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Category: General

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest General Retail news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Profits up for Circle K Hong Kong

    Profits up for Circle K Hong Kong

    As the retail sector finally rebounds, the CEO of Circle K Hong Kong owner Convenience Retail Asia (CRA), Richard Yeung, says the company has reinvented itself.

    He says profits have grown over the past year, while strong customer loyalty and marketing initiatives and an O2O business strategy have positioned the group for long-term growth.

    By moving its convenience store and bakery businesses toward an O2O-centric business strategy has led to a highly sustainable business model. “The strategy has been a resounding success in terms of driving customer engagement, foot traffic and sales.”

    Despite a challenging business environment, the group’s convenience store and bakery businesses had achieved satisfactory comparable-store sales growth in Hong Kong.

    Core operating profit and net profit increased by 7.4 and 7.7 per cent respectively, mainly attributable to the effectiveness of the CRM program and strong marketing campaigns by Circle K together with improved performance from Saint Honore cake shops.

    Growth has been driven by the group’s digital initiatives, led by its O2O CRM programs that saw its “OK Stamp It” and “Cake Easy” memberships exceeding 1 million and 300,000 respectively.

    During the year the group obtained the franchise for Japan’s fast-fashion eyewear chain Zoff, opening the brand’s first store in Hong Kong.

    Group turnover grew 4.6 per cent to HK$5 billion.

    Turnover for the Circle K Hong Kong business was HK$4 billion (US$5 billion), representing growth of 5.4 per cent. Turnover for the Saint Honore Cake Shop business across Hong Kong, Macau and southern China was $1 billion, an increase of 1.9 per cent.

    Core operating profit increased 7.4 per cent to $183 million while net profit grew 7.7 per cent to $150 million.

    Satisfactory comparable-store sales growth in the group’s core market of Hong Kong and improvements to the Saint Honore factory business led to a rise in gross margin and other income as a percentage of turnover from 36.6 to 36.9 per cent, despite intense retail market competition and high manufacturing costs, says the group.

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  • Cebu Pacific takes delivery of 3 new Airbus jets

    Cebu Pacific takes delivery of 3 new Airbus jets

    Cebu Pacific said Thursday it took delivery of three more brand new Airbus A321 CEO jets, as it pursued a fleet modernization.

    The country’s largest airline said it now has 65 aircraft, including 4 Airbus A321 CEO, 36 Airbus A320, 8 Airbus A330, 8 ATR 72-500 and 9 ATR 72-600.

    The new A321 CEOs have a capacity of 230 seats, 50 seats more than previous models.

    “Coupled with investments in avionics, this will enable CEB to operate more efficiently, and offer even lower fares to its customers,” the airline said.

    Gokongwei-led Cebu Pacific said it invested $4.9 billion on its new A321 fleet, with deliveries of 3 A321 CEO and 32 A321 NEO spread from this year until 2022.

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  • AirAsia Group records 87pct load factor in Q1

    AirAsia Group records 87pct load factor in Q1

    AirAsia Group Bhd recorded a load factor of 87 per cent for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 (Q1 2018), down two percentage points from the same period last year.

    In a statement on its operating statistics released on Friday, the budget carrier said its seat capacity rose 19 per cent  year-on-year (y-o-y) during the quarter under review.

    “The number of passengers carried increased 16 per cent y-o-y to 10.65 million, in line with the added capacity,” it said.

    AirAsia said in Q1 2018, the group’s total fleet size grew to 123 aircraft, comprising 87 in Malaysia, 15 in Indonesia (PT AirAsia Indonesia Tbk) and 21 in the Philippines (Philippines AirAsia Inc).

    “Malaysia increased frequencies on 13 routes, namely seven from Kuala Lumpur, five from Kota Kinabalu and one from Johor Bahru,” it said. Indonesia commenced operations of three new routes: two from Medan and one from Padang, while the Philippines commenced operations of four new routes, all originating from the Clark International Airport since establishing the airport as a hub.

    The company also reported that Thai AirAsia posted a load factor of 91 per cent in Q1 2018, improving two percentage points from the same quarter in 2017.

    As for AirAsia India, the budget airline said its load factor was down by six percentage points y-o-y to 83 per cent for the first three months of the year, while AirAsia Japan achieved a load factor of 79 per cent in Q1 2018, up 15 percentage points quarter-on-quarter.

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  • Garuda Indonesia Holds Empty Flight Promo

    Garuda Indonesia Holds Empty Flight Promo

    Indonesia Airline Garuda holds promo for “empty legs flight” or non-passenger flights during the month of 2018 Ramadan.

    “‘Empty legs flight’ is a term for when, as an example, a flight from Solo to Jakarta is packed with passenger but there is no demand for the opposite direction, so it is empty. The promo price for Solo-Jakarta route will be applied on the travel period May 18 to June 19, 2018 and June 27, 2018,” said General Manager of Garuda Indonesia of Surakarta Branch Office, Hendrawan in Solo, Wednesday (5/9/2018).

    As for the Jakarta-Solo route, the ticket promo is valid for May 17 to June 7, 2018 and June 27, 2018.

    “Especially for June 27, this coincides with the simultaneous elections in Indonesia,” he said.

    He said for prices applied during the promo period starts from IDR440.000 per passenger.

    “Normal price for these routes would be above IDR1 million per passenger,” he said.

    He hopes the promo can boost travel demand during the “low season”.

    “Usually there is a decrease in the number of passengers in the first two weeks of Ramadhan, a decrease of about 15 percent either for Solo-Jakarta route or vice versa,” he said, as quoted from Antara.

    He said on a normal day, of a capacity of 162 seats, the average load rate is about 72 percent or equivalent to 583 passengers for five flights of Solo-Jakarta route per day.

  • Garuda Indonesia Denies Offering Two Free Tickets

    Garuda Indonesia Denies Offering Two Free Tickets

    Many website links recently suggested that Garuda Indonesia offering two free tickets in the celebration of its 69th anniversary. However, the state-owned airline management denied the news.

    “Garuda Indonesia ensures that such promotion info was invalid and is not officially from Garuda Indonesia,” said the company’s secretary Hengki Heriandono in a written statement dated Wednesday, May 9.

    Hengki asserted that Garuda Indonesia has never released such information related to promotion of ticket discounts or free tickets. He reminded all ticket promotion and marketing program were cited in Garuda Indonesia official application and social media.

    Earlier, a website https://www.garuda-indonesa.com/tikets and https://www.xn--garuda-indonesa-llc.com broadcasted in short message stating Garuda Indonesia offers two free tickets to commemorate its anniversary.

    In the website, visitors are required to fill a survey. Instead of getting the two free tickets, visitors are asked to share the link via WhatsApp.

    Hengki calls on the public not to trust false news or hoax and confirm all promotion info through Garuda Indonesia official platform or contact the 24-hour Garuda Call Center.

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  • E-Mart rolling out robot concierge

    E-Mart rolling out robot concierge

    South Korean discount store chain owner E-Mart Inc says it has started testing a robot to provide an automated concierge service to shoppers.

    Dubbed “Pepper”, the robot concierge will be stationed at an E-Mart outlet in Seoul for about three weeks, the company says.

    Developed by Japan’s Softbank Robotics Corp., the 1.2m-tall robot provides product information, introduces sale items and answers frequently asked questions, E-Mart says.

    This follows E-Mart unveiling an autonomous shopping cart, Eli, for a test run at its warehouse-style supermarket Traders in Hanam, just southeast of Seoul.

    This week, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Seoul National University to carry out joint research on the implementation of auto-driving robots in the retail sector.

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  • After Clark, AirAsia developing hubs in Puerto Princesa, Bohol

    After Clark, AirAsia developing hubs in Puerto Princesa, Bohol

    With a goal of increasing its fleet to 70 jets, Philippines AirAsia Incorporated is developing hubs in Puerto Princesa, Palawan and Panglao, Bohol, which are two of the country’s top tourist draws.

    “We are opening up Panglao when it opens up and Puerto Princesa. These will be opened up as hubs because we are lacking space in Manila. In the next 10 years, we should have 70 planes,” AirAsia president and chief executive officer Dexter Comendador told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mandaluyong City last week.

    Comendador had reiterated the airline’s goal to make the Clark International Airport its main hub for operations, as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has inadequate space for the budget airline’s fleet expansion.

    In the next 3 to 5 years, Comendador said Philippines AirAsia targets to double its fleet. By 2032, it aims to have 70 planes.

    “We need to distribute the planes to the countryside. It will spread then development will follow,” the chief of Philippines AirAsia added.

    In 2013, the local unit of AirAsia moved its operations to the NAIA Terminal 4 in Manila after its then-affiliate Zest Airways Incorporated suffered heavy losses. It was in March 2017 when AirAsia moved back to its Clark roots.

    In line with its goal to increase its fleet, Philippines AirAsia is also increasing its flight frequencies to China, including Cebu-Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou within the month.

    Comendador said Philippines AirAsia is looking to launch direct flights between Manila and Osaka, Japan by the 3rd quarter of 2018.

    “We’re trying to share each other’s tourists in the AirAsia group to bring them in here. Boracay is just a glitch. There’s Panglao, Puerto Princesa, Davao, Cebu. There are other places,” Comendador added, referring to the 6-month closure of Boracay to tourists.

    Philippines AirAsia operates a fleet of 17 aircraft with domestic and international flights out of hubs in Manila, Cebu, Kalibo, and Clark.

    It flies to Manila, Davao, Cebu, Kalibo, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Puerto Princesa, Clark, Shanghai, Taipei, Incheon, Hong Kong, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, and Singapore

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  • AirAsia Campaign Encourages Thai Travelers to Travel During the Week

    AirAsia Campaign Encourages Thai Travelers to Travel During the Week

    BDO Bangkok has released a follow up to a clever print campaign to encourage Thais to travel on AirAsia during the week, rather than over the weekend when Thailand’s tourist destinations are busier.

    To illustrate this, the campaign uses scenes from ordinary life to look like calendars – emphasising that the weekdays are less hectic.

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  • Free up your summer with two million Vietjet HK$0 tickets

    Free up your summer with two million Vietjet HK$0 tickets

    Welcome the coming of summer with Vietjet’s biggest promotion of the year, “Free up your summer with Vietjet”, which comes with millions of super promotional tickets priced from only HK$0 during the period of May 9 to July 31, 2018.

    On the first week of this exciting campaign, Vietjet will run a three-golden-day promotion offering 2,000,000 tickets priced from only HK$0 from May 9 to May 11 at www.vietjetair.com. The promotional tickets are available for Vietjet’s all domestic routes in Vietnam, Hong Kong–Ho Chi Minh City route and the airline’s other international routes from Seoul, Busan, Daegu (South Korea)/ Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan (Taiwan)/ Singapore/ Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai (Thailand)/ Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)/ Yangon (Myanmar)/ Phnom Penh, Siem Reap (Cambodia) to Vietnam with flight period from August 20 to December 31, 2018?

    Summer is the season of joy, excitement and adventure. It is also the perfect time to “fly” with a youthful spirit, leaving behind all worries.Let’s fly with your family, friends across Vietnam and overseas destinations… with many exciting in-flight services this summer.

    Aiming to be a “Consumer Airline”, Vietjet is continually opening new routes, adding more aircraft, investing in modern technology and offering more added-on products and services to serve all demands of customers. Vietjet is a pioneering airline that is loved by many for its exciting promotional and entertainment programs, especially during the festive season. With high-quality services, diverse ticket classes and special low-fare tickets, Vietjet offers its passengers flying experience on new aircraft with comfy seats, delicious hot meals, beautiful and friendly cabin crew, and other interesting added-on services.

  • Singapore company AIQ brings Keat Hong Community Club online with Visual Recognition Technology

    Singapore company AIQ brings Keat Hong Community Club online with Visual Recognition Technology

    AIQ, a Singapore company that offers AI Visual Recognition Technology (VRT), today announced that their VRT is powering the Keat Hong mobile app to provide an interactive, smart and visual layer to resident’s interactions at Keat Hong Community Club (CC). The Community Club held its grand opening last Saturday on 5 May.

    AIQ’s technology will allow visitors to Keat Hong Community Club to access online features through their mobile phones. By using their mobile phone camera and the mobile app, residents can view photos and read about the heritage of the community club when they scan the physical heritage wall, as well as register for courses and events by scanning posters and digital kiosks. Utilising AIQ’s video recognition technology, visitors can even scan live video on outdoor digital panels which will lead them to discover additional video content on Keat Hong’s YouTube Channel.

    Mr Marcus Tan, CEO of AIQ, said: “We see our visual technology as a potential replacement for the QR code, and helping to connect the offline to the online. Even in a mobile first, online world, offline interactions still play a very important part of our daily lives, particularly at community clubs which are designed to be physical spaces for the community to get together. The ability to use images and visuals is also very important to build brand equity and recognition. What our app does is connect visitors at Keat Hong CC to the wealth of information and convenience available online.”

    AIQ’s Visual Recognition Technology can process live images and video with processing speeds of up to 300 milliseconds, with just 30 per cent of the image or video captured, by utilising a proprietary image matching and video recognition technology. Specifically, for visitors to Keat Hong CC, this means that they can almost instantaneously access online information through the app even if the area is crowded.

    The same AIQ technology was previously used by travel company Insight Vacations at the NATAS Travel 2018 and Travel Revolution fair in March. AIQ helped Insight Vacations increase engagement and interactions, by providing fair visitors with the ability to connect with information on Insight Vacation’s website and winning instant prizes just by scanning a static, physical poster at the fair. AIQ’s Visual Data Analytics technology also gave insight into fair visitor’s favourite holiday destination by tracking scans and interactions, providing immediate and useful data points for the company to customise their campaigns.The Keat Hong app is now available for download on Google Play and the App Store.

  • AirAsia India to connect Surat from Bengaluru starting this June

    AirAsia India to connect Surat from Bengaluru starting this June

    Budget carrier AirAsia India today announced expansion of its route network with the launch of a flight to Surat from Bengaluru, starting next month, taking the total number of destination operated by the carrier to 20.

    The Tata-AirAsia-invested airline, which completes four years of its operations in June, will fly daily to Surat from Bengaluru with an Airbus A20 plane, a release said today.

    AirAsia India currently flies to 19 destinations, with its hubs in Bengaluru, New Delhi and Kolkata covering Kochi, Goa, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati, Imphal, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Bagdogra, Ranchi, Indore, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar and Chennai.

    AirAsia India is the first airline to connect Bengaluru with the textiles city with flights from June 1, for which bookings have already commenced, the release said.

    Surat is a business hub, with a dominant presence of diamond and textile industries, and a large number of merchants travelling out of Surat for various business engagements and this provides an opportunity for AirAsia India to open up the market for the air travellers, the airline added.
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  • Philippines AirAsia to develop more regional Filipino hubs

    Philippines AirAsia to develop more regional Filipino hubs

    Philippines AirAsia will skirt future growth at Manila Ninoy Aquino Int’ldue to serious capacity constraints and instead will focus its development at regional hubs in Clark, Cebu, Kalibo, Puerto Princesa, and Panglao, an airport set to replace Tagbilaran by the end of 2018, CEO Dexter M. Comendador has told the Business Mirror.

    “These will be opened up as hubs because we are lacking space in Manila, and in the next 10 years, we should have 70 planes. So we need to distribute the planes to the countryside. It will spread; then development will follow,” Comendador has said.

    The Filipino unit of AirAsia Group currently operates 399 weekly departures, 38% of all its flights, out of the capital airport in the country. Cebu, its second-largest base, is served with 160 weekly departures. However, these proportions may soon change.

    According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Philippines AirAsia currently operates twenty-one A320 aircraft. It is set to receive around fifty more A320 Family jets, possibly including A320neo, in the next 10 years.

    In line with a government directive, Philippine Airlines (PR, Manila Ninoy Aquino Int’l) has also announced that it, too, will focus on regional airports as the capital gateway lacks space for growth.

    Comendador has also reaffirmed Philippines AirAsia’s plan to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the fourth quarter of 2018. Philippines AirAsia intends to raise around USD200 million and float up to 30% of its shares.

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  • Touristly rebrands to Vidi one year after selling 50% stake to AirAsia

    Touristly rebrands to Vidi one year after selling 50% stake to AirAsia

    Malaysian online travel start-up, Touristly has rebranded to Vidi. The move follows the evolution of the company from a traditional trip planner to a visual discovery platform as it looks to captures the tours and activities in Asia Pacific and beyond.

    Taken from the Latin word “to see”, Vidi also reflects the travel agent’s mission to help  travellers see the world by discovering and booking the best things to do while on holiday.

    “Our mission from day one was to give travellers the missing link in how they plan their holidays. This rebranding marks a new chapter in our journey as we move towards making travel discovery more engaging, fun and visual,” Aaron Sarma, founder and CEO of the company said. In addition, the company also unveiled a new mobile app coming in line with the rebranding in the coming weeks.

    Last year, AirAsia ​acquired a 50% stake in Touristly through an asset injection and loan deal valued at RM11.5 million. AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes will serve as chairman of the board for Touristly upon completion of the acquisition. The transaction ​will see AirAsia inject the digital platform of its Travel 3Sixty inflight magazine, valued at RM6.5 million, into Touristly via AirAsia Investments.

    The digital platform comprises the online brand for the Travel 3Sixty inflight magazine, touchpoints on the website and online advertising assets, which will allow the startup to reach AirAsia’s 60 million guests annually. Touristly, which will operate under the Travel 3Sixty brand following this deal, will also gain access to offline advertising assets, including the physical version of the inflight magazine, overhead cabins and seat trays on AirAsia aircraft.

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  • Arvato takes over warehousing and distribution for ECOVACS Robotics

    Arvato takes over warehousing and distribution for ECOVACS Robotics

    Arvato SCM Solutions is the new fulfillment partner for the in Duesseldorf, Germany based European Headquarter of ECOVACS Robotics, a global leading manufacturer of home robotic appliances. As part of the collaboration, the service provider is responsible for the entire warehousing and distribution processes of robots and accessories for the EMEA region since the beginning of March. Operating out of Arvato’s 75.000 square meter logistics site in Dueren (North Rhine-Westphalia), an essential part of the solution developed for ECOVACS is Arvato’s new transport management system, which allows all inbound and outbound shipments to be managed and billed carrier-neutrally.

    “For our growth in Europe, we needed a partner with experience in retailing,

    covering specific retail requirements, while at the same time providing a high level of system automation as well as efficiency through scalable structures,” explains Andreas Wahlich, General Manager of ECOVACS Europe. In the highly competitive European market for home robotic appliances, the robotics company currently ranks second in terms of market share. In its home market China and the Asia-Pacific region in general, ECOVACS is the market leader.

    The new business was implemented at the state-of-the-art multi-user site in Dueren. From there, Arvato SCM Solutions manages and distributes ECOVACS robots to business customers, distributors and consumers in the EMEA region. “We started with several central European countries as well as some third party countries like Switzerland and Ukraine,” states Dennis Schmitz, Director Account Management Hightech & Entertainment at Arvato SCM Solutions. Overall, he expects a shipment volume of around 300,000 floor and window cleaning robots in the first year – with a strong growth tendency for the following years.

    “ECOVACS is a client with high growth potential and active in the fast-evolving robotics market – a target industry that is also a part of our growth strategy,” says Thomas Becker, Executive Vice President Hightech & Entertainment at Arvato SCM Solutions. “Here we can leverage one of our strengths, focusing on standardized and efficient processes in highly complex retail environments.”

  • Vietjet reports first quarter profits of over USD65 million

    Vietjet reports first quarter profits of over USD65 million

    Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company (HOSE: VJC) has just released its consolidated financial statement for the first quarter of 2018 with significant growth for the airline that exceeds expectations.

    The airline’s revenue stood at VND12,560 billion (USD552 million), a year-on-year increase of 146% that is attributed to growth in passenger transport, ancillary service and sales and leaseback revenue.

    The airline’s fleet expansion, coupled with the opening of new international routes, raised its transport revenue to VND6,035 billion (USD265 million), an increase of 52% over the same period last year, and 10% higher than the company’s target. Vietjet’s core business profit was increased to nearly VND737 billion (USD32 million), a 74% jump over the previous year’s figure. Ancillary revenue also increased to VND1,825 billion (USD80 million), a rise of 64% year-on-year.

    The positive results in revenue growth contributed significantly to the company’s gross profit of VND1,810 billion (USD79 million), a 135% increase year-on-year. At the same time, sales and management costs also increased at a lower rate compared to revenue growth. Therefore, Vietjet’s profit before tax in this quarter stood at VND1,480 billion (USD65 million), an increase of 254% compared to Q1 2017. After-tax profit of the parent company’s shareholders stood at VND1,366 billion (USD60 million), a 263% increase. Earnings per share in this quarter stood at VND3,026 (USD0.13), one of the highest EPS on the Vietnamese stock market.

    Vietjet’s Q1 results were 25.5% over the airline’s original target of VND50,970 billion (USD2.24 billion) in revenue and VND5,806 billion (USD255 million) in profit before tax for 2018.

    In the first quarter of 2018, Vietjet operated 28,830 safe flights with the technical reliability rate of 99.7%, and with the safety performance indicators of flight as well as ground operation amongst the top in the region. The on-time performance in the first quarter stood at 83.4%. During Q1, Vietjet also announced plans to open international routes to India and Australia in line with its plans to expand its international flight network after having achieved full coverage on the domestic network.

    The airline’s stellar Q1 performance was further buoyed by the naming of Vietjet as the region’s top fastest growing airline by Singapore’s Changi Airport.

    As of March 31, 2018, Vietjet’s undistributed profit after tax was VND6,724 billion (USD295 million). The company will pay a cash dividend of 10% on May 25, 2018 to its shareholders and is on its way to finalizing the necessary procedures at the State Securities Commission of Vietnam to settle the remaining 20% dividend of 2017 by shares. Earlier last week at the 2018 General Shareholders Meeting, the shareholders also agreed with a proposal to pay dividends of 50% of its profits in 2018.