Situated in the smart city of Ban Chang, Rayong Province, the new branch, which is the 49th Thai Watsadu store nationwide, will serve the local demand for home improvement, while also highlighting Thai Watsadu as a trusted one-stop home improvement centre, the company said in a press release on Friday.

The grand opening took place on Thursday.

Suthisarn Chirathivat, chief executive officer of CRC Thai Watsadu Ltd, said: “We work to continue expanding our reach and have already opened up three new stores this year at Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Nakhon Pathom Province, and Si Maha Phot in Prachinburi Province.

“Now we’re coming up with the latest store, our 49th store, at Ban Chang, Rayong Province, to address the demand for all kind of home products with reasonable prices for construction, fixing, and decoration purposes.

“Covering an entire area of 40,000 square meters, this new store has a showroom that spans over an area of 17,000 square meters and is conveniently located on Sukhumvit Road, a strategic location of the EEC that allows it to contribute to the development of the city. With well-developed infrastructure and transportation system in place – including Motorway 7, U-Tapao Rayong-Pattaya International Airport, Map Ta Phut Industrial Port, and the High-Speed Rail Linking 3 Airports Project, for example – this city has a lot of potential to become a smart city.

“Both private and public sectors, as well as the local people, have expected the city to enjoy economic growth from the EEC, resulting in rising land prices. Given foreign investors moving their production bases into Ban Chang area, the local real estate sector sees a promising growth from future investments in residential buildings, shopping malls, international schools, and hospitals, as well as retail businesses. As a result, Thai Watsadu has been working tirelessly to improve our brand image and product quality, create new services, and adjust our marketing strategy in response to the ever-changing consumer behaviours.

“Our major target customers include both old and new ones within 15 kilometres from the new store – an area with 130,000 households, more than 30 housing estates, and five industrial estates: Asia, Hemaraj Eastern Seaboard, Map Ta Phut Industrial Port, Phadaeng Industrial Estate, and RIL Industrial Estate.

“With this new store, we expect to make an interesting option for those looking for construction materials and home products, as well as related services that we provide using a team of experienced specialists – from 3D design, installation, and renovation, to fixing – and after-sales services that come with great care and a 180-day satisfaction guarantee.”

The company said in a press release that the opening ceremony was held at Café Amazon Jewel Changi Airport, the first outlet on the island state and the 2,750th branch of Café Amazon worldwide network.

Representing PTTOR at the event were Auttapol Rerkpiboon, Chairman and Jiraphon Kawswat, President and Chief Executive Officer. Joining them were His Excellency Manopchai Vongphakdi, Ambassador of Thailand to Singapore and Miss Jean Hung, Chief Executive Officer, Jewel Changi Airport Development Private Limited.

According to Auttapol, PTTOR is a flagship company of PTT Group in oil and retail business, aiming to be a leading Thai global brand enriching community values through oil, retail, and related businesses in both domestic and international markets, inclusively with all stakeholders to achieve a sustainable growth together.

He said: “We are extremely pleased to serve up here in Singapore the taste of Café Amazon, a coffee brand we proudly set up in 2002 starting off in our PTT gas stations to service travellers. Throughout 15 years of business, we’re proud to say that Café Amazon has received an overwhelming response in every country it operates.”

As of today, Singapore has two Café Amazon outlets: one at Jewel Changi Airport and another at Jurong. To adapt to Singaporean taste, Café Amazon has adjusted its snack and beverage menu, with Yin Yang; Premium Matcha Latte as its signature drink.

Café Amazon has enjoyed a highly steady growth in sales in each location. In 2018, the number reached a staggering 225 million cups of coffee. Currently, it has around 2,500 branches in Thailand and 200 outlets overseas including in Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Japan and Oman.

“Our target is that by 2023, our power generation capacity will reach 10,000 MW,” chief executive Kijja Sripatthangkura said at a press conference yesterday.

To do so, Kijja said, Ratch Group aims to increase its capacity by 700 megawatts a year in the next five years, each year investing between Bt10 billion and Bt20 billion in new projects.

Ratch Group expects two investments in Thailand, in a large plant and a smaller one.

Six overseas deals are under negotiation for projects in Australia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia.

“In addition to our two domestic deals, this year, we expect to secure at least two more international deals with the aim of finalising five to six overseas deals,” Kijja said.

Currently, Ratch Group’s power plants have a power generation capacity of 6,860.34 MW.

In 2019, the company will open an additional three power plants for commercial operation; among them, the Collinsville Solar Farm in Australia opened on March 26.

The Berkprai Cogeneration Power Plant in Thailand will be opened on June 1 and the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Hydroelectric Power Plant in Laos will follow towards the end of this year. The three power plants have a combined capacity of 179.73 MW.

Meanwhile, four projects under construction will add a combined power generation capacity of 486.79 MW.

With all these plants combined, Ratch Group will have total power generation capacity of 7,526.86 MW, leaving the company 2,473.14 MW short of its 2023 target.

The company also announced its plans to diversify its business by investing more in infrastructure projects, aiming to direct 20 per cent of its total investment to infrastructure by 2023.

“Particularly, we are currently looking to invest in the mass transit system’s Orange Line, which is extensive in length and has a |high potential for ridership. Furthermore, we are also looking to invest in the Bang Pa-In to Nakhon Ratchasima Intercity Motorway (M6),” said Kijja, declining to reveal the likely scale of these potential investments.

In the first quarter of this year, the company made a net profit of Bt1.74 billion with total revenue of Bt11.26 billion, it reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

While no specific revenue targets are set for the next five years, the company expects total revenue to continue to increase at a consistent pace, given its investment and power generation capacity expansion plans.

The seamless online shopping experience will offer the same journey and impression customers get when they visit a physical IKEA store, promised the company executives.

“We see the potential – it is a potential in Thailand for IKEA. We have only been accessible within Bangkok so far, and now we will be accessible for people from across the country,” Lacia Sherlock, the deputy retail manager for Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, said.

“So we think it has potential. The delivery prices need to be affordable and all the services need to be accessible for consumers living outside of Bangkok, so that they are able to get the assembly or whatever they need.”

Over the past decades, IKEA has revolutionised the furniture and home decor industry through differentiated and unique ideas such as flat-packs, the iconic IKEA blue box store, showrooms offering practical in-store experiences and home decorating inspirations for everyone. As well there is their do-it-yourself (DIY) “We do our part, you do your part” concept, and bulk production to offer quality, affordable, functional and well-designed furniture and decorating items for people around the world.

IKEA is committed to developing products and services to create a better everyday life for the masses, and is now attempting to meet the changing lifestyles of modern shoppers who spend a considerable amount of time online. To respond to that change, IKEA developed an e-commerce platform for modern shoppers providing a convenient channel to access it products and inspirations, 24 hours a day and from anywhere in Thailand.

Sherlock said it took IKEA about two years to study the market demand, develop the infrastructure, and prepare everything before launching their e-commerce service in Southeast Asia.

“We aim to provide an impressive online shopping experience similar to the shopping experience customers get when visiting our physical stores,” she said. The online store has been available in Singapore and Malaysia within Southeast Asia. “We are pleased to now be able to provide this access to Thais. We have been wanting to do this for a long time, along with providing them with a superior experience and inspiration through both of our two Bangkok stores,” said Sherlock.

IEA soft-launched its e-commerce service in Thailand on March 26 in order to test the system and procedures and ensure they were fully functional before today’s official launch.

“Based on the soft launch I’m going to say [customer growth] was faster than Malaysia, and probably at the same pace as Singapore. So Malaysia had 5 per cent after six months and we had 5 per cent after eight weeks. So definitely faster than Malaysia, which is a surprise actually. And Singapore started out at about 7 per cent and are now on 10 per cent, so I think Thailand is probably more on Singapore’s pace,” said Sherlock.

The company also has a plan to roll out the e-commerce business in other emerging countries, in which it has a physical presence.

“We will always have physical presence together with the e-commerce platform. And the next store in the market for us is Manila, the Philippines, in November 2020,” she added. Tom Suter, the store manager for IKEA Bang Yai said, “We are grateful to IKEA’s fans who have welcomed IKEA Online Store and provided us with valuable feedback so that we could further improve our services.”

The online store chalked up 1,344,700 visits and 4,900 orders at IKEA.co.th during the two-month test run, Suter noted.

“We are looking at achieving 17,000 online orders this year. We believe that the IKEA Online Store will help strengthen IKEA Thailand and drive sustainable growth, as our popular in-store shopping experience is complemented by our new online offering.”

The airlines reinforce its world class aviation standards and excellent service aiming to accommodate the hi-end target groups that require convenience from full service. Flights from Jaipur to Bangkok is operated four flights a week; Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday while those from Bangkok to Jaipur are available on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Flights are available for two classes (Premium Economy) Smile Plus and (Economy) Smile Class. Passengers are able to book and fly on June 1st onwards. Price starts at 15,626 IDR/Person/Round Trip (all inclusive). For more information, please visit http://www.thaismileair.com, or Smile Travel Agents nationwide. Terms and Conditions apply.

Yongyut Wongteerasoot, the executive director, said early this week in Yangon that his company plans to install 20,000 mobile phone credit vending machines in Myanmar in the next few years.

Customers of Telenor, Ooredo, Mytel, MPT and 2C2P could use the machines to pay for their mobile bills, he added.

He said the company has 2C2P, a mobile phone operator, as its business partner and will work with several government agencies in Myanmar. The vending machine services include utility bill payments, he said.

Myanmar consumers preferred prepaid system as they spend on average Bt150 per month compared with Thai consumers Bt240.

With 54 million population and GDP growth around 6-7 per cent, the mobile phone market in Myanmar has increased rapidly, he said. The company plans to install 100 vending machines in the first month.