Robinson Plc (ROBINS), the SET-listed department store developer under Central Group, has set a five-year plan to invest a combined 15 billion baht to expand its branches, particularly in Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) areas and secondary cities being promoted by the government.
The plan, part of Central Group's five-year investment plan worth 200 billion baht, aims to increase net sales and Robinson's rental area to 1.2 million square metres from 950,000 sq m in 2017, said Wuttikiat Techamongklapiwat, the company's president.
He said the company will budget an average of 3 billion baht to open two or three new Robinson department stores a year on plots of 35 rai, renovate existing stores and acquire new land plots.
The expansion will focus largely on upcountry areas where there is still room to grow due to less competitiveness, Mr Wuttikiat said.
This year alone, the company will spend 3-3.5 billion baht on expansion, 1 billion baht of which will go to opening a new Robinson lifestyle centre in Chon Buri province in the third quarter.
The new branch will be located behind Amata City Industrial Park with sales space of 36,000 sq m. It will be the 47th Robinson in Thailand and the 21st branch under the lifestyle centre format.
"Eastern areas offer better potential than other regions, thanks to urbanisation, growing tourism and a strong industrial sector," Mr Wuttikiat said.
The company runs five Robinsons in the East: one each in Rayong, Chanthaburi and Chachoengsao and two in Chon Buri.
The new branch will be the third Robinson in Chon Buri after Pacific Park Sriracha Shopping Center and Central Plaza Shopping Center Chonburi.
The two-storey building is being developed in response to the economic expansion and increasing purchasing power in the eastern region, especially in Chon Buri, due to the EEC.
Mr Wuttikiat said the company will also allocate 800 million baht to open another Robinson lifestyle centre in Chaiyaphum province in the fourth quarter of this year.
It will be the 48th Robinson and the 22nd under the lifestyle format. Robinson's Chaiyaphum branch will have over 32,000 sq m.
Mr Wuttikiat said Chaiyaphum's economic growth is strong because of the textile industry and agriculture. The government is also promoting tourism in secondary provinces like Chaiyaphum.
The remaining 1.2 billion baht will be used to buy other plots of land for future expansion and to renovate existing Robinson branches this year.
For merchandise products, the company will rely more on private labels to continuously increase profit in the long term.
The portion of own-label products will rise to 20% of overall sales in 2022, up from 11.3% last year.
Apart from store expansion, Robinson this year plans to actively expand into the online channel.
With today's customers preferring to browse products on various channels, Robinson will leverage the number of branches spreading across the country and the online "Click and Collect" shopping system at shopping.robinson.co.th to fulfil and integrate the online and offline shopping experience.
Moreover, the company plans to launch social e-commerce service, selling products on Robinson's social media channel, in the third quarter of this year.
For 2017, Robinson reported revenue from sale of goods of 25.98 billion baht, down 0.3% from 26.07 billion baht in 2016, with net profit dropping 2.6% to 2.74 billion baht.
ROBINS shares closed Wednesday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 62.75 baht, down 75 satang, in trade worth 201.7 million baht.