Malls scramble to cash in

They are fighting with attractive promotions, in-cluding big discounts of up to 80 per cent.

The marketing campaigns have been launched to support the government's cash handout project, worth almost Bt20 billion, which will see some 10 million Thais getting the Bt2,000 cheques, starting tomorrow.

"We are quite happy with the 'rescue-cheque' programme conceived by the government as it will have a big psychological impact on the grass-roots people, who will be stimulated to spend money particularly

on necessities," Chamnarn Maytaprechakul, senior chief marketing officer of The Mall Group, said yesterday.

The company expects to draw over 30 per cent of the estimated 3 million cheque recipients living in greater Bangkok.

Central Retail Corp aims to woo 20 per cent, while Tesco Lotus hopes to get over 1 million recipients to cash their cheques at its hypermarkets.

The Mall Group yesterday launched its "Shop Chuay Chart" campaign as an urgent response to the government's programme to provide a kick to consumer spending.

From Friday to May 1, individual shoppers can redeem their Bt2,000 cheques for the group's gift vouchers worth Bt2,200, together with free pro-

ducts, worth about Bt100, given away by participating sponsors like Coca-Cola, Muang Thai Life Assurance, DTAC and Mama noodles.

The group will also launch a big campaign, called "The Mall Lod Chuay Chart Festival", which will offer special discounts of up to 80 per cent on more than 200,000 products.

The campaign will be held at the MCC Hall in The Mall's Ngam Wongwan, Bang Kapi and Bang Khae branches.

"We expect the 35-day campaign to generate Bt4 billion in sales for the group, with 8-10 per cent growth compared to the same period of last year," Chamnarn said.

The group's estimated sales in the first three months of this year were up by 2-3 per cent to about Bt9 billion.

The Mall Group targets its sales to grow by about 5 per cent this whole year to Bt40 billion.

"We want to tap about 30 per cent of the 3 million people in Bangkok and its outskirts, who have monthly earnings of less than Bt15,000 and are entitled

to receive the Bt2,000 cheques."

Purchasing power has dropped by 2-3 per cent so far this year, but the government's cash handout programme is expected to spur retail sales as well as the overall economy by next quarter, he said.

Darmp Sukontasap, senior vice president of Tesco Lotus, said his company had moved quickly to volunteer its store premises to be the venue for distributing the Bt2,000 cheques.

"Thus far, we have offered the use of 21 stores in 11 provinces to serve as cheque distribution centres," he said.

Tesco Lotus was also working closely with the Labour Ministry and Social Security Office on the project.

The hypermarket chain has prepared a very enticing promotional package for cheque recipients to ensure that there will be a significant multiplier effect from the Bt2,000 that they receive.

The details of the campaign will be released later this week.

"In the meantime, we expect that there will be around 800,000 workers picking up their cheques from our 21 stores and at least 15 per cent of the cheque recipients will choose to be our customers," Darmp said.

Central Retail Corp is going after the business with its Bt500 million "Shop for the Nation" campaign.

Allan Namchaisiri, CRC senior vice president for marketing, said that covering a huge retail network

of about 400 stores - including Central Department Store, Robinson Depart-ment Store, Zen, Tops Supermarket, HomeWorks, PowerBuy, Supersports,

B2S and Office Depot - the company expects to tap 20 per cent of the lower-income people entitled to the Bt2,000 cheques.

"We expect to boost growth by 5 per cent during the 38-day campaign, which will be held between March 25 and May 1," he said.

The campaign would contribute about Bt1 billion in sales to CRC, he said.

TWZ Corp, a major mobile phone distributor, is offering a tempting deal.

The Bt2,000 cheques can be used to purchase any one of five selected TWZ and Noktel models, even though their actual prices range from Bt2,290 to Bt2,490.

The company will not charge customers the extra amount.

However, for more expensive models, the stores will take Bt500 off the price.