Marriott International and Manchester United football club have announced a multi-year marketing partnership, giving the 120 million members of the Marriott Bonvoy travel programme exclusive opportunities for once-in-a-lifetime Manchester United football experiences – including the chance to become the club’s stadium announcer or Kit Manager for the day.

The new partnership was launched with a film that features familiar faces from the Manchester United first team and team management, bringing these magical moments to life.

“Marriott International is the leader in its field and we’re excited to be partnering with them as Marriott launches its new travel programme, Marriott Bonvoy. Together we look forward to creating some unforgettable moments for Marriott Bonvoy members, inspired by the thrill and excitement that only Manchester United can create for fans around the world,” said Manchester United Group Managing Director Richard Arnold. With the Marriott Bonvoy travel programme, members have access to its extraordinary portfolio of global brands and properties in 130 countries and territories, as well as unmatched member benefits and exclusive Marriott Bonvoy Moments’ experiences.

Marriott International Global Marketing Officer, Karin Timpone, said: “We are thrilled to offer compelling benefits to Marriott Bonvoy members, now expanded to include the Manchester United experiences. This marketing partnership enables our members to access special VIP game experiences by using the points they’ve accumulated during hotel stays”.

RTB TECHNOLOGY EXPECTS 30% GROWTH IN SALES

RTB Technology has targeted revenue growth of more than 30 per cent this year while expecting its B2B business to expand by 50 per cent.

Banphot Vatanasombut, managing director of RTB Technology, said the firm would this year divide its business into two main segments: business-to-business (B2B) and consumer business.

For B2B, the firm will focus on providing products and solutions to support business transformation, such as voice over IP (VoIP), video conference products and peripheral-products for call centres.

“B2B is a high potential area as corporates need to utilise new technologies and innovative products in transition to the era of organisation 4.0 or business 4.0,” he said.

In regard to consumer business, the firm will supply innovative products, accessories and devices to meet market demand, including multi-room speakers, mouse, keyboards, mobile-phone cases, charging cables and power-banks.

It will also expand into the gaming segment, providing products for gamers such as mouse, keyboards and headphones.

He said the firm expects Bt640 million in revenue this year, with B2B contributing 20 per cent and consumer business 80 per cent.

Supaluck Umpujh, chairwoman of The Mall Group, said that it has set a target to upgrade Thailand to a centre for trade and tourism in Asean and the world.

Presently, The Mall Group owns department stores and shopping malls, including The Mall, Siam Paragon, The Emporium, The EmQuartier and Bluport Hua Hin. About 500 million customers, both foreign and Thai, use the services in these shopping malls each year.

Supaluck said that based on the five-year strategic plan from this year to 2023, The Mall Group’s shopping malls will provide both offline and online services as a seamless platform, in addition to more branches.

The move is seen as a part of a strategy to tap customers, responding to the effect of digitalisation in changing consumer behaviour to buy more products online. Meanwhile, the offline platform still plays to strength in Thailand, where customers still prefer going to, touching and buying products in stores.

In addition, the leading retailer will invest over Bt80 billion to renovate all The Mall department stores, under The Mall Lifestore and “A Happy Place to Live Life” concept, and build up a mixed-use complex, the Bangkok Mall, on an over-100-rai (16-hectare) land plot on the Bang Na-Trat road area, opposite Bitec.

Bangkok Mall, designed under a “City within the City” concept, will consist of integrated offices, residential units, entertainment facilities and a shopping complex.

The ongoing construction of The Mall department store, Ramkhamhaeng 2 is expected to be complete within 2021.

A new management team will oversee implementation of the five-year strategic plan. Robert James Cissell, chief executive officer for the retail group, has been its head from September last year, managing all shopping malls – every The Mall department store, The Emporium, The EmQuartier, Siam Paragon and Bluport Hua Hin.

Under the retail group, Thierry Prevost, chief business officer for department stores, and Jennifer Fall, vice president for merchandise, will look after the merchandise group’s fashion and lifestyle products. Fall has management experience in the renowned Galeries Lafayette.

Jakkrit Keeratichokchaikun, chief business officer, and Luc Charrier, vice president for merchandising specialty retail, will manage the specialty business.

Chairat Petchdakul, vice president of merchandising – supermarket, and Chutidej Poocharoentou, vice president of merchandising – food, will take care of the gourmet and food group.

The Mall Group is highly aware of team building and human resources development in order to grow together with the organisation, Supaluck said.

She believes that a strong team with capability will be the foundations for success. “We’re confident that the strategies we set and our strong and capable team will bring a new phenomena to the retail industry and Thailand.”

VGI Global Media Plc, Saha Lawson Co Ltd, and Saha Pathana Inter-Holding Plc are partnering to operate Lawson stores at key mass transportation locations, including all BTS skytrain stations, airports and other potential strategic locations.

The partnership is the latest step on VGI’s path to establishing their O2O ecosystem through Lawson stores, with the Rabbit Group payment platform (Rabbit Card and Rabbit LinePay) facilitating a seamless flow to create a better customer retail experience overall.

Consumers will be able to enjoy special privileges through the royalty programme of Rabbit Rewards, which will in return enables VGI deeper access to shopping behaviour to enable it to target to groups with enhanced offers. As a result, VGI will also have measurable media including in-store and front-of-store media at the various locations.

Currently, Lawson convenience stores are planning to open services at all 30 BTS stations, with a pilot store at Thong Lo station.

AEON offers summer promotions at Hat Yai expo

AEON Thana Sinsap (Thailand) Plc is back again with exclusive summer promotions, offering a one-stop financial service at the 9th Money Expo Hat Yai.

The special promotions for AEON customers include personal loans, “your cash” loans, cash advances, credit cards and AEON member card applications.

Customers can also purchase a gold instalment loan with 0 per cent interest rate for up to six months, as well as a chance to win many special gifts such as a gold necklace, Valentino Rudy summer gag, ESPRIT Gold luggage, Big C gift vouchers and more.

There will also be an exclusive meet-and-greet with famous Channel 7 star, “Weir Sukollawat Kanarot” on March 9t. AEON customers can join the activities and exclusive promotions at the 9th Money Expo Hat Yai at Hat Yai Hall, 5th floor, Central Festival Hat Yai from March 8-10.

New look Citi Card for young achievers

Citi Thailand has launched a new design for the Citi Prestige credit card, which they say leverages the bank’s unique global footprint and relationships to deliver a world of unforgettable experiences to cardholders at home and wherever they travel.

With its modern style and luxury, the new-look Citi Prestige assures customers of its stability and security.

Citi Thailand is promoting this prestigious card with new key visuals depicting world-class destinations, such as Pagan (Myanmar), Machu Picchu (Peru) and Black Sand Beach (Iceland), targeting young achievers who always explore for unforgettable trips and fine dining.

“We want our credit card to emerge from the card canvas as an icon, a steady-state expression that our underlying dynamic chassis product can live inside for decades,” said Sandeep Batra, director, and credit cards and loans head for Citi Thailand.

“We believe that the most important perspective to have for Citi Prestige design is where the visual design and the material come together in an elegant way. The material itself has a premium and sophisticated touch. You can feel the weight of metal, which complements the luxurious lifestyle of cardholders themselves. No words can describe the feeling, until you own one.”

Held at Lady L Garden Bistro at Nai Lert Park Heritage Home, the launch of the redesign was joined by Thailand’s top socialites, social media influencers and celebrities, including Von Sugunnasil, Jay and Jareyadee Spencer, Vorravit Siripark, Vasu Suratantra, Peeraya Bunnag and Manvad Nakornthap.

The profit represents an 8.6-per-cent increase over the Bt267 million posted in 2017.

Reflecting the strength of DTC’s business strategies, the results were achieved despite non-recurring expenses in relation to the redevelopment and temporary closure of the flagship Dusit Thani Bangkok Hotel, according to a release yesterday. The non-recurring expenses included special compensation for hotel staff and the absence of revenue from Dusit Princess Korat, which had been divested in 2017.

Suphajee Suthumpun, the chief executive officer of DTC, said the company showed satisfactory performance in 2018 and that the growth in net profit was driven by the implementation of a three-pronged strategy to achieve sustainable and profitable growth – namely balance, expansion and diversification.

“DTC actively explored investment opportunities throughout 2018 to expand our lines of business and diversify risk,” she said. “This resulted in a variety of businesses, with the hotel business at the core.

“To grow our customer base beyond our full-service, core hotel brands – Dusit Thani, dusitD2, Dusit Princess and Dusit Devarana – in 2018, we expanded into a new area – the lodging spectrum – by introducing ASAI Hotels, an affordable lifestyle brand designed to link curious, millennial-minded travellers with authentic local experiences worldwide.

“We also expanded into the luxury segment with an investment in Elite Havens, the leading provider of high-end vacation rentals in Southeast Asia, paving the way for our entry into integrated luxury villa management and rental business across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Japan and Thailand.

Guo Ping, rotating chairman of Huawei Technologies Co, said yesterday told the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona that the US accusation had no evidence and suggested the US government was hypocritical.

“It [the accusation] has no evidence, nothing,” he said.

“The irony is that the US Cloud Act allows governmental entities to access data across borders.”

He urged nations to choose Huawei for the best technology and greater security.

“We have not, and will never, plant backdoors. And we will never allow anyone to do so in our equipment,” Ping pledged.

“Our responsibility is that we do not do bad things. We take this responsibility very seriously.”

The executive takes pride in saying that the firm has a strong track record in security over three decades, serving three billion people around the world.

“There has never been more interest in Huawei. We must be doing something right.”

The executive said people cannot use prisms, crystal balls or politics to manage cybersecurity.

“It’s a challenge we all share,” Ping said in a provocative speech.

“Prism, prism on the wall. Who is the most trustworthy of them all? It is an important question to ask. And if you do not understand this question, go ask Edward Snowden,” he said.

The executive noted the need for aligned responsibilities, unified standards and clear regulations to build a system that all industry players can trust. He said technology providers, carriers, regulators and the industry as a whole are responsible for complying with standards and building secure equipment.

“With 5G, we have made a lot of progress over 4G. 5G is safer than 4G. As vendors, we do not operate carrier networks, and we do not own carrier data,” Ping said.

Carriers are responsible for the secure operations of their own networks, and they can manage, monitor, and audit all vendors and partners to make sure their network elements are secure.

“The boundaries between different networks are clear. Carriers can prevent external attacks with firewalls and security gateways,” he said.

The executive also stressed the importance of working together on standards as a shared responsibility.

“We need to standardise cybersecurity requirements, and these standards must be verifiable for all vendors and all carriers,” Ping said.

Huawei fully supports the Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme, jointly defined by GSMA and the 3rd generation partnership project, he said. The standards were created with the support of many government security agencies that have strong capabilities to verify 5G security.

He seemed proud to announce that Huawei was the first company able to deploy 5G networks at scale. The firm has already begun helping carriers deploy 5G at scale.

“We can deliver the simplest possible sites with better performance. With 100 megahertz, our 5G can reach more than 14 gigs-per-second. That is for a single sector. We are at the leading edge of performance,” Ping said.

On Huawei 5G, single-user speed reaches 1.3 Gbps. Last October, the firm launched the world’s most powerful AI chips – Ascend 910 and Ascend 310. The chips were designed to bring intelligence to all scenarios, and reduce computing power costs for carrier networks.

“We have developed many algorithms and models for carrier networks. With artificial intelligence, we can increase resource efficiency, make O&M [observations and measurements] easier, and reduce power consumption for telecom networks,” he said.

The executive said he believes that consistent investment has produced many positive results.

“Through non-stop investment, we can keep providing our customers with new, innovative products and more efficient services,” Ping said.

This performance drove MINT’s full-year core net profit to Bt5.95 billion, representing a 10-per-cent increase from Bt5.41 billion in 2017.

The core-profit increase is attributable to the overall performance of Minor Hotels and in particular the consolidation of NH Hotel Group, which commenced during the fourth period. In addition, MINT announced a proposed cash dividend for 2018 of Bt0.40 per share, and warrants at the ratio of 20:1, with a conversion ratio of 1:1 at the price of Bt43 per share and a tenor of two years and four months.

The issuance of the warrants is expected to further strengthen MINT’s equity base and in turn its balance-sheet position.

Both the dividend payment and warrant issuance are subject to shareholder approval.

Minor Hotels’ business includes ownership and management of hotels and serviced apartments, real-estate development and other complementary businesses.

For last year, Minor Hotels reported core net profit of Bt4.30 billion, a 28-per-cent increase from Bt3.37 billion in 2017.

The increase was driven primarily by hotel operations and the consolidation of NH Hotel Group.

Revenue per available room (RevPar) of Minor Hotels’ owned hotels portfolio rose by 10 per cent in local currencies last year.

RevPar of all key overseas markets, including Portugal, Brazil, the Maldives and Africa, grew in excess of 10 per cent, while RevPar of Thailand-owned hotels increased by 5 per cent despite the slowdown of the Chinese tourists in the second half.

Minor Food operates a portfolio of casual dining restaurants in three primary hubs: Thailand, China and Australia.

The unit reported core net profit of Bt1.52 billion for last year, which was one of its most challenging years with all of its major markets experiencing weak domestic consumption and increasing levels of competition.

Nevertheless, Minor Food’s total system sales (TSS) showed an improving trend throughout 2018 and closed with TSS growth of 0.2 per cent for the full year.

This growth was attributable to strategic outlet expansion at the rate of 10 per cent, primarily in Thailand and China, which was sufficient to offset negative same-store-sales growth. Minor Food is determined to remain a leader in the key markets in which it operates and will continue to invest in its business even in the face of economic and demand-related headwinds, the group said.

In addition to product innovations, it will continue to invest heavily in broadening new channels to reach its customers, both through expansion of physical stores and penetration of online channels, including website and mobile applications.

Minor Lifestyle is the exclusive Thailand distributor of fashion apparel and household products under various international brands and a contract manufacturer of household goods for FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) companies.

Minor Lifestyle reported net profit of Bt130 million in 2018, an increase of 2 per cent from the year prior.

The increase was attributable to the strong performance of Esprit and Bossini.

William E Heinecke, MINT chairman and group chief executive officer, said on Tuesday: “I am proud to say that we are one of the few companies in the hospitality sector that has been able to report such a solid growth during this challenging period. We were able to identify a strategic acquisition opportunity and act quickly on it – and it has immediately begun to pay off.

“The contribution from NH Hotel Group has helped drive our 2018 growth and, looking forward into 2019, I am confident of even better performance. Our hotel business will be driven by Thailand with the recovery of the Chinese tourists, Portugal as we realise the full benefit of the renovation efforts over the past two years, and the Maldives with the rebalancing of supply and demand. In addition, I am confident of the outlook of NH Hotel Group, which will be consolidated into our financial results for full-year 2019.

“For the restaurant business, we expect the Thai macro backdrop to improve following completion of elections in 2019 [leading to improvement in domestic consumption], and plan to accelerate the expansion of our China hub with rapid outlet opening to capitalise on the strength of the Riverside brand.

“I am confident that 2019 will mark another year in which we will be able to deliver strong performance for all of our stakeholders.”

Thaicom chief executive officer Anant Kaewruamvongs welcomed the government’s approval of the Kingdom’s satellite management after the end of the satellite concession in 2021, thus in principle pursuing a PPP model for the Thai satellite industry moving forward, the company said in a release on Tuesday.

“We wish to engage in a constructive cooperation with the Thai government to enhance national security by joining the public-private partnership model. We are pleased to be able to contribute our extensive know-how and experience as one of Asia’s leading satellite operators to support and develop the future satellite industry of Thailand,” he added.

“We are open to discussing various forms of project collaboration to enhance public-private partnership. We look forward to a successful partnership with the government and to working together in a constructive manner for the benefit of the nation and the whole region,” the CEO said.

On the Cabinet’s approval to extend the service life of the company’s Thaicom-5 satellite, he thanked the government for its prudent decision to approve the reutilisation of the satellite.

“We will utilise space drone technology to extend the service life of Thaicom-5. We plan to extend the service life of other satellites in our fleet as well – such as Thaicom-4 [IPSTAR] – subject to public-private partnership outcome,” Anant said.

“We believe the Cabinet’s recent approval of the satellite’s life extension will boost market confidence and guarantee service continuity beyond the end of the satellite concession in 2021,” he added.

He was speaking in Barcelona, Spain, during the Mobile World Congress 2019 (MWC 2019) on Sunday.

He added that up to US$23 million (Bt719 million) from the three-year investment budget of $81 million will go to opening its OpenLab in Bangkok and New Delhi. Another $50 million will be spent on developing the Huawei Cloud Developer Programme in the region, while $8 million will be invested in ICT talent development.

“Southeast Asia has always been an important market for Huawei. We have been continuously investing in this market, and bringing in the world’s leading and innovative technologies. We have established our regional HQ in Thailand. We invested $15 million to build the OpenLab in Thailand in 2017,” Wu said.

“Last year, our global cloud service centre was built in the EEC [Eastern Economic Corridor]. At the end of last year, we worked together with the Thai government to build a 5G test lab to improve the 5G ecosystem. We have invested $5 million in 5G testing. All these show that we have been continuously investing in this market, and we believe it will be one of the most important markets in innovation,” Wu added.

20th anniversary

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Huawei Southeast Asia. “We’re trying our best to bring leading, secure and reliable products to this region. I think with the efforts of Huawei and the support of telcos and partners, we can help these countries to achieve their digital vision,” Wu said.

Currently, Huawei’s Southeast Asia region covers 1.7 billion people, including the markets of Thailand, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. In different markets, the company has a different market share. “In general, we appreciate the support of telecom carriers, partners and governments. In most of these markets, our market share is in the top two. In the future, Huawei’s market share will be further consolidated,” Wu said.

Wu said the company wanted to bring leading technologies and innovative solutions, so that all people can enjoy the benefits from technologies.

In the Thailand market, Huawei’s local procurement was worth $180 million last year.

Wu said the company continues to be confident about expanding investments in Thailand although the country may see a new government after the elections in March this year.

“We don’t want to comment on politics. However, we believe that no matter how the policies change, for Thailand, as a digital hub of the region, the digitalisation and intelligent transformation will remain. As the leader of the industry, we will surely increase investments in Thailand, and hope Thai people realise their dreams. Our investment in Thailand will rise,” he said.

Wu added that 5G will bring industry opportunities worth US$1.2 trillion in Southeast Asia in the next five years.

“Southeast Asia will stand out with the fastest GDP growth at about 5-6 per cent on average in the next five years, and digital economy will be the major driver behind such growth, accounting for 20 per cent. We are committed to the development of digital economy in Southeast Asia countries, and collaborating with partners in order to build a digital ecosystem,” he said.

Meanwhile, Huawei Consumer Business Group chief executive officer, Richard Yu, on Sunday introduced five new products at the MWC2019. They included the Huawei MateBook, including Huawei MateBook X Pro, Huawei MateBook 13 and Huawei MateBook 14, followed by 5G foldable smartphones Huawei Mate X and Huawei 5G CPE Pro.

Yu said that with the advent of the all-scenario era, consumers are looking for revolutionary experiences. The company will spare no effort to create a world-leading 5G unlike anything before. All the new products launched on Sunday will enter the Asean region, including Thailand, within this year, he said.