TVD, Beauty Community map out plans to drive sales

Songpol Shanmatkit, chief executive officer of TVD, said its income was expected to rise as it sells more high-margin products such as supplementary diets and cosmetics. In the past, TVD has focused on sales of exercise equipment with relatively low margins.
TVD targets this year’s income to grow by 16 per cent to Bt3.99 billion and net profit margin to increase to 3 per cent from last year’s 0.42 per cent, while trying to maintain its gross profit margin at 50-51 per cent. 
TVD expects to earn Bt200 million from online sales this year. Last year’s online sales totalled Bt130 million.
Songpol said TVD would mix online and offline trading for higher efficiency and sales through TV channels would be intensified.
However, risks exist this year with technological competition and changes in consumer behaviour, obliging TVD to accelerate its work-system improvements, he said.
This year, TVD will invest in personnel management, particularly staff for its call centre. It aims to increase its call-centre staff from 650 to 800.
TVD will join forces with Tri-Stage Inc of Japan, a home-shopping operator, to strengthen its business. It expects to finalise this deal in the third quarter of this year.
On another front, Beauty Community is gearing up for investment in new branches locally and abroad as a way to boost sales amid improvement in consumer purchasing power as a result of the government’s stimulus measures this year.
CEO Suwin Kraiphubet said that of the Bt160 million in this year’s investment budget, Bt110 million would be used to finance 50 more branches, and the remaining Bt50 million would be used to improve software and hardware systems for higher sales efficiency and marketing activities. 
Of the 50 planned new branches, 30 will be Beauty Buffet shops, 15 Beauty Cottage shops and five Beauty Market shops, he said.
This year, Beauty plans to open 10 more branches in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia and 10-15 branches in the form of independent shops in the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) subregion, he said.
In February, Beauty appointed its first authorised distributor in the Philippines on expectation of opening its first shop there next quarter, while planning four to five new branches before the end of this year. 
The company is studying distribution channels in China and expects a clearer picture within the next two or three years. 
Beauty expects its income to rise to at least Bt3.1 billion this year, compared with last year’s Bt2.56 billion. 
It expects the local cosmetics market to expand by 7-9 per cent this year.
Suwin expects Beauty’s net profit margin at no less than 20 per cent. Last year’s figure was 25.64 per cent despite high competition.