Vicha Poolvaraluck, chairman of Major Cineplex Group, said there were few screens relative to Thailand’s large population of 65 million.

United International Pictures (UIP), a major film distributor, says there are currently about 1,100 cinemas in Thailand.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, Vicha said with a population of only 26 million, the number of cinema screens is as high as 1,000. South Korea’s 54 million people are served by 2,200 cinema screens. On average, South Koreans view four movies in the cinemas per year.

In China, with a population of 1.2 billion, there are as many as 40,000 cinemas, and 1.2 billion tickets are sold per year. The average Chinese national sees one movie a year in a cinema.

Vicha said Thai movies would play a key role in the remaining months of this year, with the film industry expected to grow by 10 per cent. He said 21 Thai films were set to be screened across the country in the remaining months.

The line-up of Hollywood blockbusters is also looking impressive, such as “Suicide Squad”, “Sinister Six”, “Resident Evil 6”, “Doctor Strange” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”.

In the first half, Major’s business performance went as planned. There were more than 13 Thai movies, generating of ticket sales of more than Bt100 million. The company targets revenue growth of more than 10 per cent this year from Bt8.58 billion in 2015.

To support sustainable growth, Major plans to have a total of 1,000 screens by 2020, up from 630 now.

Suwat Thongrompo, chief executive officer of SF Corporation, an operator of multiplex theatres, said the movie industry was doing better than expected. There had been concerns that this year’s line-up of blockbusters could not match the 2015 roster.

He said that at the company’s internal meeting held to set up an investment budget for this year, they were quite concern about this year situation. There were strong line-up of mainstream movies during last year, including Fast & Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Jurassic World. Those mega blockbusters generated Bt387 million, Bt294 million, and Bt289 million respectively in ticket sales.

“This year, there are no super blockbusters as last year. “However, the movie line-up has been quite well sustained from one week to another, which is good for the overall industry,” he said.

He gave the example of money-making films being launched during this year, which are Captain America: Civil War, Luang Pee Jazz 4G, The Independence Day: Resurgence and The Legend of Tarzan. They have been screened continuously at the theatres.

SF Corp operates 322 movie screens in 48 locations in Bangkok and other major cities. The company will open between 30 and 50 new screens every year, focusing on shopping malls.

“We target Bt5 billion in revenue this year, up 25 per cent over the Bt4 billion posted last year. About 65 per cent of revenue will from ticket sales, and the rest from concessions and advertising,” Suwat said.

He added that SF posted between Bt2.4 billion and Bt2.5 billion in revenue in the first six months, for a growth rate of 25 per cent over the same period last year.

Pannatat Phromsupa, general manager for Thailand at UIP, said that with about 1,100 cinemas in Thailand, there was room for expansion.

In China, for instance, the number of cinemas increased rapidly, from 8,000 in 2010 to about 40,000 this year, which is similar to the number in the United States. It is expected that the number of cinemas in China will reach 60,000 by 2020.

Pannatat said that in Thailand, people were becoming smarter movie consumers. With the emergence of social media, Thais are able to access and become educated by a huge stream of movie information. They have better understanding of the market and movie content.

Consumers have information that is no different from that available to distributors and well-known movie critics.

Movie content, however, is the first priority for individual consumers in deciding whether to watch a film or not.

He said the local movie industry grew by 5 per cent year on year in the first six months of 2016. Whether the economy is good or bad, entertainment is among the first choices by Thai consumers.

UIP targets Bt750 million in box-office revenue this year and about 27 movies distributed by the company will be screened at local theatres.

About Bt320 million in revenue was earned in the first six months with the screening of 15 titles. Another 12 titles will be launched in the second half.

Pannatat said the company expected to earn Bt1.8 billion in box-office revenue next year, driven by a strong line-up of its distributed movies, each with the potential to generate more than Bt100 million in revenue.

Those super blockbusters are: Fast & Furious 8, Transformers: The Last Knight, Dark Universe: The Mummy, World War Z 2, Xxx Medico, The Great Wall, and Ghost in the Shell.

Kavee Chukitkasem, assistant managing director at Kasikorn Securities, said the cinema industry was reaching a mature stage, particularly in major cities such as Bangkok. In small cities, the cinema market is still growing along with the overall economy.

“Even though Thailand is the largest market in Southeast Asia, followed by Singapore and Indonesia, its growth rate is the lowest,” Jerome Hervio, president of the Thailand Marketing Research Society, said yesterday. Hervio said Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were among the fastest-growing in terms of investment on market research, while Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia also continued to grow this year.

Speaking as managing director of Ipsos (Thailand), he said his clients were cautious with their market-research budgets as well as other expenses related to advertising.

However, he believes that the industry will pick up again next year with growth of about 1-2 per cent in accordance with the economy’s growth.

Throughout this year, the industry is expected to see intense competition because of the arrival of new players, particularly involving qualitative and digital-based research.

Hervio said digital-based research, particularly via mobile devices, would be the future of market research in the Kingdom, where more than 90 per cent of mobile-device users were accessing the Internet with them.

Limitations

However, the challenge is that implementing effective data collection from new media appears to have limitations. For example, long questionnaires do not appear to be suitable for online respondents. Therefore, a company should work with research specialists to design each question simply, but the question must lead to the right answer – truth and real insight.

Arpapat Boonrod, chief executive officer of Kantar Consumer Insights Thailand, told The Nation that this country was a mobile-centric society, so brands as well as market-research firms must explore any possibilities to use mobile platforms to get consumer data and insight.

Hervio agreed that online research was playing a key role in the market.

From what he has witnessed, the online research conducted by brands and market-research firms on average took up less than 5 per cent of their total budgets, but within the next two years, this |proportion could reach 60 per cent.

Of Ipsos’ clients, 70 per cent are in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) while the rest are in banking and financial services, insurance, retail and automotive businesses.

“Banks, insurance, retailers and automotive companies tend to explore opportunities to use more digital-based research than FMCGs,” he said.

Regarding NEWS pressuring the SEC to charge NMG executives for prohibiting some shareholders from voting in the annual shareholders’ meeting last April, Preechaya said the case was in court at the appeal stage. This means any activities in accordance with the annual shareholders’ meeting last year are still valid, he said.

At the AGM on April 29 last year, major shareholders from both sides – Suthichai Yoon and Sermsin Samalapa from NMG, as well as the new shareholding group NEWS and its allies – were prohibited by the then-NMG chairman Nittimon Hastindra na Ayudhya from voting to ensure fairness.

The Phra Khanong Provincial Court ruled on May this year to nullify the 2015 annual general meeting of the NMG shareholders. The ruling followed a petition by NEWS representatives requesting a court authority to void the results of the NMG meeting. NMG has appealed against the verdict.

“As the leading mobile operator, we are ready to serve everyone with applications and services, including bringing health education and agricultural services to rural areas to bridge the digital divide,” Somchai Lertsutiwong, chief executive officer, said yesterday.

The new theme comes as AIS marks its 26th anniversary and replaces the present catch phrase “Live Digital, Live More”.

AIS is not only a cellular company but also a provider of all digital services to all people and a network covering the country, he said.

AIS subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network holds licences for the 900-megahertz, 1,800MHz and 2.1-gigahertz spectra for providing wireless services including 4G.

Its fourth-generation network will cover 80 per cent of the population by year-end.

AIS has spent Bt40 billion in each of the past two years and says it will continue that investment this year.

Currently voice and data services each account for half of revenue but data will surge to more than 50 per cent by year-end, the company believes.

As of the first quarter this year, AIS had 38.9 million subscribers, up from 38.5 million users as of last year.

AIS will release its latest 2016 revenue guidance and dividend policy next month.

Yesterday AIS joined with several agencies, including the Information Technology Foundation under the initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Border Patrol Police and the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre to donate solar and water power systems in support of ICT services to the Border Patrol Police Learning Centre in Baan Khirilom, Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

AIS has installed a 3G broadband wireless system for the community.

The US-based company will open up to 500 Starbucks stores here over the next four to five years, making Thailand one of the fastest-growing markets for the coffeehouse chain in terms of new store openings, along with Indonesia.

Starbucks currently operates about 2,000 outlets in the Asia-Pacific region ex-China. Including China, the number is about 3,500.

“With our strong foundation in running Starbucks coffeehouses here for 18 years, Thailand will be a role model for the company in exploring business opportunities in other emerging markets in Asean, especially CLMV [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam]. Being a role model will be conducted in different dimensions, from partner experience, to coffee knowledge, store design, and green store leadership,” said Murray Darling, managing director of Starbucks Coffee (Thailand) Ltd.

He gave the example of Starbucks in Vietnam, for which staff are sent to Thailand for training before opening new outlets so that they know how to attract customers and apply new coffee-making techniques.

“We are proud to [have been] part of the coffee culture in Thailand over the past 18 years. We have continuously delivered our unique Starbucks experience to customers, and today we see they are now seeking new and different experiences, and have greater knowledge about coffee,” Darling said.

He said that almost half of Starbucks’ sales in Thailand were to regular customers, the highest loyalty rate in the world.

“We plan to continuously increase the number of Starbucks coffeehouses in Thailand from currently 262 stores to about 300 [by] the first half of next year. We have already opened 20 new stores in the first half of this year and another 20 new stores will be opened in the second half,” he said.

He added that about 35 new Starbucks outlets were opened in Thailand last year. It serves more than 3.5 million cups of coffee in its Thai stores every month.

After opening its first drive-through outlet three years ago, Starbucks now operates 14 of them in the Thai market.

“Positioning ourselves as more [of a] speciality and high-end coffee shop allows Starbucks to differentiate our propositions to customers. This will allow [has allowed] the company to maintain a growth rate at 20 per cent per annum over the past three to five years, while other players in the market experienced a slowdown,” he said.

“In addition to the new expansion, we will also elevate our existing Starbucks stores with special designs to provide coffee experiences to our customers in special ways.”

Starbucks works with more than a million farmers in 30 countries around the world, including Thailand.

To commemorate its 18th anniversary in Thailand, the company has opened the country’s first Starbucks Reserve Experience Store at Gaysorn Shopping Centre. This flagship store will showcase the company’s key innovations in coffee beans, special brewing methods, and baristas and will offer unique experiences with Starbucks Reserve Coffees, which it claims are the finest and rarest coffees in the world.

“We want to make sure that we meet our customers’ needs,” Darling said.

He added that Starbucks would focus more on quality within the store rather than on the quantity of branches. Each section within the store will fit various personalities of customers.

“Customers are at the centre of the Starbucks experience and the company strives to create meaningful relationships and offer its customers the most convenient ways to connect with the brand.”

He said online applications and social-media networks have been adopted as ways for Starbucks to communicate with individual customers.

“Starbucks is all about a human connection, as mobile and social media become part of customer lifestyles. We want to stay connected with them at both physical stores and on social-media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.”

He said Starbucks Thailand had more than 900,000 “likes” on its Facebook page, and more than 86,000 Instagram account followers. Its mobile app has been downloaded 450,000 times since it launched last year.

PTT has been in talks with several LNG suppliers to secure long-term energy supplies as Thailand uses natural gas for almost 70 per cent of its power generation.

PTT already has a joint venture, Trans Thai-Malaysia (Thailand) Ltd, with Malaysia’s Petronas to overlook the gas pipeline and gas separation plant projects since 2000.

In June, PTT cut its 2016 investment budget by 15 per cent to Bt43.31 billion ($1.23 billion), which is part of its five-year plan to spend Bt297 billion during 2016-2020.

Cut in investment

Wirat said the reduction in investment was mainly due to delay in the government’s infrastructure investments, while PTT was still looking for opportunities to buy more oil and gas assets after a decline in global oil prices.

The company is also considering to buy back its dollar-denominated debt to manage its excess liquidity and reduce financial costs, the CFO said.

PTT group has cash of about 300 billion baht ($8.53 billion) and debt of about 600 billion baht, of which 30 per cent is denominated in foreign currencies, Wirat told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.

“Although demand for paper in Thailand has dropped as most corporates have a paperless policy, demand for copy paper overseas, especially in Asean countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, is still exhibiting double-digit growth. This means the [overall] demand for copy paper will grow again this year,” he said.

Last year, the company reported revenue of Bt22 billion, up 5 per cent from 2014. About 81 per cent of its revenue was from its export markets, which total 130 countries worldwide, and the rest from the domestic market.

Double A has set aside a marketing budget of about Bt700 million to maintain its revenue growth at 5 per cent this year, Bt200 million of total expenditure to promote its products in the domestic market, and the rest for its overseas markets, he said.

Currently, the company has production capacity of 1 million tonnes of paper a year. About 700,000 tonnes is produced at its three plants in Prachin Buri province, and the rest at the plant in France in which it acquired a major stake in 2013.

Charnvit said that thanks to the French plant, Double A’s production capacity was sufficient to cover the demand both domestically and overseas. Having the plant also reduces its logistical costs for delivering its paper products to European markets.

Meanwhile, the company is pursuing its policy to maintain a sustainable supply of raw materials by encouraging Thai communities to grow eucalyptus trees.

It is launching a marketing campaign in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea, where customers can download an application called “One Dream One Tree” if they buy one package of paper and send in the receipt. For each purchase, Double A will allocate funding for the planting of trees at the edges of rice fields.

Customers can use the app to see where the trees are planted.

Double A has budgeted Bt20 million for this campaign, which runs from now until the end of September, and targets the planting of a million trees as a result.

“We aim to boost the number of communities growing papermaking trees from 300 to 500 communities in three years,” he said.