Café de Coral outperforms market in Hong Kong

The profit for Café de Coral increased 1 per cent during the fiscal year ended March 2015 to HK$587 million from HK$582.1 million, the group has announced in a filing with the Hong Kong Exchange. The revenue of the fast food restaurants expanded 8.8 per cent to HK$7.6 billion from HK$6.8 billion in the fiscal year ended in March 2014. The performance of the group was mainly explained by the operation in Hong Kong, as the company says that its results ‘outperformed the market’ by achieving a 10 per cent increase in terms of revenue to HK$6.1 billion. Overall, the Hong Kong segment contributed 83 per cent to the total revenue of the group. During this period, growth was mainly fuelled by sales of fast food chain Café de Coral and Super Super Congee & Noodles, which, according to the company, increased sales from comparable stores by 9 per cent and 6 per cent over the previous year. These results were achieved in spite of the ‘challenging environment’ of the region. The challenges that the group will face in the current year in Hong Kong are related to ‘high rental rates, rising raw material costs and the persistent labour shortage’. The board of directors also set as goals for the next five years the increase of its market share in Hong Kong and the development of business and expansion in Guangdong Province. J.S.F.