Can Jumbo’s China operations survive in 2016?

The three outlets lost $100,000 in 1Q16.

Jumbo’s operations in China are showing no signs of slowing down, with the IFC Mall outlet notably making quick work of the business crowd’s wallets.

According to a report by Maybank Kim Eng, already in 1Q16, Jumbo’s China operations have enjoyed a steep 79% YoY spike in revenue to $3.1m in revenue, and lost only about $100,000.

Further, this was with just the one profitable at IAPM Mall supporting the start-up and pre-operating expenses of the two new branches in Raffles City Shanghai and IFC Mall Pudong, which respectively opened August 2015 and January 2016. IFC Mall alone saw a pre-operating cost of about $200,000 in 1Q16.

Moreover, all three outlets have performed well so far in 2Q16. IFC Mall opened two weeks before CNY to take full advantage of the festive demand, and it has remained strong even after CNY’s end. The report reiterates that IFC is expected to see a relatively shorter time to profitability thanks to the higher spending power of its target market, which are business diners. IFC management also expressed that IFC was full-house even on weekends.

In addition, the number of reviews for the outlets on popular China food review site www.dianping.com have picked up significantly since early January. The average customer review for all three branches have also remained in five-star territory.

For instance, IFC Mall, despite being opened for only a short amount of time, has already raked in 124 reviews. According to dianping, its average per pax spend is RMB368—higher than Raffles City’s RMB272 and IAPM’s RMB334, which Maybank says is as expected since the IFC outlet caters to the bigger-wallet business crowd.

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