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Published on October 8, 2007

"Now we rank in the top three but we hope to be No 1 in value, volume and brand image. That's our goal to drive us this decade," CEO Apichart Chutrakul said last week.

The company's strategic plan calls for sharper focus for the group's units by segmenting the market by type of residence and home-buyer purchasing power.

Sansiri will aim at the premium market with both single-family homes and condominiums. Its subsidiary, Plus Property, will cater to the middle market for townhouses and condos.

Prompattana will concentrate on the middle- to lower-income market by offering townhouses under Bt2 million.

And Red Lotus will serve foreign customers interested in owning a second home here, especially in tourist destinations like Hua Hin, Phuket and Pattaya.

"We separated our firms to cover all customer targets because that will make it easy to provide good service to match with differing demands," he said.

Sansiri has developed 34 detached home and condo projects in Bangkok and Hua Hin, while Plus Property has developed 26 projects in Bangkok, Prompattana has about two projects and Red Lotus three projects in Hua Hin.

The group has registered presales worth Bt20 billion this year that will be booked as revenue over three years, starting this quarter.

In the first half, presales of Bt12 billion were short of the target of Bt15 million, but net profit was Bt87.28 million on revenues of Bt5.6 billion.

"We admit that our margin of 28 per cent is lower than the market average of 30 per cent, but we're strongly confident in our business stability to compete with our rivals," Apichart said.

The group will continue to concentrate on Bangkok and Hua Hin, Pattaya and Phuket.

In Hua Hin, the company has long experience developing residential projects since Sansiri was set up in 1988. It has developed seven residential projects, five of which have sold out.

Its latest development in the beach resort was launched last week, called Baan Nap Kluen. The condo project worth Bt1.2 billion is designed to appeal to both locals and foreigners. Its grand opening is not until October 20-23, but it has already succeeded in preselling 11 per cent or 20 units out of the 180 available.

For next year, the company is studying two or three single-family home and condo projects in Hua Hin, and residential projects in Pattaya and Phuket.

"When we want to be No 1, we have to launch a number of property projects and create our business differently from the leader in the market now," Apichart said.

To make itself stand out in the market, the company plans to build brand value via its after-sales service and corporate image. That means a customer who buys a home from Sansiri gets designs and service that is different from its competitors, he added.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation

HUA HIN