Cafe de Coral chain plans multi-function system as it upgrades IT profile
Cafe de Coral Group, the world's largest Chinese fast-food chain, is planning a hi-tech advance by adopting a multi-application smart-card system.
The smart-card project is expected to help the group's deployment of an intelligent branch management system, now in its final phase of implementation.
Helen Li, Cafe de Coral's director of professional logistics, said the company was still in discussions with potential partners, including banks and smart-card system vendors.
'We cater to more than 300,000 customers a day in Hong Kong,' said Ms Li, who is responsible for the group's finance and accounting and information technology operations. 'So what we want is a system that would offer secure credit/debit facility and loyalty programmes like discounts on meals, on a single card.'
The group planned to test the smart-card system through the VIP card holders of its Cafe de Coral chain.
Investment estimates for the smart-card project have not been drawn up.
According to its latest annual report, the group operates 120 Cafe de Coral fast-food restaurants in Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland.
It also runs 22 Spaghetti House outlets, three Ah Yee Leng Tong restaurants, four Bravo le Cafe restaurants, three Super Super Congee & Noodles outlets, one Noodles Plus store, and 39 institutional catering restaurants, mostly in Hong Kong's universities.
With the recent acquisition of a 48 per cent stake in the Manchu Wok chain in North America, Cafe de Coral now has about 375 restaurants worldwide. The group paid HK$167 million for its interest in the 183-store Manchu Wok chain, which is the second-largest Chinese fast-food business in the United States and Canada.
The group reported total sales of HK$2.54 billion and a record HK$254 million net profit in its last fiscal year, which ended on March 31.
Ms Li said the planned smart-card system also should enable Cafe de Coral to generate a better profile of its customers and cross-sell other products and services from partners such as banks.
According to analyst firm Ovum, multi-application smart- card systems offer applications that appeal to the targeted card holders.
The systems are emerging as a new delivery channel that creates business opportunities and requires organisations to review business models and partnership strategies.
However, transforming business activities to the smart-card system remains complex, according to Ovum. Organisations must resolve branding issues before developing partnerships to ensure the success of multi-application systems.
Jean-Claude Deturche, of smart-card maker and system integrator SchlumbergerSema, has said that multi-application smart-card systems have great potential in Hong Kong because people already used to limited implementations of the technology.
The Octopus system allows people to use a card on different modes of transport and even to buy drinks from a vending machine.
In Europe, SchlumbergerSema's first multi-application project involved the Advantage Card from Internet bank Egg and retailer Boots the Chemist, which combined loyalty points and credit capabilities on one secure card.
Ms Li said Cafe de Coral also planned to implement a customer-relationship management system in line with the group's re-engineering, which comprises the installation of a branch management system and point-of-sales system.
In its last fiscal year, the group invested about HK$18 million to modernise its production facilities. Cafe de Coral earlier invested in a enterprise-resource planning system from Netherlands-based business software maker Baan to upgrade its manufacturing supply chain.
The benefits Cafe de Coral expected to achieve in upgrading its IT profile included improved customer services, information management and cost control, Ms Li said.
