Restaurant chain Mon Hue keeps losing millions of dollars

Although the chain recorded profits of VND300 million ($12,950) in 2016, this turned into to a loss of over VND50 billion ($2.16 million) in each of the next two years, its financial reports show.

After receiving investments from a foreign fund in 2015, Mon Hue increased the number of outlets and recorded revenues of VND200 billion ($8.63 million) each year in the 2016-2018 period.

Although the company had a gross profit margin of up to 68 percent, its selling expenses were too high, accounting for 80-90 percent of revenue in 2017 and 2018.

Opening new outlets in prime areas was among the reasons that its costs outmatched revenues.

The losses mounted after Huy Vietnam Food Processing Jsc, the foreign-owned parent company of Mon Hue, made headlines in 2015 by raising $15 million from Singapore-based investment fund Templeton Strategic Emerging Markets Fund IV.

This increased total investment in Huy Vietnam to $65 million, which resulted in a seven-fold increase in the number of Mon Hue and other restaurant chain outlets, from 14 in 2014 to 110 by the end of 2015.

Huy Vietnam even planned to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and wanted to raise another $100 million to expand its business.

But all its plans have apparently failed. Its Mon Hue restaurant chain closed around 80 outlets nationwide without notice this month.

On Monday, dozens of suppliers of the restaurant had gathered outside the headquarters of Huy Vietnam Food Processing JSC, accusing the company of not having paid them for months.

The company’s charter capital was also cut by half to VND600 billion ($25.91 million), while capital in Mon Hue surged 30 times to VND657 billion ($28.37 million).