No Signboard to operate Chinese hot pot Little Sheep restaurants

It eyes to launch one restaurant per year under the brand.

No Signboard Holdings entered into a franchise agreement to develop and operate Little Sheep restaurant concept in Singapore. Little Sheep is a well-known hot pot restaurant in China.

According to an announcement, the agreement will start 18 June 2018, for a period of 10 years. No Signboard is targeting to launch one restaurant per year under the Little Sheep brand name and concept in Singapore within the first five years.

Little Sheep originated from Inner Mongolia in 1999 and has expanded over 280 outlets across China and the international markets including the United States, Canada and Japan, as of 31 December 2017. Of these 280 outlets, 270 of them are franchised.

Little Sheep is known for its delicious soup base that is made from 36 spices and Mongolian lamb delicacies, said No Signboard executive chairman and CEO Sam Lim.

“Given the popularity of hot pot restaurants among Singaporean consumers over the last couple of years, we are confident that this venture would be a great success for the group,” he said.

Separately, No Signboard’s subsidiary Tao Brewery took full ownership of Danish Breweries by buying a remainder stake of 20% for $400,000 to take full control of the beer business.

Prior to No Signboard’s IPO listing, the group acquired 80% of Danish Breweries in June 2017 for $1.78m. The initial 80% acquisition has boosted No Signboard’s revenue by around $3.1m for 2017 in a span of just four months and contributed about 14.5% of the its 2017 revenue, Lim said.