Two jeans distributors, Mc Group and DKSH (Thailand), will continue their business plans as usual for the rest of the year even though they faced slow sales growth in the first half.
MC Group recently launched Mc Mini, a collection of jeans aimed at children up to the age of 12, in order to widen its customer base.
Mc Group, the maker and distributor of Mc jeans, and DKSH (Thailand), the distributor of Levi's jeans, plan to open more shops in new locations to reach more consumers in the last five months.
DKSH (Thailand) will open four or five new outlets before the year-end. Prior to this, the company introduced the first Levi's store at Suvarnabhumi airport to cash in on the high purchasing power of local and foreign travellers.
With good feedback from customers at the international airport, DKSH is looking to open more Levi's outlets at other airports next year, said Peter Hornby, general manager for consumer goods and fashion apparels.
"Regardless of the economic situation, the fashion and retail market in Thailand is still challenging," he said.
Apart from opening more new stores, the company is planning to bring in more Levi's accessories at its stores.
Meanwhile, Sunee Seripanu, CEO of Mc Group, accepts that sales of Mc jeans in the first half of the year grew 13-14%, well below its earlier projection of 20%. This was due to the political impasse.
However, the company saw a gradual rebound in consumer sentiment after farmers received money from the rice-pledging scheme.
The momentum of positive consumer sentiment remains and the company believes the purchasing power of consumers will be back to normal in the fourth quarter. This will be spurred by the National Council for Peace and Order's investment policy on mega infrastructure projects.
"We continued our investment here even in the first half of the year when the economy was not quite good. We have prepared our business plan and looked at the long term," Ms Sunee said.
The company plans to open 50 Mc outlets across the country as well as promote marketing activities to stimulate sales.
Mc Group plans to launch Mc Plus, a new collection for senior people in October. Before this, the company expanded its customer base by introducing Mc Mini for children aged up to 12.
Apart from Thailand, the company is planning to appoint a Myanmar distributor to distribute its watches in Myanmar in the fourth quarter of this year.
The move to Myanmar is the result of a warm response it received from Myanmar customers after entering this market for eight months.
MC shares closed yesterday on the SET at 19.90 baht,up 30 satang, in trade worth 11.3 million baht.