CRC plans five new home-centre branches
CRC Power Retail Co Ltd, operator of homeWorks and Thai Watsadu hardware and home-improvement centres, plans to open five new stores by the end of the year in addition to the four already opened in 2011, at a total investment cost of about Bt6 billion.
"The number of customers who shop at the stores dropped an average of 3 per cent, but customer spending per head increased 10 per cent to an average of Bt1,900 per bill," he said.
The company targets total sales of Bt5.4 billion this year, up 60 per cent from last year, with 10 per cent from existing stores and the rest from four new branches opened in the first eight months of this year.
About 70 per cent of its customer are end-users, 25 per cent are contractors and rest are resale shops.
"We believe that our sales will achieve the targeted Bt5.4 billion, as we have set aside a marketing budget Bt100 million to promote the 11th homeWorks Expo between September 30 and October 9 at BITEC, Bang Na. We target 600,000 visitors and sales of Bt530 million for the 10-day event," he said.
The company has already opened four of the planned nine new branches for this year. They are located at Bang Na, Sukhapibarn 3, Phitsanulok province and Lampang province. They are all Thai Watsadu stores, which distribute construction raw materials.
Suthisarn said the company will open another five Thai Watsadu and homeWorks branches, worth Bt3 billion, in the last four months of this year, with one opening this week in Buri Ram province.
"Our new branch in Bang Na got positive feedback from the market because this location has many new construction sites, such as new HomePro and IKEA stores. As a result, this branch has recorded high sales compared to other brands," he said.
