Plans for franchising blink upcountry

The company hopes to franchise 30 kiosks and shops of 25-30 square metres this year and attain 200 units in three years.

At that time, the new business is expected to become the company's major revenue stream, managing director Piti Kittitheerapornchai said yesterday.

The franchise fee is Bt40,000 per year, he said at the Thaifex-World of Food Asia exposition at Muang Thong Thani.

Kiosks should break even in less than a year with Bt200,000 in sales per month, while shops should take two years with Bt500,000 in monthly sales, he said.

The package size of the products to be sold in the kiosks, which would be mainly located in shopping centres, and the shops are to be made smaller for shopper convenience.

Piti said the company saw no direct competition to its products, as other franchised shops sold both cosmetics and food supplements and offered no uniqueness.

It planned to unveil several more products in the second half of the year to help the new business, which was launched after a trial run of 14 company-owned shops.

TC plans to introduce a new brand, in addition to Blink, Omex food supplements and Wakie hangover drinks.

To increase sales 15 per cent to Bt370 million this year, it will spend Bt50 million on marketing and advertising.