Transport firm plans big changes
Chao Phraya Express Boat Co, the leading water-transport service provider, will focus on modernising its existing business and expanding into property development under a Bt1-billion, four-year business plan.
"It's our biggest change for our 40th anniversary. Operating for three generations, we hope this opportunity to promote ourselves to the public will let them learn more about us," Supaphan Pichaironarongsonkram, chairman of the company and Supatra Co, a ferry service provider, said yesterday.
The company will spend Bt80 million to set up a new head office in Nonthaburi to serve the rising number of passengers, which are forecast to be concentrated in the north of Bangkok.
It will spend Bt200 million to open a 70-room boutique hotel along the Chao Phraya River by March and Bt200 million to Bt300 million to build a community shopping plaza near Siriraj Hospital on 8 rai (1.3 hectares) of land.
Supaphan said the companies had to improve their marketing strategy to change their image and grow their customer base.
Passengers are expected to increase after the Purple and Red lines of the urban-transit system open by 2015.
Moving the head office from Bangkok to Nonthaburi will enhance the company's operating efficiency, since boat passengers will be able to connect with the mass-transit system.
The company plans to join with the Bangkok Mass Transit System in forging a common ticketing system.
The company's services include running express boats with 35,000-40,000 passengers on workdays and 20,000-25,000 passengers on Saturdays and Sundays, tourist boats, a tour service, boat rental and an exclusive service boat for its hotel customers.
Managing director Parinya Rakwatin said the company's total revenue was forecast to reach Bt250 million this year, of which Bt200 million will come from the express-boat business and the rest from the other services.
However, revenue is expected to be flat next year in line with the unchanged number of passengers.
The company expects that passengers will increase after the two new train lines open. It wants the government to build access piers at Rama VII Bridge to serve rising demand.
"The success of those developments will push the company's passengers to 70,000-80,000 per day," Parinya said.
The company is also studying new express-boat models such as catamarans, which will be bigger than its existing vessels and promise energy savings of 20 per cent. Each new-design boat will cost Bt50 million and the company aims to add 10 of them to its fleet.
