Local restaurant operator Fulum Group (1443) will expand its brand overseas into the Singaporean market as early as next year, chief executive Samuel Yeung Ho-wang revealed, with former rival BreadTalk becoming the group's strategic partner in Southeast Asia.
PHI Coffee & Pancake – one of Fulum’s fastest-growing and most mature cafe brand – and Gyojasang – Fulum’s Korean pub in Causeway Bay – are set to expand into Southeast Asia as Yeung believes both can excel in quality and adapt to the overseas market.
With 13 branches across Hong Kong, PHI Coffee & Pancake offers Japanese souffles, French toast, light meals, and coffee, combining photogenic appeal with delicious taste.
Gyojasang opened its first branch on Paterson Street in Causeway Bay and has been introduced to Europe through a franchise model, demonstrating maturity in terms of ingredients and staff training.
Fulum aims to open three to four brand branches in Singapore.
In addition to Southeast Asia, the company is planning to expand its Chinese cuisine market in South Korea and Indonesia, aiming to open one to two Chinese restaurants in South Korea within the next financial year, targeting young customers.
“Local Koreans have a strong affinity for Hong Kong films and food culture, and they frequently travel to Hong Kong for delicacies," said Yeung.
Samuel Yeung
Fulum also hopes to open a traditional Chinese restaurant in Indonesia in the future, with a tentative store size of at least 20,000 square feet.
Meanwhile, the company’s sixth food court, "Food Atlas," officially opened in July in Harbour City, was a joint venture established after more than two years of preparation between Fulum and its former competitor BreadTalk’s Food Republic, marking a shift from fierce rivalry between the two major local food court operators to a mutually beneficial partnership.
"Fulum and BreadTalk used to vie for food court locations; but the business environment is different now, and we don't want to compete too fiercely, so we chose to cooperate and share the profits," Yeung revealed.
Yeung said the key drivers of Food Atlas' success include the joint venture mindset of turning rivals into strategic partners, the stable returns brought by the asset-light food court business model, and the rapid response capability that flexible multi-brand positioning allows.
Food Atlas features popular local restaurants targeting tourists and the local workforce, including Cantonese barbecued chicken, Pepper Lunch and Man Kee cart noodles.
Yeung stated that food courts represent a stable and long-term profitable investment for the company without significant fluctuations. Fulum has previously opened food courts in Kowloon Bay, Mong Kok, Tuen Mun, and Kai Tak.
BreadTalk Group, a Singaporean catering behemoth, operates in 14 cities across Asia, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom, with approximately 700 stores. It possesses a vast food court network in Singapore and Malaysia through the acquisition of the "Food Junction" group in 2019.
Regarding external concerns that Fulum was gradually abandoning its core Chinese cuisine business, Yeung emphasized that the group was merely integrating resources and restructuring its strategies, not withdrawing from the Chinese food market.
Faced with changing consumption patterns, Fulum has actively diversified business development in recent years, leveraging its mature group management and operational advantages to expand its food court business and diversified catering portfolio.
