Fitness centres preferred to own machines

The boom in fitness centres has eaten into the sales of large exercise machines for use in the home.

The Mall Group's Sport Mall senior procurement manager, Sunthorn Sureeluangkhajohn, said last week that the growth of larger exercise equipment this year was expected to come in at just 1 to 2 per cent because of the rapidly expanding number of fitness centres.

While the cost of home exercise equipment has fallen in line with the slowdown in purchasing power, it is cheaper to pay fitness-centre charges than to purchase a large piece of exercise machinery.

"However, Sport Mall's overall sales in the first 10 months of the year were on target, thanks largely to demand for golf equipment, which recorded high growth of more than 20 per cent." she said.

Sunthorn said the fourth quarter was the peak season for Sport Mall, traditionally accounting for sales growth of 20 to 30 per cent. However, it would be pleased to hit growth of 10 per cent this quarter, following the worsening political situation and recent airport closures.

She acknowledged that the political turmoil had affected customer traffic in the Ratchaprasong area, because the shopping malls there relied to a great extent on foreigners.

She predicted that Ratchaprasong malls would lose 50 per cent of their customers as result of recent events.

"Sport Mall's sales revenue for the whole of this year will be Bt1.8 billion, which is our target. We will achieve the target because people are in a high state of anxiety and want to relax, and Sport Mall has also held marketing campaigns throughout the year to promote products, as well as renovating the stores more into lifestyle outlets.

"Most recently, we have renovated [Sport Mall] at The Emporium Shop-ping Mall and will go ahead with the renovation of The Mall Bang Kapi and The Mall Korat next year with a budget of Bt10 million per outlet," she said.

Moreover, the Sport Mall plans to increase its branded sport-shoe segment after seeing rising demand for these products, said Sunthorn, adding that customers preferred to buy sport shoes with a more fashionable and modern look rather than merely going for lower prices.