OfficeMate to pursue franchise route for 1,000 units in five years

The firm also will increase the hotels, restaurants and cafes catalogue business this year and expects 10 percent revenue growth year on year. 
Worawoot Ounjai, the chief executive officer of COL, said the firm intends to set up OfficeMate omni-channel franchises in the fourth quarter this year. The franchise will have areas of 50100 square metres and be able to sale all products from the OfficeMate catalogue. 
The franchise fee starts at Bt2 million for areas around 50-squaremetre outlets and Bt5 million for outlets with an area of around 100 square metres. As a first step, the firm will set up three franchises in the Rangsit and RCA areas by the end of this year. 
“We expect OfficeMate to have more than 1,000 branches nationwide in the next 5-10 years. It currently has around 70 of its own branches nationwide, with each branch area ranging from 500-2,000 square metres. 
“I think that the franchise will enable COL to have a market share of 20-30 per cent for office products supplies, and increase the share to 60-70 per cent within the next 10 years. The total office products supplies market is valued at Bt30 billion per year,” said Worawoot. 
He said the firm believed the ommi-channel model would enable the franchisee to distribute all products and all catalogues of OfficeMate. The firm will offer stock management and shelves for the outlets. It will also take care of and provide training, franchise clinics and coaching.
He said that early next year it plans to increase product catalogues in the areas of medical, clinic and spas via the online channel. In the second quarter, it also provided products designed to support factories. The firm as a first step offered products supplies of around 6,000 SKUs for factories. It expects that by the end of this year it will create revenue of around Bt300 million from factories products supplies. The firm plans to provide 10 new catalogues in the next stage. 
The firm now supplies its products and servฌices to some 40,000 factories, 20,000 hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops, as well as 10,000 health and medical customers. 
COL plans to develop the OfficeMate webฌsite as an e-marketplace website. The firm will allow shops nationwide that focus on business-to-business (B2B) transactions to provide its products and services via its website. The firm will gain revenues from transaction fees.
“We will provide supply chain management to shops and display their products and servฌices via its website to cater to the ecommerce market,” said Worawoot. 
He added that the firm is expanding its business in Vietnam. The firm this year plans to set up an OfficeMate shop at Big C in Ho Chi Minh City and expects to set up OfficeMate shops at all Big C branches in Vietnam within the next three years. 
He said COL last year gained revenue of Bt12.2 billion and achieved net profit of around Bt502 million. The firm expects 10 per cent year-on-year revenue growth this year.