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Published on April 29, 2008

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation

It announced sales revenue of Bt1.4 billion from its property business last year, compared with Bt1.2 billion from manufacturing and distributing garments.

Pena House diversified into property development six years ago. The manufacturer and distributor of Pena-brand garments has since developed four rental retail outlets under the Outlet Mall brand, in Pattaya, Cha-am, Khao Yai and Krabi.

President Supoj Tantichirasakul said the group planned to launch a new Bt1-billion Outlet Village in Phuket this year. It will be a new development prototype for the company, combining retail space with a city hotel located on 10 rai of land about 4 kilometres from the airport.

It will be the group's biggest project, with floor space totalling more than 24,000 square metres, consisting of retail space of 18,000 square metres, gallery and living space of 4,000 square metres and an international food market and night bazaar. The 200-room city hotel will be the next phase, with construction beginning next year and completion scheduled for 2011.

Supoj said the group would then turn to Udon Thani, where it had found a potential location for a project following the Phuket prototype, serving demand from expats and tourists. However, the Udon Thani outlet will have no more than 10,000 square metres of retail space and a 120-room city hotel. Total cost will be Bt300 million.

"Following our business plan, we intend to develop an Outlet Mall each year," Supoj said, adding that other destinations would be Surat Thani, Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.

He said the latest Outlet Mall, which opened in Krabi in January, had enjoyed a good response from shoppers.

"We expect the group's outlet income in 2008 to grow 25 per cent from last year's Bt1.4 billion," he said.