Car alarm company to open new branches

The company will also diversify into the hospitality and home-building business in 2013.

Managing director Viboon Vongsilpwattana told The Nation yesterday that the first new car-alarm branch would be in Nakhon Ratchasima and the next one in Bangkok, bringing the total to six by the middle of next year.

Three of the four existing branches are in Bangkok on Pattanakarn Soi 32, Rattanathibeth and Rama I roads, and one is also in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Its branches have both a car-service centre and a sales office for its car-alarm products.

The software firm will develop Global Positioning System tracking for car owners who set up its GPS system in their vehicle. The system will show the present location of the vehicle and also when the car door is opened and the engine started.

The company will spend about Bt100 million on the two expansion plans.

At present, it has three business units – import and sales of ABT remote-controlled car alarms, upgrade of car-alarm systems, and installation of GPS tracking systems in cars.

The company operated under the name Automatic Business Trading until 1996.

Its revenue averages Bt200 million a year – Bt150 million from the car-alarm business and Bt50 million from the other two businesses.

The company now leads the market for remote-control car-alarm systems valued at about Bt400 million a year.

A new brand priced at only Bt2,000 will be introduced after the firm faced tough competition from cheaper alarm systems made in China.

"We have to develop our products to compete with our rivals in the market to maintain our share," Viboon said.

The government’s first-car scheme drove its business growth over its estimate, but it has limited staff to cope with demand.

"We have the ability to install only 4,000 alarm systems a month but the demand now is more than 10,000 units a month. That is why we have to delay setting up systems for our customers from this year to next year," he said.

BUSINESS DIVERSIFICATION

With the initial success in the car-alarm business, Automatic Business Group is now developing a Bt70-million boutique hotel, Valata Khaoyai, which will start to open this year. This new business will support its core business, car security, when its foreign customers visit its branches.

The hospitality business has potential to grow in the long term. This is better than putting money in bank deposits, where returns are low, Viboon said.

Building the Khao Yai hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima inspired him to set up a contracting company to build homes next year.

"We have enough staff for this business," he said.

The new businesses, hospitality and construction, require little capital and will support the group’s core business in the long run, he believes.

Automatic Business Group was established in 1991 with registered capital Bt5 million. It faced a financial crisis in 1997 when the baht was allowed to depreciate. The company suffered losses of Bt56 million. It had to restructure its debt by keeping all its staff but reducing its inventory and managing its expansion cost until it pulled out of the stall in 2001.

"We learned from the crisis that to do anything we have to be careful, so we will invest when we’re confident that it will not risk our business in the long haul," Viboon said.