Siam Makro Plc, the operator of Makro cash-and-carry stores, has more than tripled its investment budget this year to ramp up expansion at home and abroad.
Suchada Ithijarukul, the company's chief executive, said Siam Makro has increased the investment budget to 8.5 billion baht from last year's 2.5 billion to accelerate expansion this year.
Of the total budget, 5.2 billion baht will be used for opening seven or eight new branches under Makro and Makro Food Service; for renovating existing stores; and for IT development.
As well, the company plans to launch a new "digital store" format in Lat Krabang district in the third quarter of 2019.
Some 2.7 billion baht will be used to open two branches abroad. The company will open its first store in China in Guangzhou and another branch in Yangon, Myanmar. Both will be under Makro's own investment.
The company began expanding with foreign stores in 2017, starting with Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, then it opened its first three Indian branches in Delhi last year.
The remaining 600 million baht will be used to expand the business of Siam Food Services, the importer and distributor of frozen and chilled products under Siam Makro Plc, in Thailand and overseas.
Makro has 129 stores in Thailand: 79 Makro Classic stores, 25 Siam Food Services stores, 13 Eco Plus stores, five Makro Food shops and seven Siam Frozen shops.
The company has also branched out into several other countries in Asia, including Singapore, Dubai and Vietnam.
According to Mrs Suchada, in Thailand the company will put more focus on opening small stores with retail space of 2,000 square metres to accelerate the business expansion this year.
"Consumer spending in the first quarter of this year was better than in the same period last year," Mrs Suchada said. "It may be because of the election and the improvement in agricultural product prices."
The company is set to increase sales on a par with or better than GDP growth this year. Total sales grew by 3.3% in 2018 to 192 billion baht.
Some 96% of 2018 sales came from the Makro business and the remaining 4% from overseas operations and Siam Food Services.
The company expects the sales portion from trading and overseas stores to account for 20% of total sales within the next five years.