SUBANG: Malaysia's oldest fast food chain restaurant, A&W Malaysia Sdn Bhd, aims to achieve a RM250 million sales target this year, up from RM150 million recorded in 2022.
Chief executive officer George Ang said the new sales target is driven by a better outlook for the year and supported by new store expansion and digitalisation plan.
Ang said A&W had set plans to operate 100 stores nationwide by July this year, followed by 150 stores by 2025.
"Our sales target for the year, store expansion, and digitalisation plan give us the confidence to achieve our revenue targets," he told the New Straits Times in an interview.
Ang also said A&W had set aside RM25 million to RM30 million for its capital expenditure this year to cater for the store expansion and rebranding exercise.
"Back to basics, one of the first things, when we took over from the old owner, was to ensure everybody got their root beer at an affordable price.
"The products, for example, chicken, have been changed from frozen to fresh chicken. This helps to improve the quality of our food. For example, one of the iconic items for A&W is our 'Coney'. We wanted to improve the product to make it more solid and of better quality.
"We also did a rebranding and redesign of our shop. We put a lot of the new concept in that almost feels like retro coming up from the 70s—a much newer and fresher look," he said.
Commenting on the challenges faced by restaurants, A&W Restaurants Inc global chief executive officer Kevin Bazer said A&W had been impacted by worldwide inflation and labour shortage issues, directly affecting food prices.
However, Bazer said A&W had offset these challenges with increasing productivity and technology adoption.
"Inflation affects us a lot. For example, our chicken prices used to be 40 per cent cheaper than the current prices. It used to be an affordable protein, but now it's so expensive.
"We have slowly adjusted the price by doing combo meals. This will help so the price will not go up so much and still be affordable for our customers," he said.
In addition, Bazer said digitalisation helped drive the recovery of A&W as it has seen increased sales from its online apps.
Bazner said A&W had seen a change in consumer behaviour regarding using technology for self-ordering and delivery.
"Interestingly, the biggest benefit of self-ordering is the impact on average check sizes.
"We found that self–ordering has increased the average meal's order size by 12 to 14 per cent. In addition, customers are highly likely to accept the add–ons that the apps suggest.
"That is because self-order can offer the perfect drink or a side that our customers are sure to love and that makes sense with their choices. This has also contributed to our sales," he added.