Boonthavorn Ceramic Co, a retailer of bathroom and kitchenware and tiles, plans to

spend up to Bt700 million to open two new branches, renovate one of its four existing outlets and develop its IT systems.

The company is renovating its branch on Bangna-Trad road as well as expanding its floor area from 2,000 to 14,000 square metres. It will also add house paint to its line-up of products at the Bang Na site.

At the same time, two new branches are on the drawing boards, one on Kaset-Navamin road on 8 hectares and one in Pattaya on nearly two hectares. Both are expected to be finished this year.

The company's two new IT systems, costing a total of Bt10 million, will deal with business intelligence and warehouse management.

The business intelligence system will enable the company to track the buying behaviour of both individual and corporate customers.

This should help it better inform it and its suppliers of trends in demand and it should help its customers find products that are more to their liking.

The warehouse management system will improve the company's management of inventory. It will be installed at Boonthavorn's distribution centre in Rangsit.

Viroj said Boontavorn would allocate Bt150 million to marketing and promotions this year, more than in 2005.

Part of the increase will be devoted to a new marketing activity that features monthly events.

The company will invite professionals in various fields such as bathroom decoration, kitchen decoration, and the use of specific equipment.

Each such event will cost Bt500,000.

Boonthavorn expects Bt7 billion in sales this year, 30 per cent more than the Bt5.5 billion it logged in 2005. Its sales growth last year was 21 per cent.

The company's growth in the first two months of this year was only 15 per cent compared to the same period in 2005, a drop the company blamed on the political problems.

But the recent drop in house sales has not affected the company, according to Viroj.

Although a fall in new houses purchases would normally cut into sales, but Boonthavorn has a bigger group of customers, those who are renovating their current houses.

Ninety per cent of its customers are consumers and the rest are corporate customers and property developers.

Boothavorn is also planning to expand into major provinces.

The company owns land in Chiang Mai and is looking for a location in Phuket.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation