Mainboard-listed SMI Vantage, on Oct 31, announced that it has entered into a binding multi-year franchise agreement with Dutch Oriental Restaurant LLC. Under the agreement, SMI Vantage will open the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven Robochef food and beverage (F&B) outlets in Singapore.
According to SMI Vantage, Robochef will feature machines that will prepare and cook meals that are freshly made on the spot, with AI playing a role in how the dishes are prepared. The arrangement is said to be fast and hassle-free and consistent in taste.
The outlets will be introduced to malls and residential locations across Singapore and will feature 10 to 15 rice, noodles, meat and vegetarian dishes.
“I am delighted that we are moving forward with this powerful F&B concept, which I believe will excite the marketplace and is entirely consistent with the announcements made on SMI Vantage’s new business direction,” says Mark Bedingham, president and CEO of SMI Vantage.
“This will be a platform, building on the extensive F&B knowledge and experience within SMI Vantage, and will offer the opportunity for us to grow this business from our Singapore base. In a high labour-cost environment such as Singapore, Robochef is able to keep running costs down and help alleviate manpower constraints and is thus an ideal solution for both customer-facing outlets as well as for central kitchen operations,” he adds.
“We are honoured to be in partnership with SMI for our AI Robochef. SMI’s strong market and business network would enable our rapid expansion into key markets in Asia Pacific starting with Singapore,” says Sandy Tan, vice president (Asia Pacific), Robochef AI Tech, Dutch Oriential Group of Companies.
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“Robochef is the world’s first artificial intelligence-enabled cloud-based system. It not only stores famous creations from global celebrity chefs; but learns, adapts and personalises different cooking styles for localisation,” Tan adds.
As at 9.03am, shares in SMI Vantage are trading 0.3 cent higher or 10.35% up at 3.2 cents.
