offering French fries and appetisers; Yang Dee by Phat Fingers, a Korean-style BBQ rice bowl; and Phum Jai, Thai-style fried chicken.
Peerapat Chiaprasert, country general manager of TiffinLabs Thailand, said its business received positive feedback from consumers and kitchen partners since its soft launch last March.
The company wants to expand to provinces outside Bangkok this year, aiming to vault TiffinLabs into the top 15 in the food delivery market by 2025.
