American Lorain Corporation Announces Joint Venture With Hot & Roll Kiosk Chain

American Lorain Corporation (ALN) today announced that it has signed a Joint Venture Agreement ("JV Agreement") with Hot & Roll Holdings Sdn Bhd ("Hot & Roll"), and Munchy Food Industries Sdn. Bhd ("Munchy's") to jointly explore the quick service restaurant market in China. Under the JV Agreement, Hot & Roll, American Lorain and Munchy's will hold 51%, 30% and 19% of the Joint Venture Company, respectively. The total initial investment will be approximately $150,000, or RMB 1 million.

Hot & Roll is a fast growing kiosk chain from Malaysia specialized in paratha wraps and crispy wraps. It was founded in 2008 by Mr. John Madsen, former CEO of Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad, and Kawan Food Berhad ("Kawan Food"), Malaysia's leading exporter and largest manufacturer of frozen Asian food delicacies. Hot & Roll already has over 60 directly owned and franchised stores in Malaysia. According to the JV Agreement, Hot & Roll will introduce the successful management and training expertise into China; American Lorain will leverage the network of its 36 branch offices to provide support on recruiting, market development, logistics, and make experiments to introduce its rice and pickle products into the Hot & Roll stores in China. Kawan Food will supply some of the raw materials through its factory located in Nantong, Jiangsu Province in China.

The Joint Venture Company will operate both directly owned and franchised stores with the first set of directly owned stores opening in Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shandong.
American Lorain's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Si Chen, stated, "Hot & Roll is a fast growing kiosk chain specialized in Malaysian style foods. I believe this joint venture will be able to leverage the strength of all the parties on market development, products, and operations to achieve growth. More importantly, we can also explore the possibilities to introduce American Lorain's products into the Hot & Roll kiosks in China to capitalize on these channels. We are looking forward to a positive development of the joint venture."