Dairy Queen is making one of its boldest pushes into Asia in years, signing development agreements that will bring 187 new restaurants to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Qatar. The deals hand the American treat chain first-time entries into three Greater China markets while deepening a foothold it has held in the Gulf for decades.
The brand, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, enters Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for the first time. Shanghai Dairy Queen Limited is steering the move into Hong Kong and Macau, with 60 and 12 locations planned respectively. The Taiwan rollout, run with SFB Corporation Limited alongside Shanghai Dairy Queen, targets 100 restaurants over the next decade and opened with a launch at Taipei 101 on 18 November.
Taiwan and Hong Kong rank among Asia’s most crowded food-service markets, which makes them a telling choice. Operators who can win here usually have the supply chains and site economics to scale across the wider region. Signing experienced local partners instead of going direct is the classic master-franchise play: local ownership carries the real-estate risk and reads consumer taste, while the franchisor exports a proven system.
In the Middle East, long-time franchisee Al-Majid Jawad WLL will add 15 restaurants in Qatar by 2030, lifting its total there to 25 outlets. It is a quieter line in the announcement but arguably the most instructive one: a partner that already knows the brand choosing to double down is the clearest sign a market is paying off.
Nicolas Boudet, Dairy Queen’s chief operating officer for international, framed the expansion around the quality of its local partners.
“Entering new markets and growing existing markets is a key component of our growth strategy.”
The structure here mirrors a pattern showing up across the region: global brands entering Asia and the Gulf through master-franchise and multi-market development deals rather than company-owned stores. It echoes recent moves such as Subway’s Qatar master franchise award and Realty ONE Group’s entry into Mongolia, both built on local operating partners. For investors weighing category against country, dessert and quick-service concepts keep travelling well into markets with young populations and rising mall traffic, a dynamic we unpack in the Philippines investor playbook. Dairy Queen’s willingness to stagger openings out to 2034 also underlines that these are long-dated commitments, not quick flips. Its parent, Berkshire Hathaway, rarely does anything else.
First openings across the four markets are due to begin next year, with the phased build-out running well into the next decade.
Source: Inside Retail Asia — Dairy Queen to launch into three new Asian markets
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