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Published on December 20, 2007

"We intend to differentiate ourselves from competitors by creating a clear position of a Thai-style shopping complex," said Seri Centre Management deputy managing director Vorrapong Sukteera-anantachai.

He said out of 260 shop tenants and another 250 small vendors with outlets in the shopping complex, fewer than 5 per cent sold international brands.

"Most retailers in our complex have been selling necessities of daily life that are Thai-made. We want to make Seri Centre a place for consumers who love to hang around at traditional fresh markets and bargain over the prices with the vendors," Vorrapong said.

The company has just finished upgrading the 6,000-square-metre Seri Market on the ground floor. Renovations of the air-conditioned fresh market began in August at a cost of about Bt20 million.

Vorrapong said the company would spend another Bt20 million next year to renovate the plaza area, called Seri Shopping Street, on the centre's first floor. The work, which will be finished by the middle of next year, will result in an increase in retail space from 1,400 square metres to more than 2,000 square metres. More than 110 tenants are planning to open outlets.

Vorrapong said the company would also spend more than Bt20 million in 2009 to renovate the 3,000-square metre IT Zone, located on the shopping complex's second floor.

"We've suffered fewer effects than others from economic difficulties," he said. "The number of visitors has increased 6 per cent from last year."

Seri Centre attracts 40,000 shoppers per day on weekends and 30,000 on weekdays. They come to the complex in family groups of three or four members and spend an average of Bt2,000 per household.

Seri Centre has 85,000 square metres of retail space, of which about 92 per cent is occupied. The company's rental revenue has increased 7-8 per cent this year to Bt470 million.

 Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

 The Nation