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PERSONAL-CARE SERVICES
Pitsinee Jitpleecheep
Surangrath: Top-five ranking in Dubai possible |
Thai Privilege Spa Co, the local luxury spa chain owned by Surangrath Chirathivat, has signed a contract with a property group in Dubai as part of its overseas spa expansion.
Mrs Surangrath, the company's CEO, said the business deal with AMA Hospitality, a subsidiary of Nebula Group, a property development and souvenir imaging group in Dubai, was signed early this month to open three Thai Privilege Spa outlets under a franchise basis within four years.
The first stand-alone spa is expected to open near Jumeirah Beach Road in the middle of September. Another two outlets will be located in Saja and Abu Dhabi in the coming years.
Mrs Surangrath said the company collected franchise fees of $200,000 and expected to have $1.2 million in sales in the first year. The company expects to increase its sales in Dubai by 20-30% per year.
Fifteen therapists and three management executives would be sent to work at the spa, which will open in a European-Arab style with external and internal Thai modern architecture. The spa has space of 500 square metres with 20 service units. Its customer targets are affluent local residents, expatriates and foreign tourists.
"Though there are up to 250 spa outlets available in Dubai at present, we saw a huge potential to expand our business there because people in Dubai have a high standard of living," said Mrs Surangrath, adding that the Dubai market was very multinational.
It is projected that 75-80% of the population are expatriates from more than 40 countries who work and live in the booming seaport city.
She added that according to a company survey, the average spending for spa treatments per head was as high as US$100. Moreover, Dubai alone has a population of 1.67 million and had 15 million tourists in 2007. The number of spas in Dubai is forecast to grow by 30% because more than 250 hotels chains are available there.
"Most well-known international spa chains now provide their spa treatments there. But we are still confident of growing our business and realising our plan of making Thai Privilege Spa a top five popular spa in a short period," Mrs Surangrath said.
She is not worried about competition because TPS has learned and experienced successful spa management in New York and China the past four years. Both countries offer tough competition and the company has had to confront difficult trade regulations.
The company plans to open 15 spa outlets internationally this year. Apart from the Dubai deal, Thai Privilege Spa expects to open an additional five spas in the United States, Macau and India this year.
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