Mugiwara One Piece enters Thailand
THAILAND has become the second market outside of Japan to have a Mugiwara One Piece store, after Taiwan.
Dream 16 Co, an affiliate of Dream Express, which holds the store licence for Thailand, hopes to break even on the venture within 18 to 24 months thanks to the growing demand for One Piece merchandise.
Dream 16 has invested more than Bt10 million to open the outlet, located on the second floor of Gateway Ekamai, to tap Thai consumers who are fans of Japanese One Piece manga and TV anime.
The company is unable |to forecast the actual customer base for anime in Thailand, |but One Piece merchandise |in the Kingdom is valued at |over Bt100 million, Vichien Vangveravongsa, managing director of Dream 16 and general manager of Dream Express, said yesterday.
The total market value of One Piece in Thailand, including merchandise, is around Bt500 million, he said, adding that target customers are teenagers and white-collar workers.
Because of the varied purchasing power of Thai customers, the Mugiwara One Piece store at Gateway Ekamai has both imported goods as well those manufactured in Thailand.
Some imported items on sale at the store might be 30-60 per cent more expensive than the same items sold at Mugiwara shops in Japan, due to import duty and transportation costs, Vichien said.
Hence, some items should be locally produced to appeal mass-market customers, while high purchasing-power customers can afford the imported products on display, he added.
Around 60 per cent of the products at the Thai Mugiwara Store are imported.
The managing director explained that he had founded Dream 16 to run the anime retail business, while Dream Express was the licensor of One Piece in Thailand and many famous international anime brands.
Meanwhile, the local licence for the Mugiwara One Piece store belongs to Toei Animation Enterprise, which is based in Hong Kong.
Taiwan was the first country outside of Japan to have a Mugiwara store, with the outlet now generating monthly sales of US$50,000-$100,000 (Bt1.74 million-Bt3.48 million).
Hideaki Udagawa, president of Toei Animation Enterprise, said the company planned to open more stores in international markets, although he was not in a position to disclose details.
Dream 16 hopes to open a further Mugiwara store in Thailand under its mid-term plan, but the company first wants to ensure there is positive feedback from the first outlet, for which sales of Bt40 million are targeted in the first year of operation through to next August, Vichien said.
The company will embrace digital media to promote the store and organise promotional campaigns and marketing events to build sales, with the latter strategy having proved successful for the outlet in Taiwan, the MD added.
Dream 16 has set aside a marketing budget of Bt4 million-Bt5 million for events and promotions.
While it would ideally like to have allocated more, spending on marketing activities should be made cautiously in light of continued economic uncertainty, he said.
