CP AXTRA Public Company Limited (SET: CPAXT), the operator of Makro and Lotus’s, and The Minor Food Group have launched their first Corporate Franchisee Model in Thailand. CP AXTRA will bring five dining brands, Dairy Queen, Swensen’s, GAGA, Bonchon and The Steak & More, into its stores, with Minor Food running the outlets.
Under the arrangement, CP AXTRA acts as investor and franchisee, contributing its network of more than 2,650 stores and its customer base. Minor Food manages the outlets and oversees operations to each brand’s standards, applying the restaurant management and franchise know-how of a group with more than 3,000 restaurants in 25 countries.
The model will be extended to high-potential Makro and Lotus’s stores nationwide as part of CP AXTRA’s Happy & Healthy Mall strategy, which aims to turn retail locations into community spaces under a Food & Lifestyle Destination pillar. The companies say the dining outlets are meant to act as traffic anchors that draw customers, deepen engagement and lengthen dwell time.
The brand mix spans ice cream and desserts (Dairy Queen, Swensen’s), Korean fried chicken (Bonchon), and further casual formats in GAGA and The Steak & More. Minor Food’s franchise side has been active across the region, including its Dairy Queen expansion across Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Qatar and the acquisition of Bonchon alongside Serruya Private Equity.
Minor Food and CP AXTRA share a long history of partnership.
That was the framing from Minor Food Group’s Chief Development Officer and COO, Thunyachate Ekvetchavit, who described the new model as taking the collaboration in a new direction.
The structure separates real estate and capital from day-to-day restaurant operation: a retail landlord with a large store base becomes the franchisee, and a specialist operator runs the kitchens. For franchisors, it is a route to placement inside high-traffic retail estates without recruiting one owner-operator per site. For investors, it shows how retail groups are treating food service as a footfall driver. The same logic runs through small-format restaurant franchising, and it raises the diligence questions discussed in franchise due diligence for master franchise partners. Minor’s listing plans, covered in its Singapore IPO target, add capital depth behind that operating role.
