Central restaurants group (crg) a restaurant operator under central group, will expand its mister donut business into vietnam next year. Kantapol srisuwan, the company's vicepresident for mister donut, said the parent company of mister donut in japan approved the vietnam plan. CRG is a franchise operator for the mister donut chain in thailand. A new unit will be set up under CRG to handle the vietnamese operation. CRG plans to open two or three mister donut bramches in hanoi and ho chi minh city. They could be stand-alones or part of big c or robins jdepertment store, with each branch costing 2-3 million bahr. There are on international doughnutchains in vietnam so far, and vietnamese consumers like bakeries,so this will benefit the mister donut business mr kantapolsaid. CRG expexts to open 60-70 mister donut branches in asean over the next 3-5 years. Apart from vietnam, CRG will seek approcalf from mister donut japan to run the chain in other asean countries soon. Central group has expandedits retail business in vietnam in recent years in segments ranging from deparment stores to sporting goods and electrical appliances. At ome, CRG had increSed its budget by more than 30% to 200 million baht to open 26 mister donut branches nationwide, bringing the total to 340 by year-end Some cash is geared towards renovating branches and marketing activities. Aside from original mister donut stores, the company will open two more mister donut balery and cafe concept stores this year. Some80% of the menu at mister donut nakery and cafe is made up of coffee drinks and the rest is doghnuts. If the bakery and cafe gets a good response from customers the company will make it an independent unit. CRG sells mister donut products via mister donut shops, mobile vendors, catering and convenience stores. The foughnut business in thailand was worth 3.5 billion baht last year and is expected to grow by 10% to 3.85 billion baht this year. Mister donut is the market leader with a 60% share. But the market still had room to grow for mister donut. We expect to have 1000 shops over the next 3-5 years said mr kantapol.