Using a Western brand's name and opening up a fast food restaurant here must be a mega money spinner - a guaranteed cash cow.
We live in a country where slave labour is still accepted as normal. The fast food restaurants here (with a 'borrowed' name, if you will) surely take in a fortune. They charge the same costs for their food but their staffing outgoings are a tenth (guesstimation) of the cost in comparison to developed countries. Let's say that to cover one shift in McDonalds they need 4 people on the tills and 8 people out back (I did my stint in McDonalds when I was 16). Back in old blighty the costs of that shift would be...
* 12 people on minimum hourly salary (approx. 5.05 pounds per hour) = 60.60 pounds an hour cost to the restaurant.
* Give those 12 an 8 hour shift each. = 484.80 pounds a shift.
* Ya gonna need two shifts to maintain the restaurant = 969.60 pounds a day. In Thai Baht this is...51,757.96 a day cost for the staff alone
Now lets put all those figures above into a Thai McDonalds, while giving the staff a generous 320 baht for a 12 hour shift plus 120 baht for 4 hours overtime (give or take a few baht, this is gonna be quite close to the mark)
* 12 staff including overtime = 5280 baht - For the WHOLE day!
So the question that tickles my curiosity is...
Just how much does one need to open up a KFC, McD's or BK? I'm thinking maybe 4-5 million plus ongoing rent, but with the massive profit margin, the Thai's growing love for anything that allows them to flaunt their wealth and the fact slave labour is still alive and kicking here surely ensures that you're going to make back your initial investment rather quickly and then get fairly wealthy following that. It's just the initial outlay; one that has no risks of going tits up as long as the location is right.
It doesn't seem possible to lose on it with the cheap labour, same prices and popularity of these western fast food chains.
What are your thoughts on this?
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