The Mall Group yesterday announced buoyant sales results from the first two months of the year, saying the "good momentum' signalled a good economic recovery in the retail sector.
Senior chief marketing officer Chamnarn Maytaprechakul said the group had posted 10 per cent growth year on year in its January and February sales.
"We expect sales in the first quarter to grow 7-8 per cent to about Bt12 billion. We have good momentum, and if this is maintained I believe the country will recover strongly this year," he said, predicting that growth in the country's gross domestic product could reach as high as 3.8 per cent.
Chamnarn said the group this year had set an overall sales target of 5-per-cent growth for revenue of Bt45 billion.
He said the group closed its stores for two days last April, because of unrest at the hands of red-shirt protesters.
"The incident made our sales flat in last year's second quarter. If nothing happens this year and business runs normally, we believe we can grow 10 per cent in the second quarter."
The Mall Group revealed it would spend Bt600 million on its hot-season marketing campaign, to be conducted according to "consumer-centric" and "individual-integration" strategies.
Chamnarn said a series of outstanding seasonal campaigns had been properly integrated and would be rolled out to involve all product categories and customer segments, including both males and females, particularly teenagers and young children.
The group expects sales of Bt7.5 billion from the hot-season campaign, up 10-15 per cent from normal trading levels.
"Our internal surveys have found the number of female shoppers has increased by 5 per cent, now amounting to 65 per cent of our customer portfolio. Shoppers are also making transactions more frequently, at a rate of once or twice a week on average," he said.
He said individual customers also had a higher ceiling for shopping transactions, which had risen to between Bt1,000 and Bt5,000, from between Bt1,000 and Bt3,000 last year.
