Yuanta Securities views CP AXTRA’s restaurant franchise partnership with Minor Food positively for Minor International as a parent company but maintains a neutral assessment of the arrangement for CPAXT. The brokerage sees an asset-light expansion opportunity for Minor Food, while CPAXT will fund the outlets and bear direct exposure to their sales and costs.
The agreement gives the two businesses different roles under a Corporate Franchisee Model. CPAXT will provide investment and hold the franchises, with Minor Food responsible for running the restaurants and maintaining the operating requirements of each brand.
For MINT, Yuanta highlighted the opportunity to expand Minor Food’s restaurant presence using CPAXT’s locations and established customer base. The business would recognise franchise revenue through an asset-light model, potentially improving Minor Food’s return on invested capital, or ROIC, over the longer term.
The brokerage’s assessment of CPAXT balances potential benefits for its retail properties against the financial commitments involved. Adding restaurants could attract visitors, encourage longer stays and support occupancy and rental income over the medium term. However, CPAXT’s role extends beyond providing space to tenants.
As the investor in the outlets, CPAXT would need additional capital expenditure and would directly assume restaurant sales and cost risks. Yuanta distinguished that exposure from the company’s conventional role of leasing retail space. Investment amounts, outlet targets and the revenue-sharing arrangement have not yet been disclosed.
The Agreement
The partnership will initially cover Dairy Queen, Swensen’s, GAGA, Bonchon and The Steak & More. Restaurants are planned for selected Makro and Lotus’s locations across Thailand, drawing on CPAXT’s network of more than 2,650 stores.
Minor Food will contribute restaurant management and franchise capabilities developed across a global business comprising more than 3,000 restaurants in 25 countries. Its responsibility for managing the new outlets and enforcing brand standards helps limit operational risk for CPAXT.
Rather than treating the restaurants solely as additional dining choices, CPAXT intends them to help draw shoppers into its properties and become part of customers’ everyday routines. The company said the expansion would broaden its food and lifestyle offering and support the longer-term potential of its store network.
Benchawan Ongsri, CP AXTRA’s chief mall officer for its Mall & Property Group, said the collaboration would connect the company’s retail premises, customer reach and store network with Minor Food’s brands and restaurant expertise.
She described the agreement as a further step in the Happy & Healthy Mall programme, with the partners seeking business growth while developing malls into destinations serving customers across age groups.
Minor Food’s Chief Development Officer and Chief Operating Officer Thunyachate Ekvetchavit said the franchise arrangement represented a new phase in the companies’ longstanding relationship. Brand selection would take account of the suitability of individual locations and the preferences of their customers, combining Minor Food’s operational capabilities with CPAXT’s distribution of stores.
Both companies presented the initiative as a way to expand business opportunities and improve the experience for customers visiting Makro and Lotus’s properties. CPAXT also identified benefits for business partners and surrounding communities among the partnership’s intended outcomes.
