Lawson 108 to speed up expansion through franchising

The company will start franchising its Lawson 108 shops to interested investors by the end of this year, aimed at speeding up the expansion.
Vathit Chokwatana, vice president of Saha Pathanapibul, said Lawson 108 stores had been operating in Thailand for four years. There now are 88 Lawson 108 stores in 10 provinces, 70 of which are in Bangkok. 
In addition to a wide variety of consumer products, Lawson 108 offers bill-payment services for more than 80 organisations, accepts payment by credit card without minimum purchases or service charges, and provides top-ups for mobile phones and online games.
Vathit said the company aimed to have 100 shops up and running by the end of this year.
Koreaki Tamura, managing director of Saha Lawson Co, said that during its first three years, the company had focused on opening Lawson 108 stores in office buildings as well as along the MRT routes. However, the expansion was quite slow compared with big players in the convenience-store market.
“The new model of franchising will play a significant role in the expansion of Lawson 108 stores in the market from now on,” he said.
“There are still tremendous opportunities for the company to penetrate Thailand’s convenience-store market. There are currently about 4,000 shoppers going into each Lawson 108 store in Thailand on a daily basis on average.” 
Saha Lawson Co is a joint venture that was established by Saha Group, a major consumer-goods company in Thailand, and Japanese convenience-store giant Lawson Inc, with registered capital of Bt937 million.
Saha Lawson Co yesterday announced the celebration of Lawson 108’s fourth anniversary in Thailand with the launch of a big campaign titled “Japan Lucky Every Day”, offering customers the chance to win prizes worth more than Bt2 million in total. 
The prizes include original Japanese patented Kumamon merchandise, 100 cash vouchers and 10 pairs of round-trip air tickets to Kumamoto, Japan, including a tour package for a five-day, three-night getaway with actress Khemanit “Pancake” Jamikorn. 
The campaign runs from now until August 31 at all 88 Lawson 108 stores nationwide.