HOMEPRO AIMS REGIONAL TRADE : MALAYSIA IS FIRST PRIORITY

นายคุณวุฒิ ธรรมพรหมกุล กรรมการผู้จัดการ บริษัท โฮม โปรดักส์ เซ็นเตอร์ จำกัด (มหาชน) เปิดเผยว่า บริษัทมีแพลน ที่จะขยายการลงทุนในตลาดแถบอาเซียน อาทิ มาเลเซีย ฟิลิปปินส์ เวียดนาม กัมพูชา และ สปป.ลาว เพื่อเพิ่มฐานรายได้ใหม่ ๆ และสร้างการเติบโตให้กับบริษัทในอนาคต โดยประเทศแรกที่จะเข้าไปลงทุนเปิดสาขาโฮมโปรคือที่เมืองกัวลาลัมเปอร์ มาเลเซีย เนื่องจากเป็นประเทศที่มีกำลังซื้อค่อนข้างสูงและเป็นตลาดใหญ่กว่าประเทศอื่น ๆ คาดว่าจะใช้เงินลงทุนไม่ต่ำกว่า 500 ล้านบาท มีพื้นที่ขายประมาณ 5,000 ตารางเมตร

CARREFOUR STILL SEEKING PARTNER IN INDIA

Thierry Garnier, Carrefour's executive director 

(Reuters) - French retailer Carrefour is still seeking a local partner to enable it to set up hypermarkets in India and expects to open its first cash-and-carry store in the country in the coming months.

The new store will be in New Delhi and will have a surface area of 5,000 square metres, Thierry Garnier, Carrefour's executive director for growth markets, told Reuters on the sidelines of an investor day on Thursday.

"Today we are continuing to review all opportunities of sealing partnerships with Indian companies," Garnier said.

Central Retail opens Page One

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Central Retail Corporation is expanding further in the book business by investing 200 million baht to open new branches of a foreign bookstore chain over the next year.

The move is expected to strengthen the company's market leadership in book retailing position and tap huge opportunities in the 2-billion-baht market for foreign books.

Central Page One (Thailand) Co has been set up as the joint venture between CRC, and Singapore-based Page One Holdings, Asia's leading book retailer and publisher, to operate Central Page One stores in Thailand.

The new venture will compete in a market currently dominated by the Asia Books and Kinokuniya chains.

Tos Chirathivat, the CEO of CRC, said the first Central Page One Corner was opened at the company's B2S bookstore on the seventh floor at Central Chidlom. Another 200-square-metre shop will open on the fifth floor of Zen Department Store this week and 11 more outlets will be added next year.

The target market for the chain will be white-collar workers, children, families and people fond of arts, fashion and architecture.

Mark Tan, CEO of Page One Holdings Pte, said the company invested in Thailand because it wanted to accelerate the growth of the foreign book business.

Central Page One stores are designed under a "hip & cool" concept, offering new experiences to readers. They carry titles in seven categories: children, humanities, literature and general fiction, lifestyle, professional, art and design. Each store will contain at least 25,000 books and shoppers can check the database for availability of other titles throughout the Page One network.

Page One was founded in 1983 in Singapore and also has branches in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei.

Mr Tan said most imported books by European and US publishers were now available in Asia. "But customers cannot afford them because the Asian market is developing. Page One is the alternative. We sell books at affordable prices, about 30% cheaper than western offerings. Our long-term vision is to see every family own at least one book from Page One or one book published by us," he said.

The executives declined to make sales and business projection.

For the overall retail business, Mr Tos said CRC had seen a dramatic improvement in customer purchasing power from September to November. Sales of CRC in the first eight months of this year grew only 5-6% but improved to 10% growth from September to November. Profit in the first 11 months of this year is up by 5-6% year-on-year compared with a 10% contraction earlier in the year. "But we are not confident about how long [the economic recovery] will last," he said.

"On the international stage, Thailand's politics is in the spotlight, not the economy. If politics is stable, the retail market next year will be better than this year, and we will consider extra investment."

CPN approached for overseas mall development

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Mall developer Central Pattana has been approached by more than 10 foreign investors, mainly from China and India, about joint ventures to develop shopping complexes in their markets, president Kobchai Chirathivat said yesterday.

He said Central Pattana would invest about Bt1 billion to its first overseas joint venture to develop a shopping complex in China. The company will finalise the agreement with Chinese investors by early next year.

"Three or four foreign investors are going deeper into serious negotiations about joint venture and investment possibilities," said Kobchai.

Kobchai said the company had won many international awards this year, including the Gold Award for Development and Design Excellence from the International Council of Shopping Centres in October, and two awards - Best Mixed Use Development and Best Retail Development - at the Asia Pacific Property Awards 2009, held in July in association with CNBC.

"These international awards help Central Pattana to enhance its reputation among international investors, who have approached us to develop shopping complexes in their markets. Many of them come from potential markets like China and India," he said.

"We will however develop those overseas projects one at a time, as we need to take time to learn about and understand consumer behaviour in particular markets. We also prefer a joint-venture deal for every investment abroad, as we need expertise and local market knowledge from our partners."

Kobchai said Thailand's shopping-mall industry had started to recover in October and November, as evidenced by better shopper traffic and sales at tenant stores.

Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, Central Pattana executive vice president for marketing, said the number of shoppers at all malls operated by the company had grown by 7 per cent in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period last year.

Traffic at CentralWorld alone grew by almost 25 per cent in the period.

"We have seen a strong recovery in fashion products, which had dropped by almost 30 per cent year on year in the first half," said Nattakit.

Kobchai said that to cope with the economic recovery, Central Pattana would be more proactive in rolling out marketing activities to stimulate shoppers to visit its complexes.

"We will increase our marketing budget by between 5 and 10 per cent next year to about Bt600 million," he added.

Central Pattana yesterday launched the CentralPlaza shopping complex in Khon Kaen, which will have its grand opening on December 3.

Costing Bt4 billion, CentralPlaza Khon Kaen is located at the Mitraphab-Srichan intersection, covering over 45 rai and occupying retail space of more than 250,000 square metres.

It houses more than 300 leading tenant stores with major anchors that include Robinson Department Store, Tops Market, Power Buy, B2S, Super Sports, SF Cinema City, and SF bowling and karaoke centres.

The company will spend more than Bt100 million on next Thursday's grand opening under the concept "Weaving happiness to the heart of Isaan". Highlights include the most realistic T-Rex robot in the world, which is worth over Bt20 million, for the first time in Thailand.

By KWANCHAI RUNGFAPAISARN
THE NATION
Published on November 26, 2009

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Finally, IKEA Comes to Thailand 2011

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A Baht 10,000 million lifestyle center in Bangna

Siam Future Development Plc together with IKEA recently hold a signing ceremony for a joint venture "Mega Bangna", a Baht 10,000 million project featuring lifestyle home furnishing center, "IKEA Store" first launched in Thailand.

In a major investment program, Siam Future Development Plc, Thailand’s leading lifestyle Center today announces during the press conference in Bangkok to jointly develop a mega project in urban Bangkok. The joint venture, according to Nopporn Witoonchart, SF Chief Executive Officer, the project is jointly developed by Siam Future, IKANO Pte ( An IKEA owned subsidiary), and S.P.S. Global Trade Co., Ltd.

The project, with estimated value at 10,000 million Baht featuring a Lifestyle Home Furnishing Center with IKEA store for the first time in Thailand.

Nopporn Witoonchat, Chief Executive Officer of Siam Future Development (SF), said in order to handle this mega project, SF Boards of Directors has approved capital increase of Baht 600 million to existing shareholders at a ratio of 1 existing share for 1 new share, at the price of Baht 1.20 per share.

The Board also approved SF to set up SF Development Co., Ltd, a joint venture between SF, IKANO Pte. and S.P.S. Global Trade Co., Ltd., with registered capital of Baht 2,500 millions. SF and IKANO hold 49% each while S.P.S. hold the remaining 2% respectively of the new company which will be established to develop a Mega Bangna, on a 290 rais plot of land along Bangna- Trat Road.

Mega Banga, located on Bangna-Trad Km.9, Kanchanaphisek Outer Ring Road, is designed with a new concept of a one-stop mall of various products and services. Anchor tenants including the much waited for IKEA Store, a 40,000-square-meters store, and department store, branded lifestyle fashion, restaurants, IT center, ultimate entertainment center, and a very large parking lot capable of accommodating 8,000 cars. Mega Bangna’s core target group are new generation aged 20 years and above who love design and home décor, with mid-range to high income and enjoy a comfortable and modern lifestyle. Mega Bangna is projected to officially open in the third quarter of 2011 with target to attract over 40 million visitors per year.

Mr. Korn Chatikavanich, Finance Minister of Thailand, was a guest of honor at the Joint Venture Agreement signing ceremony at the Residence 301 room, Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok Hotel.

Mr. Tom Huzell, Managing Director, IKANO Pte. Ltd. said: Thailand is a very important market for IKEA and we are proud to be part of this exciting project. In fact Thailand is one of our production base countries in Asia for our export market.

Mr. Nopporn Witoonchat said: "This joint venture is an important step that goes along with the government policy to build trust and trigger foreign investment in Thailand. Mega Bangna will create 20,000 jobs for the locals while extending business opportunity for other local contractors

SF has a very solid track record since its first inception. We operated 29 lively and well received lifestyle centers in Bangkok and in other major resort cities. The Mega Bangna project extends and enhances our capability to offer ultimate and modern lifestyle for our valued customers., added Mr. Nopporn.

The company’s total rental space will be increased by 260,000 square meters, making the total rental space up to 500,000 square meters as projected, or a 100% growth by 2011. This would significantly boost up its total revenue in years to come.