HomePro shakes off floods, plans store openings
Despite the massive floods, which caused a temporary closure of major branches in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces, Home Products Centre, the operator of HomePro stores, is committed to investing between Bt2.5 billion and Bt3 billion on opening eight to
Nath Jaritchana, executive vice president for marketing, yesterday said the company would open its 45th store, in Sakon Nakhon province, this December 16.
“For new store expansion, we will open only one HomePro store in Bangkok next year, at the Mega Bangna complex on Bang Na-Trat Road. Another store already confirmed to be opened in the first quarter of next year will be in Trang province,” he said.
The executive said most of the new branches planned for next year would be under the second-tier store format, occupying up to 6,000 square metres of retail space. First-tier stores have more than 10,000sqm of space.
“Our expansion strategy next year is to focus more on penetrating second-tier provinces, which have seen strong potential for the development of modern home-improvement centres,” he added.
Nath said HomePro’s goal was to become a retail leader in the home-improvement market for items required for the construction, decoration and refurbishment of homes, together with the provision of complete services such as “one-stop shopping” to attain the highest level of customer satisfaction.
At present, the company stocks more than 60,000 products. It has also established a training centre to develop personnel at all levels so that they have the knowledge and ability to provide good service to customers.
Nath said the flooding crisis had affected the company, which had been forced to close its HomePro stores in Ayutthaya, Lop Buri, Lam Luk Ka in Pathum Thani, Bang Khae, Phetkasem and Rangsit for four or five days. All of these branches have now been reopened and are back to normal operations, however.
“We have already restored our distribution centre at Wang Noi, which had been flooded for almost a month,” he said.
HomePro posted Bt20.6 billion in sales for the first nine months of the year, up 19.5 per cent over the same period last year. Net profit surged 26.2 per cent to Bt1.3 billion.
“We achieved no less than 15-per-cent sales growth in the third quarter alone compared with the same quarter last year. However, the massive floods, which hit our stores in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces, caused our sales [year to date] to stand at between 5 and 10 per cent below the target,” Nath said.
However, despite the floods, the company expects to achieve 15-per-cent sales growth for the full year.
Meanwhile, the company yesterday announced an investment of more than Bt100 million in its “Home Pro Volunteer” project, launched to help flood victims.
