Peking Duck restaurant Quanjude eyes expansion

SHANGHAI, May 16 (Reuters) - China Quanjude (Group) Co 002186.SZ, which operates a chain of Peking Duck restaurants, envisages eventually expanding to as many as 300 outlets, up from about 80 now, an official said on Friday.

"The China market is big enough for us to have 200 to 300 restaurants," investor relations officer Yan Yan said, confirming a Shanghai Securities News report citing Chairman Jiang Junxian. Neither official gave a timeframe for the expansion.

By 2010, Quanjude plans to nearly triple the number of its directly owned restaurants to 50 from 18, partly by purchasing some of its 62 franchised outlets, Yan said.

Quanjude's first-quarter profit slumped 35 percent from a year earlier to 17.35 million yuan ($2.5 million), after business at one of its main Beijing restaurants was suspended for renovation.

The company said the restaurant would reopen for business by the end of July, in time for the summer Olympic Games.

The company's shares rose 4.3 percent on Friday to 49.98 yuan, compared with a 0.4 percent drop in China's benchmark index .SSEC. (Reporting by Samuel Shen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)