Background

MK Restaurant Group Public Company Limited is a Thailand-based restaurant chain company.

It franchises MK Suki (Japanese-style hot pot) restaurants outside Thailand in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore.

MK outlets account for 79% of revenue and Yayoi restaurants account for 19% of revenue.

Business Description

M is primarily a restaurant business with 653 outlets as of 2Q18, with 29 more facilities planned for 2018 (12 MK and 17 Yayoi). Its subsidiary, MK Personnel Training Center, provides training for all existing and future staff of the restaurants.

MK Restaurants offer Thai-style sukiyaki and a wide variety of dim sum and roasted dishes. MK Gold restaurants targeted at high-income customers offer finer dishes compared to the regular MK branches.

Its Japanese set-food Yayoi Restaurants offer a la carte menus and sets served with rice, salad and miso soup. M operates two other Japanese restaurants, Hakata and Miyazaki, two Thai restaurants, Na Siam and Le Siam, as well as Le Petit, a nationwide coffee shop and bakery chain offering snacks, baked goods, and coffee.

New JV with Senko Group (Japan’s No.2 logistics provider) has started operation and should support margin in the long run. Introduction of new brands, including “MK Harvest,” “Bizzy Box” and “MK Express,” aims to expand the product range and could show significant results in the future.

Leadership

Rit Thirakomen has served as Chairman & CEO since mid-2012. The Thirakomen family owns 70% of the company’s outstanding shares.

He received a Bachelor’s Degree of Electrical Engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

World Class Benchmarking

Profitable Growth has been great at M over the years. In the past 12 months, M ranked among the top 132 out of 1,320 medium-sized Consumer Discretionary companies worldwide.