The Land and Houses subsidiary failed to reap a profit from sales in the quarter because of huge increases in the cost of sales and selling and administrative expenses. Its revenues relied mainly on other income and special items from valuation.

The company's gross profit margin rose only 13.97 per cent, down from 24.31 per cent in last year's first quarter.

In the first quarter, Q-Con's sales revenues increased 26.63 per cent year on year to Bt269.02 million as a result of customer-based expansion to serve rising capacity use, the company said.

However, the improved revenues were not enough to cover escalating expenses, because the cost of sales totalled Bt231.45 million, up 30.5 per cent year on year. As a result, the company's gross profit was only Bt37.57 million, down 27.25 per cent year on year.

Moreover, selling and administrative expenses jumped 25.28 per cent on year to Bt49.7 million, because the company launched a variety of marketing activities for continuous promotion. Marketing budgets were spent appropriately to meet competition in the industry, said the company.

It had a loss from sales of Bt12.12 million, compared with a profit from sales of Bt11.97 million in the first quarter of last year.

However, other income of Bt4.33 million and a reversed profit on evaluation of Bt3.5 million helped reduce the company's losses. The loss from operations was Bt4.31 million, compared with a profit from operations of Bt9.1 million in last year's first quarter.

Interest expenses rose 20.56 per cent from last year's first quarter to Bt17.3 million, due to the accelerating lending interest rate. Earlier, the company borrowed from commercial banks for its capacity expansion.

Q-Con is chaired by Anant Asavabhokin, with Payont Sakdejyont, who holds a 2.81-per-cent stake, as managing director.

As of April 9, Land and Houses was a major shareholder, owning 31.41 per cent of all shares, followed by Quality Houses and Asian Property Development.