Lamptan spending Bt1 billion on community mall on Rama II
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Lighting firm notes luxury homes springing up in area
Lighting firm Lamptan Group has expanded its budget to Bt1 billion to develop the Bright community mall on Rama II Road.
Director Kijsada Chaisanguan-mitt said yesterday that the group’s market research showed that demand for luxury housing on Rama II was growing rapidly, while the group has vacant land close to its factory nearby.
The project will have 17,000 square metres, of which more than half or 9,000 square metres will be for retail space and the rest for a car park and green area.
Construction is expected to take a year. If it is fully booked, it will generate about Bt100 million in rental income a year, or about 10 per cent of the group’s total annual revenue of about Bt1 billion.
Foodland Supermarket Co has agreed to open a branch at the Bright, which would act as a magnet for other vendors to open their outlets there.
Bright will focus on the upper-middle-income market, people who earn more than Bt70,000 a month and have the purchasing power to support an average of Bt1,950 per bill. This is different from other shopping centres in this location.
Rama II already has Central Rama II, Tesco Lotus and Big C serving the market of 180,000 families or 425,000 people in the vicinity, according to a survey by Lamptan Property Co. This figure is a challenge for its expansion in retail in this location.
“Lighting is still our main business, but we decided to expand in property when saw the business opportunity to develop our undeveloped land to generate income for the group. But it is not our main business at this time,” Kijsada said.
However, if the retail business is successful, the group’s subsidiary Lamptan Property, which was established last year with registered capital of Bt400 million, will conduct a feasibility study on developing residential projects on two plots along Rama II Road. The plots average 20 rai (3.2 hectares) each.
The focus would be on detached-housing and townhouse projects rather than condominiums.
“We will invest step by step. If retail is successful, we will decide to invest in residential developments next, maybe in 2016 or 2017. That depends on demand in the market,” he said.
Lamptan’s lighting business is still expanding both domestically and overseas, but revenue is targeted at Bt1 billion this year, the same as last year, because export demand has dropped while domestic demand is still strong.
Domestic demand for lighting has now shifted from fluorescent to LED (light-emitting diodes). The company needs to invest in LED to compete with global brands that are now the leaders in the local market, he said.
The lighting market is worth Bt10 billion, of which 10 per cent is LED and 90 per cent fluorescent. However, in three years, LED will account for 50 per cent, so the group has to expand in LED products, while the property business will be a part of the group’s strategy to boost its total revenue for the long term, Kijsada said.
