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Tag: asia

  • Qantas Freight has been appointed as the carrier to transport milk

    Qantas Freight has been appointed as the carrier to transport milk

    Qantas Freight has been appointed as the exclusive carrier to transport Van Dairy’s Tasmanian milk to Ningbo, China.

    Starting in the first half of 2017, Qantas Freight will operate a weekly Boeing 767-300 freighter flight from Hobart to Ningbo, carrying more than 50,000 litres of fresh milk. Qantas will look at increasing the frequency if there is additional demand.

    “There is a huge demand for fresh milk in China and the key to satisfying that demand is having a reliable freight partner with an established freighter network, infrastructure and support in China and expertise in handling fresh produce – Qantas provides that,” said Sean Shwe, managing director of Moon Lake Investments, parent company of Van Dairy. “Establishing this trade bridge is an exciting venture for our dairy company, Van Dairy who produce Van milk, and opens the door for access for other Tasmanian producers of fresh perishables such as seafood, fruit and vegetables to air freight their produce on this direct flight to China. It will be a game changer for Tasmania, and we are proud to be leading the charge.”

    According to Qantas, local distributors will truck the milk to supermarkets and convenience stores in Ningbo and Beijing. Moon Lake Investments has plans to extend the dairy’s market reach to Shanghai, Hangzhou and other Chinese cities after the product is established.

    “We’ve been flying freight between Australia and Greater China for more than 30 years, and currently offer freight capacity on 40 flights a week,” said Alison Webster, executive manager of Qantas Freight and Qantas Catering Group. “This includes five dedicated freighter aircraft services, carrying a mix of perishables such as chilled meat, seafood, dairy, fruit and vegetables as well as general cargo. Over the past three years Qantas Freight has developed particularly strong capabilities in dairy export which, with its short-life, requires close collaboration to ensure on-time delivery and quality control throughout the supply chain. We’re really pleased to partner with Van Dairy to help meet the booming demand for fresh Tasmanian milk in China – it’s the ultimate milk run.”

    Qantas currently operates passenger flights from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to Hong Kong, as well as from Sydney to Shanghai. It is also scheduled to launch a flight between Sydney and Beijing in January 2017.

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  • President calls for serious effort to attract 10 million Chinese tourists

    President calls for serious effort to attract 10 million Chinese tourists

    President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has called for a serious effort to attract at least 10 million Chinese tourists to visit Indonesia per year.

    “Some 150 million Chinese citizens travel abroad every year. Most of them travel to the US and Europe. I want some 10 million Chinese tourists to visit Indonesia,” he said at a function to familiarize the public with the second phase of tax amnesty program here on Friday night.

    The president said he has signed an agreement with the Chinese government related to Chinese tourists visit to Indonesia.

    “The agreement has been in place. We only prepare flights from China to Indonesia. If the flights are already there, the target of attracting 20 million tourists can be achieved in 2019,” he said.

    The government is developing 10 key tourist destinations expected to attract more tourists, he said.

    “The target of tourist arrivals two years ago was 9 million. We want to increase the target to 20 million in 2019 by all available means including improving our positioning, diversifying products, and building brands,” he said.

    To achieve the target, the government continued to carry out tourism promotion in major cities abroad, he said.

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  • Cebu Pacific opens office in Seoul

    Cebu Pacific opens office in Seoul

    Local carrier Cebu Pacific opened Tuesday its regional office in South Korea as part of its regional promotion and expansion.

    In a statement, CEB said its office is located at 7th floor, Section B, Sesomunro 106, Jung-Gu, Seoul, Korea.

    CEB’s Korea branch office will provide tickets sales, reservations services and customer support. It will aid in boosting the airline’s promotion and marketing strategies in Korea.

    “CEB continuously looks for opportunities to expand services and target markets in the most convenient way. With the opening of CEB’s Korea branch office, we make ticket purchase and reservations more accessible to travelers while cultivating Cebu Pacific’s operations in the region. We remain committed to offering the most affordable air fares between the Philippines and Korea, and to contributing to the trade and tourism agendas of the communities we cater to,” said Michael Szucs, CEB Chief Executive Adviser.

    Currently, CEB operates daily to and from Incheon-Manila/Kalibo/Cebu, and twice weekly to and from Busan-Manila utilizing 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft. The A320 is a proven and reliable aircraft with low operating costs, which means lower fares for our customers.

    CEB flew over 250,000 passengers between the Philippines and Korea from January and September 2016. Passengers from Korea can use CEB’s extensive network to visit the Philippines’ popular domestic destinations such as Boracay, Coron, Davao and Puerto Princesa via easy flight connections through Manila.

    CEB currently offers flights to a total of 36 domestic and 30 international destinations, operating an extensive network across Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and USA. Its 57-strong fleet is comprised of six Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, six Airbus A330, eight ATR 72-500, and one ATR 72-600 aircraft. Between 2016 and 2021, CEB expects delivery of 32 Airbus A321neo, two Airbus A330, and 15 ATR 72-600 aircraft

  • Huawei demos 5G-LTE dual connectivity for 4K VOD

    Huawei demos 5G-LTE dual connectivity for 4K VOD

    Huawei has conducted a live demonstration involving 5G and LTE dual connectivity for a 4K video-on-demand service, achieving single user peak throughput of 21.1Gbps.

    At last week’s Global Mobile Broadband Forum, Huawei conducted a demonstration based on its CloudRAN architecture.

    With the development of new high-bandwidth services such as AR/VR and 4K video streaming and cloud-based services, Huawei said 5G new radio technologies will need to be deployed in central hotspots first to deliver the required capacity.

    LTE networks are meanwhile continuing to evolve with the introduction of new technologies including 3D Massive MIMO.

    Combining 5G and 4G networks has the potential to help operators protect their existing investments while improving network capacity, spectrum efficiency and coverage in urban areas.

    “It is of vital importance to guarantee end users with a ubiquitous high data rate experience in densely populated urban city areas with high buildings and complex roadways,” Huawei CMO of wireless network products Dr Yuefeng Zhou said.

    “Recently, 3GPP standardization has made significant progress in 5G and LTE dual connectivity. We expect to strengthen our cooperation with industry partners on 5G innovations based on these real application scenarios.”

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  • Polycom extends use of Skype for Business UI

    Polycom extends use of Skype for Business UI

    Polycom has announced that the Polycom Group Series video endpoints and several of its voice solutions will include the Skype for Business UI.

    Many organizations are wanting to move to one interface for collaboration tools to make it easy for users to join calls from any endpoint or software application. Consistency of scheduling, joining and managing a collaboration session is critical to driving user adoption.

    In response to this demand, Polycom extending the Skype for Business experience beyond the desktop and mobile applications to voice and video solutions used in conference rooms and offices of all sizes.

    Customers can now schedule, dial and join a Skype for Business call from a greater number of endpoints, providing one extended Skype for Business experience.

    “Many organizations across the globe are moving toward consolidating their UC environments into a single interface to drive a consistent user experience and ease of use,” says Irwin Lazar, Vice President and Service Director, Nemertes Research.

    “The desire to enable a consistent method of scheduling collaboration sessions and a single-click to join meetings from any application and any location is a top priority.”

    In addition, Polycom has officially become a Skype Operations Framework partner and will assist customers with all facets of the Skype for Business lifecycle, including planning, deployment, adoption, and operations.

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  • Singapore becomes test bed for Citi Pay ewallet

    Singapore becomes test bed for Citi Pay ewallet

    MarketandResearch pegged the growth of the Singaporean payment cards market at CAGR of 3.3% during the period 2012 -2014, and projects it to grow at a CAGR of 2.7% over the period 2015 – 2020. In Singapore, debit cards dominate the payment card market in terms of number of cards in circulation. In 2014, the debit cards accounted for 53% of the total number of cards in circulation in Singapore.

    This growth however is due for a change as Worldpay predicts credit card usage in the city-state to decline over the next few years falling by over 10% of market share to 69%, as alternative payment methods become more established. One alternative payment platform expected to grab share of the growing e-commerce business opportunity which a joint-report by Temasek and Google predicts to reach US$5.4 billion by 2025.

    Consumers prefer to use credit cards to make payments at POS terminals for retail purchases. The MarketandResearch report “Singapore Cards and Payments Market – Growth and Forecast to 2020” estimate the value of transactions at POS terminals accounted for 95.7% of total credit card transactions in Singapore.

    Entering the already crowded ewallet marketplace is Citi with the official launch of Citi Pay, a digital wallet developed by the bank. It says Singapore is the first country in the world to have Citi customers have access to its new ewallet facilities. Citi customers can use their Android mobile device to tap any Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled point-of-sale terminal.

    According to the KPMG Report “Singapore Payments Roadmap – Enabling the future of payments 2020 and beyond”, 51% of payment cards used by consumers in Singapore are now contactless. In addition, data supplied by the Infocomm Media Development Authority suggests that the total number of mobile subscriptions for 4G has increased by close to 500% from 2013 – an increase that has facilitated the move to mobile payments by consumers in the country.

    The bank claims onboarding process for Citi Pay is seamless and very easy. Customers will be able to use the same Citibank online user ID and password that they currently use to manage their existing online relationship with the bank to log in to Citi Pay, which will automatically populate their card details.

    Australia and Mexico are expected to have Citi Pay available before end of 2016. Additional markets to follow in 2017.

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  • Fast food industry in Singapore braves slump

    Fast food industry in Singapore braves slump

    The food and beverage industry is in a pickle with the slowing economy, but the fast-food industry appears to be staying ahead.

    The latest official figures show that sales at fast food outlets were better than those at restaurants this year until September, except for June.

    Fast food sales in September are estimated to have risen 2.6% over the same period last year.

    But sales at restaurants rose more modestly at 0.9%.

    Still, sales in both the restaurant and fast food categories have slowed down compared with five years ago. The fast-food industry grew just 1% last year, a significant drop from the 10% growth in 2011.

    High rental rates and a manpower crunch have contributed to the sector’s misery, as has a slowing economy. The fast food industry is doing better because of lower prices and promotions. The industry is also a lot more nimble in responding to food trends, said observers.

    “It has speed and convenience, and even the ambience is getting better at the outlets. They keep having new products, which people get on to social media and talk about,” said Singapore Polytechnic senior retail lecturer Sarah Lim.

    Fast food is also more attractive when times are bad, said Associate Professor Prem Shamdasani, from the National University of Singapore Business School.

    Texas Chicken, which opened two new outlets in Singapore in the second half of this year, said it has seen a 6% growth in same-store sales in the first nine months this year, compared with the same period last year.

    Popeyes, also a fried-chicken chain, reported the same amount of growth in sales.

    Besides the introduction of new products, the chains said sales are up because of higher productivity, which leads to lower costs, and more efficiency.

    International chains like McDonald’s and Popeyes as well as local chain BurgerUp have invested in technology such as self-ordering food kiosks that help streamline services and reduce the dependence on staff.

    “We offer burger customisation, so it is essential to have the ordering kiosk for diners to do it without hogging the order counter,” said Charlie Tan, BurgerUp’s director of strategic planning and marketing.

    He said this has led to 20% savings in manpower.

    Burger King is expected to adopt a similar system next year, said a spokesman. Texas Chicken is exploring the option.

    The use of such technology has translated into better sales.

    Dickson Low, chief operating officer of Revenue Valley Group, which runs the Popeyes chain in Singapore, said staff have noticed more customers ordering side dishes and getting bigger portions of food.

    He said this may be because the self-ordering kiosks allow them to view the images of all items on the menu.

    “For restaurants that use self-ordering kiosks, the orders for add-on and top-up items are higher by 15% (than at restaurants) without kiosks.”

    The firm has invested S$150,000 to S$200,000 (RM465,975 to RM621,632) on these kiosks for each of its five outlets.

    Prof Shamdasani said fast-food outlets find it more cost-efficient to invest because of the number of outlets they operate.

    On the other hand, restaurants outside the industry may operate fewer branches and struggle to afford the technology.

    Besides technology, the fast-food industry has also turned to the local palate to attract customers.

    McDonald’s, for example, introduced salted egg burgers in June this year. Texas Chicken introduced flavours such as sambal chicken, as well as herb and garlic chicken.

    “Singapore is the hotbed of innovation and creativity when it comes to flavour profiles. It is a trend leader,” said Amarpal S. Sandhu, Texas Chicken’s general manager for the Asia-Pacific region.

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  • Vodafone India introduces cash out for M-Pesa

    Vodafone India introduces cash out for M-Pesa

    Vodafone India has introduced the ability for users of its M-Pesa digital wallet service to withdraw cash at any of over 120,000 Vodafone M-Pesa outlets nationwide.

    The company said its network of M-Pesa outlets is roughly equivalent to the number of bank branches in India. Over half (56%) of the outlets are located in rural India.

    Customers will need to provide proof of identity to withdraw cash at a branch. Withdrawals will be subject to availability and Reserve Bank of India guidelines.

    “Our customers can visit any of these outlets and use the unique cash out feature of Vodafone M-Pesa to withdraw cash from their digital wallet at their convenience,” Vodafone M-Pesa business head Suresh Sethi said.

    Vodafone’s M-Pesa service is available to both Vodafone and non-Vodafone customers, supports recharges using credit or debit cards via mobile or fixed broadband, and can be used to shop online or pay bills, send funds to family or friends and now withdraw cash.

    The operator has attracted over 8.4 million Vodafone M-Pesa customers since the service’s launch in India in 2011.

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  • Barclays raises less than expected from Asia wealth unit sale

    Barclays raises less than expected from Asia wealth unit sale

    Barclays has raised almost a third less than expected from the $225m sale of its wealth and investment management business in Singapore and Hong Kong to Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC).

    When the deal was announced in April, Barclays had indicated it could fetch $320m from selling the business, which had $18.3bn of assets under management at the end of last year and was initially valued at about $500m.

    However, when its Asian wealth management clients were given the choice of whether to join OCBC, some of them decided to either stay at Barclays or to join another bank, reducing the overall price of the deal, which was fixed at 1.75 per cent of assets under management.

    Jes Staley, Barclays chief executive, said: “This is another example of the great progress we have made this year in Barclays non-core, as we aim to reduce risk weighted assets to £23bn in 2017 and reintegrate the remainder of the unit back into the group.”

    The bank said it remained committed to Asia, where it still has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India and Japan after cutting jobs and pulling out of several smaller markets in the region.

    Barclays said the deal would reduce its risk-weighted assets by about £800m. It follows the sale of the bank’s US wealth management business and of several retail banking and credit card operations in Spain, Portugal and Italy.

    Last month, the British bank called time on 150 years in Egypt by selling operations in the north African country in a $500m deal, and it is in the process of selling down its 50 per cent stake in its larger South African-listed operation.

    Singapore-based banks have been busy acquiring several of the Asian wealth management businesses that have been sold in recent years by foreign banks that decided to sell up having struggled to achieve sufficient scale.

    ANZ Banking Group said earlier this year it was selling its wealth management and retail business in Singapore, Hong Kong and three other Asian markets to DBS, the Singapore-based bank that also bought Société Générale’s Asian private bank in 2014.

    But some big western banks, such as UBS, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Standard Chartered, are still seeking to expand in Asian private banking and wealth management, betting on continued rapid growth in the number of millionaires and billionaires in the region.

    DBS last year became the fifth largest private bank in the Asia-Pacific region, after UBS, Citi, Credit Suisse and HSBC, according to a ranking of assets under management for rich clients published by Private Banker International. It is the first time a Singapore bank has broken into the top five in Asian wealth management.

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  • China becomes top iOS App Store market in Q3

    China becomes top iOS App Store market in Q3

    China set new record in the third quarter for the highest iOS App Store revenue to date for any country, according to App Annie’s Market Index Report for the period.

    With total revenues of $1.7 billion, China overtook the United States by over 15% and its growth is projected to climb further by 2020.

    The Q3 2016 Market Index Report also showed that China maintained its spot as No. 1 for Games category as it accounted for the majority of the generated revenue.

    Other prominent categories making strides are Entertainment and Social Networking, which have more than tripled in the past year. Video streaming apps (like iQIYI, Tencent Video and Youku) in China have had a major impact on the Entertainment category as a whole.

    Pokemon Go was cited as the stand-out app of the year, racking up $600 million in customer spend faster than any app to date. It also outpaced the extremely successful Clash of Clans by more than 6.2 times in under three months.

    Pokemon Go has also converted a massive amount of a user’s non-mobile time to mobile time as its innovative AO gameplay and iconic IP were compelling enough to convince users to spend more time overall on their mobile devices. It has altered the playing field as it introduced augmented reality to the masses and paved the way for future AR and VR opportunities in the app stores.

    The revenue of Entertainment apps strengthened in the third quarter and it has grown substantially in both iOS App Store and Google Play. This is largely due to the popularization of in-app subscriptions as a monetization method driven by video streaming.

    With revenue more than tripling since the third quarter of 2014, people are not only using their mobile devices to stream content but also as a common form of payment.

    This represents a significant shift from traditional broadcasting and television structures where users typically enter into a contract with a cable provider.

  • Myanmar plans 1800-MHz auction in March

    Myanmar plans 1800-MHz auction in March

    Myanmar plans to hold an auction for 1800-MHz spectrum in March next year, some three months later than initially expected.

    The Ministry of Transport and Communications will allocate spectrum to allow operators Telenor Myanmar, Ooredoo Myanmar and MPT to expand their 4G networks.

    The report cites the ministry’s deputy director of posts and telecommunications U Myo Swe as stating that spectrum will be made available to all operators equally.

    But it is unclear whether the planned fourth entrant into the market, the consortium between Vietnam’s military-run Viettel and a group of local ICT and other companies, will be included in the process.

    Myanmar’s mobile operators have been constrained in their efforts to roll out 4G services by a shortage of spectrum, and have been eagerly anticipating the release of 1800-MHz spectrum.

    Telenor and MPT had initially applied to take part in an auction of 2600-MHz spectrum,  but later decided to withdraw from the running and wait for the 1800-MHz allocation instead.

  • Malaysia’s AirAsia and AirAsia X fly back into profit in third quarter

    Malaysia’s AirAsia and AirAsia X fly back into profit in third quarter

    Malaysia’s AirAsia swung to a profit in the third quarter from a net loss a year earlier, mainly driven by an increase in aircraft operating lease income that boosted revenue during the quarter.

    A 22 per cent tumble in the average fuel price to Us$62 per barrel from $79 per barrel a year earlier also contributed, the airline said.

    Net profit for the three months ended September 30 was 353.9 million ringgit (Dh292.4m), versus a net loss of 405.7m ringgit a year earlier. Revenue rose 11.2 per cent to 1.69m ringgit, the company said.

    The results were underpinned by a seat load factor of 89 per cent, a measure of how full planes are, up 7 percentage points from the same period last year.

    The number of passengers carried rose 5 per cent, although capacity fell 3 per cent year-on-year, AirAsia said.

    AirAsia X Berhad, AirAsia’s long-haul budget sister carrier, also recorded a net profit in the third quarter versus a year-ago loss as more capacity on flight routes led to a higher number of passengers for the airline.

    AirAsia X, which is expected to report a profit for this year after two straight annual losses, embarked on a business and organisational restructuring in 2015. It has been adding capacity in Australia and increasing frequency on selected existing routes where demand is high to shore up its results.

    For the third quarter ended September, it reported net profit of 11.03m ringgit, versus a net loss of 288.2m ringgit a year ago.

    Revenue climbed 23.9 percent to 982.4 million ringgit, driven by increases in seat capacity, ancillary revenue, aircraft operating lease income and freight and cargo revenue, the company said in a statement.

    Operations are benefiting from a weaker ringgit that has prompted customers to look at Malaysia “as a value-for-money holiday destination”, said the chief executive Benyamin Ismail.

    The company recorded a passenger load factor of 78 per cent in the third quarter, 3 percentage points higher year on year, AirAsia X earlier said.

    The airline increased its passenger carrying capacity by 34 per cent year on year over July to September.

    “Strong demand from North Asia prompted AirAsia X to add frequencies to Beijing, Shanghai and Osaka while the Australian sector continued to improve with additions warranted for Gold Coast and Sydney,” MIDF Research said.

    The company’s capacity expansion primes the airline for the peak travel season at the end of the year, it added.

    “Based on the current forward booking trend, the expected number of passengers to be carried in the fourth quarter remains promising. Forward loads and average fares are trending better than the previous year,” AirAsia X said.

    Parent AirAsia Group’s chief executive, Tony Fernandes, has said he wants AirAsia X to expand into new destinations in Europe, the United States and Africa.

  • GEOX Launches Men’s Footwear Collection Autumn/Winter 2016-2017

    GEOX Launches Men’s Footwear Collection Autumn/Winter 2016-2017

    Well-being is the first and foremost inspiration behind the new GEOX winter season, where technological development always reflects the tastes and trends of contemporary design. The breathing shoe becomes a “Comfort Cool” accessory combining creativity, lightness and flexibility, to make life easier and distinguish every step in its functionality and appearance, quality and style, in all weather conditions and anywhere, from the city streets to outdoor activities.

    Comfort is cool

    The unmistakable breathability, heat-regulation, waterproofing, resistance and seal guaranteed by the continual innovation of the GEOX membrane and sole amplify the value of the patents, with a focus on the design and the patterns, the materials and details and the colour and material combinations, combining elegance, versatility and refinement with the philosophy of easy walking.

    The principles of uniqueness and top performance every single day are behind the extensive development of the SNEAKERS, designed for a wide variety of uses and ideal for the most casual and carefree looks: from the slim-runners in wax-coated technical fabrics to the city-active lines combining mesh with leather. Manufactured with the ultra-light EVA soles, guaranteeing an extra-cushioning and ultra-flexible effect, which is amplified by the flex grooves on the sole and the shaped rubber tread, ensuring an optimal grip on all surfaces.

    NEBULA, in contrast, is an all-season model, characterised by the iconic ergonomic slip-on shape, which reconfirms the primary values of a dynamic fit and freedom of movement, in a classier shoe, designed and manufactured for walking anywhere in the world. A symbol of GEOX excellence, combining the Inner Breathing System and the 3D Performance Unit: wider openings at critical points of the sole are combined with the structure calibrated to the natural points of contact of the foot, enhancing breathability, flexibility, lightness and stability. They are available in both casual shades and the contrasting colour-blocks of the fluorescent or camouflage soles, and the clean and essential silhouettes have easy-entry and totally water-repellent uppers, in technical fabric and soft suede, with totally hidden stitching. 

    The water, wind and damp proof AMPHIBIOX technology continues to be a cornerstone in the Fall/Winter season. Totally, waterproof and really comfortable. The rubber soles include the peerless Amphibiox technology which will keep rain, wind, snow and dampness at bay: the breathable and waterproof inner membrane protects both sole and upper, stopping water from getting inside the shoes whilst ensuring amazing breathability – meaning your stay feet warm and dry and can breathe naturally.

    Lastly, the CUOIO patent revolutionises the elegant footwear of the modern gentleman looking for totally waterproof models: the breathing membrane is combined with the leather sole, allowing damp to pass from the inside outwards and ensuring the foot is always completely dry. A combination of a “new classic” spirit and an “old-school” refinement, the authentic Made in Italy style is extremely sophisticated and attractive, as represented by the formal range in vintage feel.

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  • Spar International Expands in Thailand

    Spar International Expands in Thailand

    SPAR International (“SPAR”) and Bangchak Retail Company Limited (“BCR”), today announced a significant new partnership agreement which will see up to 300 new SPAR stores opening in Thailand by the end of 2020, as part of a €102 million investment 

    SPAR International is the world’s largest food retail voluntary chain with over 12,100 stores worldwide and global retail sales of €33 billion in 2015. SPAR presence in Asia continues to grow with the brand attracting independent partners.

    BCR plan to open 7 new stores during 2016, comprising key flagship convenience and neighbourhood developments. From 2017 the company plans to open 50-80 stores each year for the next five years with up to 2,500 jobs created in the process. BCR’s retail strategy meets customer needs, with strong market growth in the neighbourhood grocery sector in Thailand; the company anticipates retail sales of €260 million by 2020.

    The partnership with BCR will see SPAR share industry expertise with its new partner including the sharing of best practice across its supply chain, retail operations, staff training, retail design and brand development strategy. SPAR Thailand is expanding forecourt retailing stores around food purchasing moments and to achieve this initiative SPAR International worked with BCR to generate detailed store designs and layouts. Ahead of the opening of the first store, SPAR International also supported the formation of the requisite supply chain capability, introduced the SPAR culture to the teams in the stores and central office, given advice about equipment suppliers and assisted with secondments to other SPAR Partners by key team members to expand their knowledge of the SPAR Brand.

    Speaking at the official announcement of the new partnership Tobias Wasmuht, Managing Director of SPAR International said “In the last decade, SPAR International has grown from strength to strength in key strategic markets of Asia. Today, we have a significant multi-format presence including hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience and online in China, India, and Indonesia. The launch of SPAR in Thailand in partnership with BCR represents a significant and important step forward in SPAR’s ongoing expansion into Asian markets.  It brings together our internationally tried and tested retail expertise particularly in convenience and supermarket formats with the extensive knowledge of the Thai market. The partnership is a true example of the SPAR ethos in which through working together all shall benefit.”

    The new venture is being lead on the BCR side by Mr. Viboon Wongsakul, Managing Director of Bangchak Retail Company Limited. Speaking about the partnership Mr. Wongsakul said “BCR is excited to bring this new offering to customers in Thailand. SPAR and BCR share many key values such as a dedication to growth, a commitment to local suppliers, supporting communities and offering diverse retail solutions. We plan to bring local retailing to the next level and will dedicate the resources necessary to have a significant presence in the market in the shorted possible timeframe.” 

    As a shared core value, SPAR and BCR focus on supporting the communities in which they operate. During the development of the flagship stores in 2016, special focus will be given to the ability to source produce and product locally. SPAR International has a process in place for the development of own brand products by a Partner and has worked with BCR on the development and launch of a national range of own brand products.

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  • Mothercare recovery hits a bump

    Mothercare recovery hits a bump

    Mothercare is in the process of a much needed turnaround strategy for its UK business that aims to bring the UK side of its proposition back to profit.

    After a reasonable first quarter result, the retailer has felt the effects of a tougher economic climate in the second, with like-for-likes dipping into negatives for the combined first half year.

    From March onwards expect to see Mothercare increase its prices, given that close to half its products are sourced in US dollars, which will likely be another blow to UK profits.

    Mothercare continues to focus on its digital business, with online sales now 40 per cent of total UK retail sales, compared to 36 per cent this time last year. However, a significant 44 per cent of online sales come from instore orders on staff iPads – which suggests consumers are visiting stores but due to limited floor space there’s poor product availability. Mothercare’s ‘online’ sales don’t look quite so impressive.

    Mothercare has other issues to contend with. While the retailer is popular for newborns, in the next couple of years, the business will need to focus on retaining these consumers with celebrity and fashion-led ranges as fast fashion retailers such as H&M, Zara and Next draw this customer base from its stores.

    International remains an area of success for Mothercare, boasting profits of £20.8 million. However, the volatile international market means the retailer must not rely on its international success to soften the losses it continues to make in the UK.

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