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Kijja Pattamasattayasonthi, CEO of furniture maker Chic Republic, says that consumers are now looking for higher quality and individual style in interior decor.
Kijja Pattamasattayasonthi, CEO of Chic Republic, Thailand’s first premium home fashion chain, has recently introduced the “Mod-trad” interior style to the furniture market.
A former chief executive of Index Living Mall, Kijja hopes to differentiate his products from other furniture makers in the country.
“From the production point of view, the economy of scale is the key because factories generally aim to produce items in large quantities for the mass market.
“However, the new Mod-trad style emerged in Europe about 5 or 6 years ago, so we launched Chic Republic based on this concept about a year ago when the first branch was opened in Bangkok.
“The consumer trend favours something different, and we call it Mod-trad, or a combination of modern styles and traditional styles.
“Traditional styles mean classical, vintage, our American Country styles. They are in the market for a long time but we modify and update the beauty of the past to suit the modern lifestyle.
“Our customers want to have something different from the modern styles, but they do not want too much classical or vintage. Our target groups are those with a household income of over Bt100,000 per month, who are as young as 30 and up to age 50-60.
“They are well educated and want to use furniture that reflects their lifestyle, tastes and values in the same way that they choose clothing and other personalised products.
“We are not mass or low-priced furniture makers, but we ensure good quality and materials.
“You could say that we’re probably the first company in the Asean countries to introduce this concept of home fashion.
“Thailand will join the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, so I believe that this concept will soon spread to other Asean markets. Over the past year, we have been approached by potential partners to do franchising, joint ventures and other forms of business in other Asean markets.
“We still have time to prepare for the AEC. In my opinion, Singapore is a very international market for furniture due to its mix of population types and expatriates, so consumer expectations are very high, but the market size is small, even though the purchasing power is very high.
“Malaysia is different, with a lower purchasing power, so we need some time to educate consumers. For Thailand, consumers are constantly looking for better and better quality of furniture.
“Over the past decade, the Thai condo market has been growing rapidly, with rising quality in materials and interior work. Other forms of residential development projects such as single houses have also reached a higher level of quality.
“This has helped create the new market segment for mod-trad home fashion, as exemplified by Chic Republic. The trend started out in Europe about five years ago and in the US about three years ago.
“In Japan, I saw this trend about two years ago. Now, it’s in Bangkok and is expected to go to other Asean markets soon.
“Consumers also prefer the mix-and-match concept. Instead of one style for all pieces in one house, people now prefer one style for sofas, another style for the dining area, for example.
“This is the same for clothing, as you see more people wearing different styles in a single day.
“We hope this trend will catch on in other AEC countries soon,” he said.
