The Company's 2017 business plans were premised on spotting new business investment opportunities, laying a strong foundation for future growth and maintain the Group's role as the leading retailer of office supplies, educational and entertainment products, and ensuring that COL Group remains a key driver in developing Central Group's online businesses. This year's sales target growth is expected to reach 10%, equivalent to revenue of 12 billion baht.
The Company has made financial plans to maintain its liquidity and financial strength required to support its corporate plans this year. All ongoing investments including expansion by opening new branches domestically and overseas will be carefully evaluated. Presently, plans that are currently expansion plans that are underway include growing new areas of office equipment, IT-related products, and other lifestyle products across Asia. The first store has already been established in Vietnam.
Approximately one billion baht has been invested towards constructing a new smart warehouse that will elevate the quality of its logistics so the company can handle a wider range of products and ensure that the customers receive better service with more accurate and faster delivery of their orders.
Khun Wilawan Rerkriengkrai, Managing Director of OfficeMate revealed that sales will remain bright by growing 15% over the past year, amounting to sales revenue of 7.5 billion baht. The Company is expected to break through the 10 billion baht mark by 2020.
This latter target will be achieved by making OfficeMate a "One Stop Business Solutions' centre with the expansion of its customer base across every business sector and support the growth and expansion of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by sourcing new products and services. Examples include innovative business products such as cash registers, printers and barcode scanners, and multi-function printers which will have wider good value selections for all types of businesses.
To reinforce OfficeMate's leadership among businesses, organisations and SMEs across Thailand, a new brand campaign will be launched this year under the concept "Partnership to success".
OfficeMate will continue to ride on the back of its success in 2016 which started by launching a new stationery and office supplies brand, "One", and receiving a uniformly warm response from customers for every product category, enabling the Company to grow 10%. The greatest growth was in IT-related products such as multi-function printers with sales that grew by more than 40% and furniture in the Small Office & Home Office category with sales rising by more than 100%.
This year's focus will be on increasing the range of exclusive branded furniture imported from France, namely Elle Decor. The Company will orient itself to offer 'Total Service Solutions'. This includes full-service printing capabilities, providing premium products, and offering parcel delivery service. This will be achieved by partnering with new affiliates to more effectively respond to business needs across the country.
Khun Wilawan stated that OfficeMate has upgraded and transformed its stores to a more modern and welcoming ambiance. For greater ease of selection and shopping pleasure, shelves are stocked more systematically with products that will better meet business customers' demands.
Nine new branches were launched in 2016, three branches were given a facelift, and a new 'Click and Collect' service at www.officemate.co.th was added to make it easier for businesses to pre-order and pick up their purchases at any of the most convenient branch at more than 40 locations. In 2017, OfficeMate will add a total of eight new stores in Bangkok and the provinces.
In 2016, sales through e-commerce grew by more than 30%, and the numbers are expected to grow by 50% this year worth 1.2 billion baht. OfficeMate's e-Procurement Smart Purchase Solution system designed for large organisations has helped streamline the process and paperwork required to make online purchases, and has even reduced their expenses. Most importantly, this transparent and easy to audit system makes it an ideal resource for those responsible for procuring products in large organisations. This system is also aligned with the growth of e-commerce which is a field that has continued to develop and grow rapidly. These factors lie behind the Company confidence that it will definitely hit its sales target of 10 billion baht in 2020.
The Company will continue to develop new services and seek ways to increase customer satisfaction by extending its product warranty period to 30 days and provide free delivery nationwide for purchase orders valued at least 499 baht, according to the following terms and conditions such as customers in Bangkok Metropolitan Area will receive their orders within one working day. More than one billion baht was invested this year on imported robots and smart machines for the smart warehouse which will be completed in 2018. These measures will ensure that customers will receive all their orders faster and more accurately.