New building-materials store opens in Rangsit

It boasts more than 100,000 stock-keeping units to serve contractors and subcontractors.
Supornsri Naktanasukanjn, chief operating officer of Mega Home Centre Co, said yesterday that Mega Home occupied 34 rai (5.4 hectares) of land and had an estimated value of more than Bt500 million. The store has 20,000 square metres of space and its warehouse 10,000sqm. There is parking for 300 vehicles.
To celebrate the grand opening, the company is giving away an Apple iPad Mini Wi-Fi 16GB to qualified customers.
Mega Home’s products are divided into four categories – construction materials, system and finishing and improvement materials, furnishing materials, and home electrical and other housewares.
“Developers, furnishing materials and home and building materials are rapidly growing, which creates the potential for growth,” he said.
Home Product Center, the country’s leading home improvement retailer under the HomePro brand, is the major shareholder of Mega Home.
“Therefore, we are confident of penetrating the market by bringing a professional administration system and expertise in this business along with standards and a variety of products with reasonable prices as the advantage point in helping expand market share,” Supornsri said.
“We have leveraged the success story of HomePro as the indicator to achieve growth, making we can target our four-year plan by expanding no less than 20 Mega Home stores in all major and second-tier provinces across the country.
“Each year, we plan to open four to six stores, and each requires Bt500 million of investment.”
It expects to achieve Bt700 million to Bt800 million in annual sales at each store.
“The opening of Mega Home is focusing on the target customers – contractors, subcontractors, property developers and retail stores who want to buy products in terms of wholesale and retail – which is a different target of HomePro, as the latter targets B-plus customers who mostly are residents,” he said.
Upcountry expansion is a key part of the company’s strategy, as it will focus on provinces bordering neighbouring countries.
The second store will open late next month in Tak’s Mae Sot district. Located in front of the airport and Mae Sot Customs Boundary Post on the Myanmar border, it will have retail space of 15,000sqm. There are no competitors in this district.
Next year, a 15,000sqm Mega Home will open in Nong Khai, next to Laos. It will be followed by a store of the same size in front of Amata City Industrial Estate in Chon Buri’s Bowin district. Sites close to border provinces will be found for the remaining two to four stores.
A growing economy is a crucial reason for setting up branches in border provinces. Mae Sot has many low- and high-rise property projects and Myanmar is constructing roads and infrastructure, which fuels imports of building materials from Thailand. Last year, Myanmar accounted for 14 per cent of Thailand’s cross-border trade, and Laos 19 per cent.
“The opening of Mega Homes in border provinces will also serve our target customers, as we are interested in retailers in Thailand who sell home and construction materials to traders in Myanmar. Cement, steel and roofs are expected to have good sales,” Supornsri said.