Restaurant chains: Burger King encounters problems, others leaving market

VietNamNet Bridge - A series of restaurant chains, including Burger King, Golden Gate, Red Sun-ITI and Mesa Group have shut down one or many restaurants recently.

VietNamNet Bridge - A series of restaurant chains, including Burger King, Golden Gate, Red Sun-ITI and Mesa Group have shut down one or many restaurants recently.

Burger King has stopped one more shop in HCM City

In early February, Nguyen Gia Thanh, managing director of Burger King, affirmed that the brand will stay in Vietnam.

However, on February 15, a Burger King at No 1B-1B1 on Cong Hoa Street in Tan Binh district, HCM City, was shut down.

Thanh said that he decided to close some Burger Kings recently because the retail premises don’t shown business potential, and that the closed restaurants will be replaced by new ones located in more advantageous positions.

He went on to say that he would look for suitable retail premises to continue expanding Burger King chain.

Many other big players have to leave the market.

In 2015, the Vietnam Food Service and Beverage Company, a subsidiary of TPP Group, shut down a Popeyes fried chicken restaurant on Hai Ba Trung street in district 1 and a Dunkin’s Donuts on Phan Xich Long street in Phu Nhuan district.

Also in 2015, Golden Gate announced the closing of some restaurants, including a Vuvuzela beer club at Pandora City and a shopping mall in Tan Binh district, two Daruma restaurants in Hanoi and HCM City, and one Kichi Kichi and one Cowboy Jack at Aeon Mall Long Bien.

Most recently, it decided to shut down the J&B Coffee House at Megamall Thao Dien.

In December 2015, Red Sun-ITI Corporation announced the closing of King BBQ Deli at Vincom Center A Dong Khoi.

A series of restaurant chains, including Burger King, Golden Gate, Red Sun-ITI and Mesa Group have shut down one or many restaurants recently.

Just some days ago, Mesa Group, a big player in the restaurant franchise market, announced the closing of MK SUKI at Pico Plaza in Tan Binh district.

An analyst commented that though the Vietnamese food & beverage (F&B) market proves to be very promising, it is not easy make money in the market.

The analyst noted that the most important thing that restaurant chains’ owners have to do is to upgrade the management to fit the development of the chains.

He also pointed out a big problem of the Vietnamese market that retail shops in Vietnam always try to boost sales, and therefore, usually launch sales promotion campaigns and offer price discounts. The campaigns all led to unnecessary races which affected the distributors.

Ly Quy Trung, the founder of Pho 24 brand, speaking about the failure with the chain, which forced him to sell Pho 24 to Highlands coffee, said that when the chain expanded, managers met serious challenges.

He wrote in his autobiography that the managers had to ensure the same quality for all shops and that it was difficult to control product quality.

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