A THAI restaurant is reinventing itself to get a better share of the market with the expected opening of the Radisson Hotel in Cebu next year.

“After nine years of Krua Thai’s existence here in Cebu, we have decided to reinvent it. And part of it is the new name: Royal Krua Thai,” said Jim Hiranpruck, one of the restaurant’s owners.

Hiranpruck said that they would be investing over a million pesos to renovate the restaurant, which is in SM City Cebu, a few meters away from the planned hotel.

Royal Krua Thai’s owners view the opening of the 400-room Radisson, owned by SM Investments Corp. and to be managed by Carlson Hotels Worldwide-Asia Pacific, as an opportunity to gain more customers.

“We are expecting a huge market soon when the hotel opens with some local and most foreign guests who will just walk from their hotel to SM and here,” Hiranpruck said.

Hiranpruck said that they would be offering more Thai food items on the menu and also plan to put up an ice cream kiosk somewhere in Lapu-Lapu City. “We have everything ready like the ice cream flavors and the design for the kiosk, but right now we are still negotiating for the location.”

Hiranpruck said that their investment in the “Unique Thai Ice Cream” kiosk was around P100,000 and they were also studying the possibility of selling franchises soon.

“We’ll do that but not now maybe after a year,” he said.

Ice cream flavors include Thai coconut, Thai tea, Thai mango, Thai coffee, and Thai tamarind.

“We have been selling coconut ice cream to customers in Mae Krua in Ramos and people just love them. that’s why I thought that there is a market for it,” Hiranpruck added.

The Cebuanos’ increased preference for anything Thai has also encouraged him and his mother Carol to put up more businesses here selling Thai products.

“My mother would like to put up a Thai shop selling Thai delicacies like tamarind, durian flakes, dried mixed vegetables and decorative items as well as Thai food ingredients. Hopefully it will materialize next year,” he said.

Hiranpruck said that when they started in 2000, it took them about two years to three years before Cebuanos and tourists took a liking to the Thai food that they offered.