New Megabangna president goes for the top

Megabangna, the first low-rise super-regional mall in Southeast Asia, has appointed Srocha Laysuwan as its new president and shopping centre manager, SF Development, the operator of the mall on Bang Na-Trat Road, said yesterday. Srocha succeeded Christian Olofsson, who is now regional manager/shopping centre development at Ikano Retail Asia.  

Srocha was previously Megabangna’s deputy shopping centre manager.

The company yesterday also unveiled its marketing strategy and business direction, aimed at becoming the region’s leading shopping mall that answers to all requirements of all members of the family. 

Srocha took up the presidential position on September 1, at the age of only 37. She joined SF Development in March this year.

“I feel greatly honoured to have been entrusted with this new position. This is a challenging role in making the vision and plans concretely possible, while eventually leading to a clear result. Megabangna recently celebrated two years of success. 

“And the next step is that it will build on its success as a leading destination family mall, which will be managed by the new generation of the management team who bring with them creative ideas and initiatives,” she said.

A regular survey of consumer needs and behaviour helps the shopping mall to understand today’s consumers even more, she said. 

The customer group accounting for the highest proportion now is the modern family, and the mall is therefore developing and adding more products and services to cover more areas to meet family needs.

Around the middle of next year, Megabangna’s fashion segment will be more prominent as there are new players arriving to add to its line-up. 

In addition to a wide variety of products and services, Megabangna is also introducing new and exotic activities that reach all age groups, she said, adding that this is aimed at strengthening its position as a family shopping destination and attracting new customers, while keeping them coming back regularly.

“Megabangna emphasises the provision of convenience for customers with spacious service areas, coziness and being an ideal place with everything in it for all members of the family. 

“We pay attention to every detail. We have wheelchairs or chairs for the elderly, strollers for a family with little children. The corridors are designed to be wider, with facilities for the disabled, and so forth. These are our strengths that give us advantage over other shopping malls. 

 

Local clients 

“Today, most of our customers are Thais, and we will maintain this targeted group. Meanwhile, we are trying to create awareness of our presence among foreign customers by stressing our prime location, as we can connect to the airport, tourist destinations and key industrial estates in the eastern part of Thailand,” said the mall chief.   

Throughout the past two years, Megabangna has been continuously improved until it became the new shopping destination for shoppers, especially in the Eastern Bangkok zone. 

The company is the second-largest revenue contributor among all the companies in The Ikano Group – the foreign partner in SF Development – and the number of visitors using the services in the mall has increased by 8 per cent to 3.5 million per month, she said. 

It is expected that the number will rise to 350,000 people per day, up from 200,000 last year.

With more than 800 shops run by the mall’s tenants, sales volumes divided by categories are as follows: 34 per cent for fashion products, 24 per cent for food shops, while the remainder is accounted for by banking services, kid’s products, wellness and beauty, sports, home decoration and IT. 

The growth rate of the overall sales generated by the tenants has exceeded 20 per cent, with many shops having seen sales grow by double digits. 

For instance, Uniqlo shop’s Megabangna branch has generated the company’s highest sales in Thailand, and ranks third among its top contributors worldwide. Meanwhile, the IKEA store – a major tenant – has reported the second-highest sales for the furniture giant when compared to all branches worldwide. 

The average spending per person at the mall is Bt10,000, thanks to the fact that visitors to Megabangna intend to spend both on services and buying goods, said Srocha. 

The latest statistics show that those who spend time within the shopping centre have increased their average time there to about three hours, and that they return an average of 20 times a year. 

The company’s satisfaction survey found that most customers who use the service accept that they will come back again, she added.

“About the operating results for 2014, it is expected that Megabangna will continue its steady pace with business growth of not less than 10 per cent at the end of its third year of operation. This compares with the business growth of the retail business [as a whole], which is growing by only 6 per cent. Our growth rate for 2015 is not something we can predict right now. 

“Regarding the preparations for [increased] competition in retail business among players in the Bang Na area in the future, Megabangna is speeding up its renovation to attract residents in the outer-ring area, in the east of Bangkok. The company has a plan to develop its extended area, accounting for over 150 rai [24 hectares] of land. The new development project will include hotels, office buildings, convention centre, entertainment complex and residential projects. 

“At present, we are open for our partner developers to propose the concept of the development project that best meets the needs of Megabangna customers. We expect that we can gradually start signing the contract on renting and developing the project, as well as starting the first phase of construction, within 2015,” said the president.