Cart importer plans plant

IMCC by Club Car (International), an importer of electric golf carts, plans to build its own plant for the production of electric vehicles.

The move is aimed at supplying rising demand in the country and the regional market next year.

Managing director Akrathep Gorowara yesterday said his company planned to mobilise Bt500 million via an initial public offering (IPO) of shares by the middle of next year. The plant is scheduled to begin operations by the end of 2009 with an initial capacity of 100 electric carts daily.

The new plant in Thailand will support the US-based Club Car, which has a capacity of 300 electric vehicles a day. This is not sufficient for global demand, where it enjoys a 42-per-cent market share. IMCC is the sole authorised distributor for Club Car.

Akrathep said after the company had its own plant in Thailand, electric-cart prices should fall more than 30 per cent from current rates of more than Bt200,000 per unit.

He said in the first half of 2010, the entire production of electric carts would go to the domestic market.

"We'll export products to the Asian market in the second half of 2010.

"Other Asian countries have no factories for manufacturing electric carts, so we'll be the first and the biggest plant in this region," he said.

IMCC is the market leader in electric golf carts, with a market share of 80 per cent. The company expects sales volume of more than 8,000 units this year.

Akrathep said next year, the company would focus more on other market segments, such as residential projects and resort and hotel businesses, in order to diversify risk from the golf-course segment, which has a revenue portion of 85 per cent.

IMCC posted revenue of Bt450 million last year, up 40 per cent. It expects revenue of Bt600 million this year.

Thibdee Mangkalee, managing director of Capital Plus Advisory, a financial adviser for IMCC's IPO, said IMCC would issue about 100 million new shares to list in the stock market.