Forum Archive Index - January 2001

[Phil Boeyen <pboeyen@sharechat.co.nz>]

Title: Re: [sharechat] RBD

> Nick
>
> Just with regards to RBD and Taco Bell I think it is important to differentiate between market spec that RBD is "planning to bring the Taco Bell franchise to NZ" and "planning to *look* at bringing the Taco Bell franchise to NZ".
>
> RBD owns the rights to the Taco Bell franchise and several months ago after speaking to Jim Collier I wrote that although the company is watching the trial in Sydney the company had no plans to bring the brand here.
>
> As far as I can ascertain that stance has not changed.
>
> My guesstimate is the company has been trialing the market for Mexican fast food through its KFC "chicken wrap" products (basically a chicken burrito).  There was a very good local Mexican fast food chain in Auckland some years ago called  Taco Pronto which went under for some reason - whether lack of market or management problems I don't know.
>
> With little growth in KFC the company is obviously looking for big things from Pizza Hut especially and I will be watching the rollout of the beer, wine, ice cream etc delivery add-ons.  They are all high profit items and should boost the bottom line.  As we have seen with Frucor this week success in any FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) market, distribution is vital and RBD has that in abundance.
>
> As for the increasing share price I would say it is a combination of AMP Global taking a fair number of the shares out of the market, plus investors looking around for good yield, and RBD perhaps now having the major expansion costs behind them.
>
> Cheers, Phil