Despite the lack of clear signs of a recovery in consumer spending, The Mall Group expects 10% retail sales growth in the first half of this year.
Hermes at Siam Paragon, a key revenue driver for The Mall. THANARAK KHUNTON
Executive vice-president Chamnarn Maytaprechakul said the group's retail sales in the first six months were projected to rise by 10% year-on-year, beating the overall industry forecast of less than 5% growth.
The retail sector has not been affected by political unrest as it was last year. The improvement of tourism also helped drive its sharp sales rise.
"Siam Paragon got full benefit from the rebound of the tourism industry. It was one of our key sales drivers in the first half," Mr Chamnarn said.
As of April 18, about 9.3 million foreign tourists had visited Thailand, up 23% from the same period last year, reflecting tourist confidence in the country's political stability, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
The group also successfully opened its new shopping mall, EmQuartier on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok, a few months ago.
Mr Chamnarn said the overall retail industry would grow by less than 5% in the first half because of mounting household debt and lower farm product prices.
"The overall economy has not recovered, so we will do our marketing activities more efficiently to cover all product categories in every major season," he said.
The central bank on Monday warned that a slow economic recovery could hurt the private sector's financial position and debt-servicing ability. It is predicted that weak domestic consumption will continue in the second half.
At The Mall, partnerships will be another strategy to let the group access a bigger customer base.
The group will spend about 100 million baht to launch three marketing campaigns from tomorrow until Aug 5 to boost sales by 3.5 billion baht.
This is part of its plan to drive sales to increase by 6-7% to 53 billion baht this year.
Meanwhile, Zeer Property Co, operator of Zeer Rangsit shopping complex, will today open The Hub Rangsit costing 3.5 billion baht next door to Zeer Rangsit.
The three-storey building has been developed on an 86-rai plot with 160,000 square metres of sales space. The project has more than 400 tenants selling fashion, bags, leather products and accessories. About 80% of space has been reserved.
In the first five months, Tesco Lotus opened hypermarkets in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surin, while Rayong got a new Robinson Department Store.