The beauty clinic will soon open its 17th branch in Phuket, as is confident in the future of women’s purchasing power and the importance that they women place on beauty. By attracting B+ (upper-income) consumers, the clinic has enjoyed 15 per cent growth and has built its reputation in the beauty industry over its 12 years. For 2020, it expects to achieve profit growth of 20 per cent.

The beauty business places great importance on services, reputation, and knowledge, says Dr Khongkwan Fujitnirun, CEO of Khongkwan Clinic. “The world changes daily and so our business expands its market via online channels,” she said. ‘Mae Mor Khor Bok’, its official YouTube channel, provides beauty information and entertainment to build its brand image.

In the final quarter of 2018, the company will focus marketing on social media channels, and reinforce other aspects of the marketing chain – services, customer benefits, value and price. However, in the beauty field, price is not the key factor in consumer decision-making.

“What make us outstanding is trustworthiness, expertise and specialisation,” said Khongkwan. “ The majority of people go to beauty services because they would like to change themselves to present a better image and enjoy a better life.”

Khongkwan Clinic has grown its business for 12 years by building trust among consumers, she says, and now they’re planning their 17th branch in Phuket. Competition has created opportunities and inspired improvement, she says. “Our first 10 years we focused on branch expansion, and on services with tools and expertise,” said Khongkwan.

“We plan to have 20 branches in 2020 with improved services to serve A-list consumers and develop our personnel, products and services by taking the Khongkwan Clinic brand to the international market. Our business negotiation plan includes Hong Kong and China. We are confident with the purchasing power of Asian customers who see the importance of beauty,” she said.

“Our new brand, ‘I Feel Fine’, was under development for two years with the aim of selling it online. The ‘I Feel Fine’ products support our services by focusing on supplements, beauty creams, etc. The target consumer of I Feel Fine is someone who uses Internet and online shopping,” says Khongkwan.

“By focusing on trustworthiness, it helps Khongkwan Clinic expand our customer base and help customers buy our products without the need to go to our clinics. They can just order our products online and wait for product delivery at home, facilitating both current customers and new customers for product delivery,” she said.

“We are confident that online channels are the right channel for skyrocketing our sales. I Feel Fine was created by our medical team with ingredients that were researched based on the skin molecules. I Feel Fine can help customers with results. The difference is the most significant buying factor for consumers in the digital era,” said Khongkwan. Khongkwan says the beauty market in Thailand was worth Bt57 billion in 2017, a growth of 3.8 per cent over 2016. It is expected to jump to Bt70 billion this year, she says.

Khongkwan also views the Asean Economic Community (AEC) as playing a major role in the future focus of every business sector and not only beauty businesses.

“We’ve paid attention to AEC since Thailand agreed to join it. We were successful with our Vientiane branch nine years ago. We are confident that joint investment in the beauty business will help us be the best in your heart for more than 12 years.”

“Robinson is anticipating another wave of excitement in the retail industry in the last quarter of 2018, as Christmas and the New Year’s festivities draw near. It is also the high season for both domestic and foreign tourism, when shoppers tend to have higher spending power, making travellers’ items the most sought-after items of the period,” said Orawan Tipsuwanporn, Chief of Omni Merchandising Robinson Public Company Limited.

Robinson has invested more than Bt5 million in launching a year-end “Robinson Travel & Leisure” campaign for traveller-shoppers, to make Robinson the perfect destination for the needs of travellers.The campaign will run between October 24 to November 24 at 47 Robinson Department Stores.

Group reaches 1,000 properties, 200,000 rooms in region

AccorHotels has reached its milestone 1000th hotel for Asia Pacific with the launch of Pullman Tokyo Tamachi, bringing the group to over 200,000 rooms in the region. Asia Pacific now represents over 30 per cent of global rooms and 51 per cent of the global pipeline, which is a strong sign that the company’s growth strategy continues to be focused on Asia.

“For the first half of 2018, 72 per cent of global room openings for the group were in Asia Pacific,” said Michael Issenberg, CEO Asia-Pacific AccorHotels.“We currently open, on average, a new hotel in Asia Pacific every three days, but our goal is to move this to a new hotel every second day by 2020 and one hotel per day globally.”

Issenberg went on to say that in the past three years, the Asia Pacific network has doubled in size, thanks to a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. The portfolio now includes some of the world’s most iconic and respected brands such as Raffles, Orient Express, Fairmont, Banyan Tree, Delano, Mondrian, SLS, Swissotel, and Movenpick. These acquisitions have been transformative for the company and will further cement AccorHotels’ position as a leader in luxury and lifestyle hotels. The recent addition of Mantra Hotels to the network also added a further 19,000 rooms to the region.

AccorHotels currently has more hotels in the pipeline in Asia Pacific than any of its competitors, andthe addition of these new brands will only help to accelerate further growth.

Launch of app, box for online shoppers

“Twister” is catering to the needs of online shoppers’ needs with Twister Online Application and offers the parcel handling solution through the use of Twister box located in front of houses and condominiums.

With the energy-efficient technology which can last up to five years, Twister box is to be installed in 1,000 locations next year to fit lifestyles in the e-commerce era.

Montri Wanna, CEO of Twister Corporation, discloses that the company is preparing for the launch of Twister Online Platform, the new innovation that will match lifestyles in the e-commerce era. With the use of technology, today’s online shopping can be fulfilled by Twister Online Application in the most convenient and time-saving manner possible.

Also, shopping items will be dropped off at Twister Homebox where buyers can receive them at any time without having to stay around at home to accept parcels, or buyers can have them delivered to Twister Sharebox located in the condominium lobby, office building, clubhouse, dormitory or apartment.

However, amid the growing popularity of online shopping, the company has recognised some pain points such as missed deliveries due to traffic congestion, which can be solved by “Twister box”. It can also help reduce logistics cost for logistics entrepreneurs as well as respond to the government’s policy to increase energy efficiency and reduce traffic congestion.

Matthew Kichodhan, chairman of Wall Street English Thailand, said the market for English-language schools in Thailand was growing.

“I see English-language education as a fast-growing industry, fuelled by an ever-increasing need for people to speak English as the global language. There are lots of market opportunities for English schools in Thailand,” he said.

“The country has become an international hotspot for the tourism, automotive, innovation, technology and logistics industries. With an increase in foreign investment and international communication, English has become an essential skill for transformation as well as a tool for personal career and business opportunity advancement,” he added.

Becoming shy

Matthew said Thais practising English often think hard about whether what they are saying is correct or not. This makes them get stuck and they become shy to use or speak English. But the new generation seems to be more focused on real communication rather than patterns, he said.

“Our strategy here is to grow our business through people and business expansion in Thailand. We have positioned the brand as ‘English Learning and Lifestyle Centres’. We have a premium brand, based on our heritage, but also modernised and digitally enabled for today’s and tomorrow’s customers to promote effective learning.”

He said Wall Street aims to be “the most supportive and motivating learning experience by providing the best teaching experts, innovation tools and techniques. And, of course, we will double the size of the business by the end of 2020,” he said.

Matthew said Wall Street English has opened three new branches in 2018 and plans another 14 throughout Thailand by the end of 2020.

“We will double in size from 14 to 28 learning centres through company-owned and franchise business, generating an estimated Bt2 billion in revenue,” he said.

Olarn Phirintharangkoon, chief executive officer of Wall Street English Thailand, said the key challenges of today and the future are that learning centres must be reactive. “What worked a year ago might not be the best approach now. It’s not the big eat the small but the fast that eat the slow. Business conditions change continually. We have to keep up with the market. I also believe that English-language schools should build up an in-depth picture of what customers want and how they behave,” he said.

Olarn said the demand for English is predicted to increase in the coming years, driven by the prevalence of the language in business, accelerating globalisation, and a desire to invest in language skills for personal growth. “I think one of the main challenges is how we can help people learn English throughout the country, because Thailand is not only Bangkok. That’s why we’ve launched the franchise business model to expand Wall Street English outside Bangkok. At Wall Street English, we have been operating successfully for over 15 years in Thailand. We have a proven educational method, world-class curriculum, and extensive experience in English-language education, allowing fast ramp-up and scalability of the business,” he said.

Langston will assume the position of senior vice president, business development, in the company’s development team, reporting to deputy chief executive Markland Blaiklock.

He has held senior management positions with major hotel groups such as Banyan Tree and Intercontinental Hotels group [IHG], and most recently he held the position of executive vice president, strategic advisory & asset Management, at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels & Hospitality Group, for whom he was based in Thailand and working throughout Asia.

“Thailand has been my home for many years now, so I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with a large, highly respected Thai hospitality group which has such exciting aspirations of significant and strategic growth, both within the Kingdom and globally. I’m looking forward to contributing to the continued rise of this esteemed organisation,” Langston said.

“Andrew’s extensive experience in hotel operations, asset management, investment and negotiation will be invaluable to the future expansion of Centara Hotels & Resorts” said Centara CEO Thirayuth Chirathivat.

“We are delighted to welcome someone of Andrew’s calibre and track record to spearhead our domestic, regional and global development efforts and we are confident that together we will make great strides towards realising our plan to double Centara’s revenues and number of properties over the next five years,” Thirayuth added.