Office Mate pioneer goes from strength to strength
Worawoot Onujai pioneered selling office supplies through catalogues and online channels a decade ago. Today, his company Office Mate has become a familiar name among purchasing officers throughout the country, probably no less known than giant firms like Office Depot or Makro Office.
Operating without a single physical outlet, Office Mate's sales jumped more than 40 per cent to Bt700 million last year. "Our sales are similar to Office Depot's, and Makro Office's sales are less than double ours, although it has 19 outlets," Worawoot said. It was Dutch giant Makro that inspired him to step into catalogue sales. The son of a small stationery shop owner in Ekamai, Worawoot witnessed the entry of Makro about 20 years ago and thought selling through catalogues could be a way for small local shops to survive the competition from big-budget, multinational companies. It has been his life goal since then. He wrote his master's thesis on opening an office supplies shop with no branches but selling through only through catalogues and online channels. Soon after graduating, Worawoot used his thesis as a business plan and opened Office Mate in 1995. But in a few years came the worst Thai economic crisis in modern history. Office Mate saw its sales drop by two-thirds immediately after the baht float in July 1997. "But I decided to do things in reverse. I spent all my money to expand the business in the belief that catalogues would answer the needs of businesses during the bad times," Worawoot said. And he was right. Cash-strapped companies found buying office supplies through Office Mate's catalogue saved them money. Competitors also were not that active during the risky period. The firm saw its sales triple in six months to about Bt10 million a month - truly exceptional in early 1999. Office Mate has used both catalogues and the Net since its early days but it began focusing seriously on the Web channel only about four to five years ago. Although Worawoot helped set up the Thai E-commerce Still Association late last year, it is still unclear when online retailing will take off. "It will definitely come, but we don't know when since it depends on factors that we can't control, like when the government will come up with legislation to ensure consumer protection when purchasing online, and also when consumer behaviour will change." Now only 10 per cent of Office Mate's sales are online. Pichaya ChangsornThe Nation
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