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Published on October 2, 2007

With ownership of personal computers growing rapidly in Thailand, one of the country's biggest information-technology (IT) superstores, IT City, is planning a major expansion to take advantage of spiralling sales.

IT City, which sells computers, peripherals and IT-related products, was established in 1996, when it occupied the 5th and 6th floors of Bangkok's Pantip Plaza, Thailand's biggest computer centre.

It began with a staff of 100 but now employs more than 1,200 people and has more than 150 suppliers. Its business has spread to 30 branches: 17 in Bangkok and 13 in nine major provinces throughout the Kingdom.

In its first year, IT City generated revenue of Bt500 million, with 5,000 IT products on its shelves. After a decade, its revenue grew more than tenfold to Bt5.2 billion last year from about 8,000 IT products.

President Ekachai Sirijirapatana attributes his company's success to teamwork and the company's executive board.

"Our 10 executive-board members and more than 1,200 staff have put in a lot of effort. They are the keys to IT City's success. We work as team. I'm not the only one leading us to success," Ekachai says.

The company provides one-stop IT-products service and a one-price policy with a nationwide warranty.

"The IT superstores have a one-price policy, which enables us to manage all our branches to the same standard of customer service," he says.

IT products are enjoying high growth in Thailand, because there is still a low penetration rate of computers to population. Less than 10 per cent of the population has a computer installed at home, a low rate compared with that of other countries, so the growth rate is expected to climb as people learn how to use IT products to add quality and comfort to their lives.

Ekachai says since IT City changed to provide a one-stop service, people have been visiting its stores in search of information and knowledge before deciding to buy. As a result, more than 300,000 shoppers visit IT City's 30 branches each month.

These days, the superstore divides its customers into four categories: the government sector, large organisations, small- and medium-sized enterprises and home-office or home users.

The home-office group enjoys the highest market growth, but the government sector also has high growth, because of efforts to use IT and computers to enhance productivity and public service.

Ekachai says the company plans to open another five branches this year.

"IT City now has 30 superstores. There's plenty of room for the company to expand its business to cover the rest of Thailand in the future," says Ekachai, pointing out there are 75 provinces outside of Bangkok and that IT City has a presence in only nine of them.

In its efforts to make IT products affordable to all customers, it is considering a presence within some of the Thailand's large "modern trade" retailers and is even considering opening branches abroad.

Jirapan Boonnoon

 The Nation