Retail News CRM

Tag: Malaysia

  • Malaysia Airports reports +17.0% year-on-year surge in retail revenues

    Malaysia Airports reports +17.0% year-on-year surge in retail revenues

    Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) has reported a +17.0% year-on-year surge in retail revenue to RM623.5 million (US$151.8 million) in the nine months ended 30 September 2017.

    Group retail and food & beverage sales per passenger increased +12.3%.

    Non-aeronautical revenues at the group, which runs Malaysia’s major airports as well as having a stake in Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen Airport in Turkey, rose by +13.9% to RM1,169.2 million (US$284.7 million).

    Retail and F&B sales at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and low-cost terminal klia2 combined – the key locations for commercial activities at the group –increased +26.7% to RM1,546.8 million (US$376.6 million).

    Malaysia Airports’ retail arm Eraman posted revenue of RM536.3 million (US$130.6 million) across KLIA and klia2, up +15%. Sales per passenger increased +2.0% to RM12.37 (US$3).

    At Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen Airport, where the concessionaire is Setur Duty Free, duty free spend per passenger fell -5.5% to €8.81. Non-aeronautical revenue slipped -7.8% to €62.9 million.

    MAHB said group passenger traffic increased +8.6% to 95.3 million. International traffic growth in Malaysia (+14.7%) and Turkey (+6.6%) outpaced respective domestic growth.

    MAHB group revenue was up +10.1% to RM3,405.5 million (US$828.4 million). EBITDA increased +10.6% to RM1,478.4 million (US$359.6 million).

    Travel retail seems to be gaining a continuous growth, not only in Malaysia, but all Asia Pacific, without ignoring the high number of tourists purchasing goods in the country of origins of the brands.

  • AirAsia cancels 32 Bali and Lombok flights

    AirAsia cancels 32 Bali and Lombok flights

    Low-cost carrier AirAsia has cancelled 32 flights and rescheduled two others from and to Bali and Lombok following the volcanic activity at Mount Agung in Bali.

    In a statement, AirAsia said affected passengers would be notified of their flight status and the options available to them via their registered e-mail addresses.

    It said passengers whose flights were cancelled could change to a new travel time on the same route within 30 days from the original flight without additional costs and subject to seat availability. They can also retain the value of their fare in a credit account for future travel.

    “The online credit account has to be redeemed within 90 days from the date of issuance,” it said.

    The airline said passengers are advised to visit www.airasia.com and AirAsia’s social media pages and also to check their flight status through the “Manage My Booking” feature on AirAsia’s website.

    AirAsia said it was in contact with the autho­rities and would continually conduct risk assessments to ensure the safety of its operations.

    “AirAsia will provide updates on the latest developments,” it said, advising passen­gers requiring assistance to contact the airline’s customer support team.

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  • Sisma Auto opens Volvo showroom in Bukit Bintang

    Sisma Auto opens Volvo showroom in Bukit Bintang

    The Volvo brand just got a new shot-in-the-arm with Sisma Auto, Volvo Car Malaysia’s newly appointed authorised dealer, officially opening its city centre showroom at Menara Worldwide on Jalan Bukit Bintang.

    Located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s premier residential and commercial district, the showroom is set to offer a touch of Swedish luxury to the Golden Triangle by featuring a luxurious retail environment influenced by Scandinavian design, known also as Volvo Retail Experience (VRE).

    “VRE is designed to reflect our Scandinavian-inspired values of calm with cleans lines that exude a cool and refreshing visual exterior appeal whilst the interior offers customers a warm and inviting feeling,” said Lennart Stegland, managing director of Volvo Car Malaysia.

    Sisma Auto managing director Syed Khalil Syed Ibrahim added that the new showroom would help enhance the visibility and awareness of Volvo’s latest range of highly acclaimed luxury cars.

    “We are very proud to be associated with Volvo, a brand that is clearly on the ascent after releasing an amazing range of new models from the XC90 to the new S90 T8 Twin Engine. With this new showroom, we hope to bring the Volvo experience closer to those who live or work in the city,” he said.

    Volvo owners who reside or work in the vicinity could also enjoy a premium ownership experience, a signature of Sisma Auto. The new showroom will feature Sisma Auto’s Concierge Service, which offers home or office vehicle pick-up and drop-off for customers.

    In conjunction with the opening of this new showroom, Sisma Auto is offering customers purchasing any new Volvo model from them, a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to Sweden.

    The new Sisma Auto Volvo Bukit Bintang showroom is located on Ground Floor, Menara Worldwide, 198 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur. Its opening hours are from 9am till 7pm, Monday to Friday and from 10am till 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

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  • Fuel prices drop after five weeks of hikes

    Fuel prices drop after five weeks of hikes

    RON95 and RON97 petrol will be both be 8 sen cheaper at midnight, ending five consecutive weekly price increases.

    The Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry announced today that RON95 will retail for RM2.30/L and RON97 for RM2.58/L, while diesel will drop by 2 sen to RM2.23/L.

    All prices are effective after midnight and valid until next Thursday.

    Fuel prices previously rose for five straight weeks as global oil prices spiked due to the unrest in the Middle East region.

    Putrajaya has pledged to intervene in the event RON95 and diesel exceed the RM2.50/L mark for three consecutive months.

     

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  • Bursa Malaysia to push retail participation to 25%

    Bursa Malaysia to push retail participation to 25%

    Bursa Malaysia aims to boost retail investors’ participation to 25 per cent in the near term from the current 23.3 per cent with 80 programmes underway to increase financial literacy.

    Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said only four percent out of the 853 respondents had chosen to invest in shares while the rest opted for less traditional investment tools.

    “The public should consider share investment as part of their investment portfolio and change the perception that share investments are too risky.

    “Investment in shares will help diversify portfolio with the opportunity to get higher returns compared to fixed deposit, current and savings account,” he said after launching the “What’s Your Goal” campaign to raise awareness on share investment opportunities today.

    “Besides shares, there are also other investmeny products on Bursa Malaysia like Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs), structured warrants and real estate investment trusts, which are attractive and can meet different risk appetite of investors,” he added.

    Tajuddin said ETFs did not have sales charge and have significantly lower management fee compared to other managed unit trust funds.

    “Stamp duty exemptions announced in Budget 2018 will further enhance the attractiveness of ETFs as a low cost investment product,” he added.

    As of September 27 this year, the trading average daily volume currently stands at RM572 million, 16 per cent higher that RM385 million last year.

    The campaign will run for three months from November 21 to February 2018.

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  • Ikea Malaysia’s third store attracts more Singaporeans

    Ikea Malaysia’s third store attracts more Singaporeans

    Ikea Malaysia’s new third store in Johor Baru has attracted crowds of shoppers who hopped over the border from Singapore attracted by cheaper prices.

    Southeast Asia retail director Mike King says Ikea Tebrau is accessible to about 1.8 million Malaysians living within a 60-minute drive from the outlet. It is also 16km from the Woodlands Checkpoint, but some Singaporeans who drove across the causeway at the weekend faced congestion lasting up to two hours.

    Before too long, Ikea Tebrau’s 1771 parking bays were fully occupied, with some customers resorting to parking illegally along the main road outside the store, which is the largest in Southeast Asia at 46,730sqm.

    With 54 showrooms, the store offers more than 8000 home-furnishing products. It has a 750-seat restaurant featuring the brand’s signature Swedish meatballs, and this was packed on Sunday from 11am until 3pm, with some customers queueing two hours to enter.

    Meanwhile, in another Singapore connection, the BBH Singapore agency created a humorous campaign for the new store with the tagline “Now, there’s choice”.

    The campaign features four videos, supported by digital, TV, print, outdoor and radio.

    Capturing everyday domestic life, the films were shot by Argentinian director Augusto G Zapiola.

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  • MoneyMax Holding More Ground Malaysia

    MoneyMax Holding More Ground Malaysia

    Malaysian pawnbroker MoneyMax Financial Services – an offshoot of the Singapore group that specialises in pawnbroking, retail and trading in pre-owned jewellery, watches and branded goods – is buying into 13 pawnbrokers in Malaysia.

    It is acquiring interests in the traders from CMS Top Holdings for a consideration of RM56.6 million  (US$13.5 million) through its wholly owned subsidiary Cash Online. The transaction is being funded through internal resources and will underwrite expansion of its pawnbroking network in Malaysia.

    The target firms last year posted an aggregate net loss of about RM1.02 million, and have net tangible assets of about RM50.1 million.

    Separately, Chong Mei Sang, which established a JV with MoneyMax in 2014, will acquire about 1.96 million shares in the capital of each target company, including Pajak Gadai Bukit Gambir and Pajak Gadai Senai.

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  • Dairy Farm sales stagnate

    Dairy Farm sales stagnate

    Dairy Farm sales were described as “flat” in the third quarter to September 30.

    The Hong Kong-headquartered company said improved performances in health and beauty, Ikea, restaurants and Yonghui were offset by lower sales in the food and grocery division.

    “The lower food division sales, together with new store pre-opening costs in home furnishings, (Ikea) led to underlying profits being marginally below the same period in the prior year,” the company said in a statement issued in London, where it has a secondary listing. “Similar trading conditions are expected to continue for the remainder of the year.”

    Dairy Farm said the weakness seen in food and grocery sales was principally driven by difficult trading for the hypermarket and supermarket operations in Southeast Asia, where it operates Giant hypermarkets and Cold Storage supermarkets. It says reviews of “a number of the businesses” are being undertaken.

    The results from greater China (including its Hong Kong Wellcome supermarkets) showed improvement over the same period last year. Convenience store operations (including 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong and Singapore) produced improved sales and profitability.

    Yonghui reported a strong 20 per cent  growth in revenue and 131 per cent increase in profit in the quarter.

    Improved sales in the health and beauty division (Manning’s, Guardian and Rose Pharmacy) were driven principally by a strong performance in Hong Kong and Macau. Home Furnishings (Dairy Farm has the Ikea franchises in Hong Kong and Taiwan) traded well, although profitability was reduced due to pre-opening expenses for the new store in Hong Kong.

    Maxim’s (which also includes Starbucks operations in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Cambodia) had a seasonally strong quarter in both sales and profit, benefiting from record mooncake sales during the Mid-Autumn Festival period. In September, Maxim’s acquired the existing business and exclusive rights to operate and develop Starbucks franchise stores in Singapore.

    In August, the group completed the acquisition of the remaining 34 per cent interest in Rustan’s in the Philippines from its joint venture partner.

  • Parkson Retail Asia 1Q Net Loss Widens On Year As Sales Decline

    Parkson Retail Asia 1Q Net Loss Widens On Year As Sales Decline

    Parkson Retail Asia has had a lacklustre start to its fiscal year, its unaudited first-quarter figures show.

    Gross sales proceeds fell by 8.3 per cent year on year to S$202.4 million (US$148.9 million) for the quarter.

    Total merchandise sales generated $198.1 million, with concessionaire sales contributing 74.2 per cent, down from 77.9 per cent for the same period last year, and direct sales contributing the balance of 25.8 per cent.

    Attributable net losses to the owners of the company for the period, to September 30, reached $12.9 million. The group also had net current liabilities of $67.9 million at the end of September, the result of investments in new stores and ventures yet to reach optimal level. This was an increase of 22.5 per cent from its June 30 position.

    Same-store sales in Indonesia and Malaysia were impacted during the quarter by the absence of Lebaran/Hari Raya festival buying following a shift in the calendar.

    Malaysia remained challenging, with the country’s consumer sentiment index, at 77.1, continuing to register below the 100-point confidence threshold for the 13th consecutive quarter.

    Consumer spending appears to have also softened in Indonesia, where retail spending has been declining, while Parkson’s same-store sales in Vietnam dropped by 7.8 per cent. This is attributed to the “fading of novelty effects” arising from the entry into the market of such international players as H&M, Takashimaya and Zara.

    “Competition in Vietnam’s retail market remained intense,” says Parkson.

    In Myanmar, the group closed its store at FMI Centre, Yangon, in January with a new store at Junction Square in the city opening two months later.

    Parkson says its performance in the next quarter is expected to benefit from year-end school holidays and festive buying. However, it expects challenges with fragile consumer sentiment and stiff competition.

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  • New look for Rolex KL Pavilion store

    New look for Rolex KL Pavilion store

    Rolex has relaunched its boutique at Pavilion Kuala Lampur, with a new, elegant shop design and layout to lure the lucrative Malaysian market.

    Launched by Swiss Watch Gallery, which officially operates the luxury watch brand, the 158 square-metre-space has been modernized to appear high end, and offers a more intimate setting for consumers to experience the luxury timepieces.

    Key design features included bronze detailing and polished walnut wood cabinets to match the brand’s new image. The boutique also has a private salesroom for those seeking a discreet shopping experience.

    According to Valiram Group’s executive director Ashvin Valiram, the boutique is a “historical landmark”.

    “We are delighted that Swiss watchmaking’s crown jewel remains confident in our collaboration and we will continue to be its biggest and most passionate champion in the region,” said Valiram.

    To celebrate the launch, Rolex is offering Malaysian clientele the chance to purchase one of its newest timepieces– the gold Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona, which has a patented Oysterflex bracelet.

    The Swiss luxury watchmaker has also introduced new versions of its classic Oyster Perpetual Lady-Datejust 28 in steel and Rolesor (a material combining 904L steel and 18-carat white gold), and the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, as well as the Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller, Oyster Perpetual Pearlmaster, and Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master 40 models.

    The Kuala Lumpur flagship store, the largest boutique in Southeast Asia, first bowed at the Pavilion some ten years ago.

    In 2016, the Swatch Group led watches with a 19% value share for the year, according to Euromonitor. The most populr brands in Malaysia included Swatch, Longines, Omega, Tissot, and Rado.

    Looking ahead, Malaysia will continue to see the penetration of high-end watches, said Euromonitor, with demand for signature watches brands such as Hublot, Breguet, Maurice Lacroix and Rolex, to remain sustainable.

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  • ShopBack unveils close to USD40M in funding

    ShopBack unveils close to USD40M in funding

    ShopBack the one-stop lifestyle portal that powers smarter purchase decisions, raised USD25M in its latest funding round, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date close to USD40M. The round was led by Credit Saison, the largest credit card and retail finance company in Japan. More than 10 institutional investors participated in the round, including new investors Blue Sky and Intouch Holdings PLC, as well as existing investors SoftBank Ventures Korea, Singtel Innov8, Qualgro and East Ventures.

    “Cashback served as the cornerstone for ShopBack’s establishment in Malaysia and laid the foundation for us to build smarter shopping solutions,” said Alvin Gill, ShopBack Malaysia’s Country General Manager, “Living up to our value proposition as ‘The Smarter Way’, we have recently added service aggregation features for the rides to simplify purchase decisions for our users. We strive to become the one-stop shopping and lifestyle portal for every Malaysian.”

    Today, ShopBack powers close to 1,000 orders per hour, with an annualised sales figure of over USD300M for more than 1,300 partner merchants across the online retail, travel and lifestyle verticals. Over three and half million consumers across six countries in the Asia Pacific have signed up with ShopBack since the company’s inception in 2014.

    “ShopBack’s business model builds on the explosive growth of ecommerce in the Asia Pacific to drive tangible value for its users and cost-efficient sales generation for its partner merchants,” said Sean Lee, Partner of SoftBank Ventures Korea, “The model enables ShopBack to leverage user insights across shopping categories and develop smarter shopping solutions such as cross-category recommendations.”

    “The ShopBack team has demonstrated the ability to build a pool of loyal users in a sustainable and scalable manner, which is the backbone of all successful businesses. We have high confidence that the team is able to deliver on their vision in the region, hence the follow-on 18 months after our initial investment,” said Sean

    The three-year-old start-up previously disclosed two seed funding rounds totaling to over USD1M. This latest round of funding will be used to drive three key areas of development – acquiring world-class talent, launching new product features and establishing market leadership.

    Talent is key to long term success

     According to Heang Chhor, Managing Partner of Qualgro, “ShopBack consistently meets our high bar for delivering very strong growth. It has demonstrated exceptional ability to adapt and execute fast in very different markets across Southeast Asia. This rests on an innovative and fast-moving talent pool, that ShopBack has been able to attract, grow and motivate.”

    “Speed and results-orientation are key in the region, and ShopBack’s mantra of “Fail fast, learn fast and iterate faster”, has seen them rapidly become a regional platform for ‘The Smarter Way’ to shop online.”

    ShopBack’s presence in six countries is driven by a team of more than 130 people. The management team hails from ecommerce and technology background with experience in scaling companies across the region, including Alvin Gill who was previously the Chief of Staff to the CEO at ZEAL Network, a publicly-listed online lottery company with revenues in excess of EUR100M per annum.

    Prior to ZEAL Network, Alvin was in the investment banking industry before joining ZALORA Malaysia. He led the Buying Division and contributed, for the categories he controlled, a significant revenue growth towards the business. His experience and knowledge in Business Intelligence helped the company solve and streamline multiple operational challenges during his tenure.

    Proven product-market fit laid foundation for ShopBack’s regional growth

    ShopBack’s core business model is built on a strong foundation of multiple experimentations and iterations. It transformed from a one-day flash sale site to a perennial Cashback platform which enables it to deliver value to customers and partner merchants all year round.

    “We have witnessed ShopBack’s growth journey and the founders’ dedication to the business from the early days,” said Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer of Singtel Innov8. “With the flourishing e-commerce market in the region, we believe ShopBack is strongly positioned to realise their regional growth aspirations.”

    ShopBack believes rapid and effective localisation is critical for players operating in a fragmented region like the Asia Pacific. While its core service offering remains the same across geographies, different marketing and product strategies are adopted to better address the needs of customers in each market.

     “This new round of funding leads to the start of the year-end shopping festival, with the nearest being Alibaba’s 11.11 Singles’ Day. Our customised marketing approach has efficiently lifted the awareness level for Taobao, Tmall, and AliExpress in Malaysia, which resulted in a 400% increase in orders during 2016’s 11.11 Singles Day compared to 2015. We look forward to upscale the performance this year with an impactful campaign including up to 50% cash rewards and special rebates for our users,” added Alvin.

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  • Xiaomi Malaysia picks Kuala Lumpur to open its 2nd store

    Xiaomi Malaysia picks Kuala Lumpur to open its 2nd store

    Xiaomi Malaysia has opened its second retail store, offering Kuala Lumpur shoppers greater access to its Mi Ecosystem products.

    Originally the Chinese electronics company had sold its smartphones and other products exclusively online, but in its home territory has been introducing its Mi Home stores.

    At 940sqft (90sqm), its second authorised Mi Store is smaller than the debut store in Penang.  Xiaomi South Pacific head Steven Shi says the opening of a second store indicates the brand’s “great expectations” for growth in Malaysia.

    Two new smartphone models were released to coincide with the store’s opening, and Shi says Xiaomi will soon expand its Mi Ecosystem of products in Malaysia. These include IoT-ready products such as a smart rice cooker that can be pre-programmed for different recipes, a smart luggage bag than can be unlocked by phone, plus routers, TVs and drones.

    Meanwhile, Xiaomi is expanding across Southeast Asia, and has opened 15 Mi Stores and a factory in Indonesia. Xiaomi also has two Mi Stores in Singapore and one in Thailand. Its network in Malaysia is run by CG Computers.

    Its second concept phone, released with the KL store opening, was designed by Philippe Starck and features a curved ceramic back that that transitions to an aluminium frame. It will be available for pre-order on Saturday through online and offline channels including Lazada and authorised Mi Stores.

    Also showcased in the new store is the Redmi 5A Prime, the first Xiaomi phone that pairs a selfie light with a 16-megapixel front-facing camera. It has a fingerprint sensor on its back.

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  • Morten Lundal to step down as Maxis CEO

    Morten Lundal to step down as Maxis CEO

    Morten Lundal will be stepping down from his position as chief executive officer of Maxis next year after serving the Malaysian telecoms operator for nearly five years.

    In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Maxis said Lundal will be leaving the company when his contract expires on March 31, 2018.  No official reason was provided, and Maxis will reveal a successor in due course, the operator said.

    Lundal joined Maxis as CEO back in October 2013, bringing over 16 years of experience in the telecoms industry onboard. He was previously CEO of Digi, before joining Vodafone in various global positions within the British telecoms giant in 2008.

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  • AirAsia partners Tourism Malaysia for travel fair

    AirAsia partners Tourism Malaysia for travel fair

    Low-cost airliner AirAsia has announced the launch of a travel fair in Hyderabad, packed with offers, being organised in association with Tourism Malaysia.

    This fair is aimed at promoting tourism between India and Malaysia and thereby contribute to the socio-economic development of both the nations.

    During the initiative, interesting deals and offers are likely to be offered at the fair where guests can avail themselves up to 20 per cent off on their flight tickets. The offer is valid on bookings made between November 3 and November 5 for travel between November 6, 2017 and April 30, 2018.

    This discount is applicable on flights from Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Kolkata, Cochin, Hyderabad, Chennai, Trichy, Vishakhapatnam to Kuala Lumpur.

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  • Malaysia Airlines moves fully to the cloud

    Malaysia Airlines moves fully to the cloud

    Tata Consultancy Services has implemented an industry-first transformation project to migrate Malaysia Airlines’ data center to a 100% hybrid cloud model.

    To better enable a competitive-edge and future readiness for the airline, TCSorchestrated the large and complex project to migrate the airline’s core mission-critical data center infrastructure and myriad applications to a hybrid-cloud model operating 80% on Microsoft Azure and 20% on a private cloud.

    The pioneering move makes Malaysia Airlines the world’s first full-service airline to completely replace its existing data centers and adopt full-scale cloud solutions for its entire range of nearly 200 applications running mission critical commercial, operations and corporate systems.

    “We set out with an ambitious goal to digitally transform core IT operations to an as-a-service model, to achieve a quantum leap in cost savings, scalability, efficiencies, agility, and other key factors,” Malaysia Airlines CIO Tan Kok Meng said.

    The cloud-centric model is achieving exemplary results, including a 51% cost reduction forecast over the a 5-year period from mid-2016; productivity improvements up to 80% for core applications; application delivery times accelerated from days to hours in some cases; enhanced security and compliance capability and reporting.

    TCS Asia Pacific president Girish Ramachandran said this industry-first transformation not just drives improved value and enhanced operational efficiencies, but equally important, it enables Malaysia Airlines to deliver a better customer experience that results from a digitally-reimagined all-cloud IT model.

    As primary service partner, TCS collaborated with Microsoft, SAP, and numerous other vendors to ensure Malaysia Airlines’ current phase of digital evolution is seamless and cost-efficient and delivered without business disruption.

    The project scope included re-platforming of legacy applications for cloud compatibility and network service provisioning for large and complex airline operations. See the cloud transformation story in a single snapshot here.

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