Wednesday, September 23, 2009

BKK diversifies into property

       BKK Group, one of the country's leading automobile retail business operators,announced a rebranding yesterday that introduces a new corporate logo and consolidates all businesses under the group.
       The group, an authorised dealer for Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Jeep/Chrysler, is also to invest billions of baht in real-estate development projects to cash in on its many potential land banks in Bangkok, said senior executives.
       Timed to coincide with BKK's 17th anniversary, the 30-million-baht initiative is updating Mercedes-Benz showrooms and service centres to conform with the luxury car brand's standards. The rebranding is also introducing "For Today's Better Living" as a marketing slogan and covers investment in software and personnel development.
       The rebranding is aimed at improving the group's long-term business results and will focus on total quality management (TQM) strategies, to provide a service defined by quality rather than quan-tity, said president Rienchai Likitplug.
       Despite the worldwide downturn and the automotive industry slump, the group's revenue grew 5% in the first seven months this year. It expects to achieve 3 billion baht in consolidated revenue by the year-end, compared with 2.7 billion last year.
       "This could largely be attributed to the high purchasing power of high-end customers and the Rienchai: Purchasing continuous devel-power still strong opment of the products and services offered to the customers in the past 17 years," said Mr Rienchai.
       Under its business consolidation, BKK Group has become the holding company of several subsidiaries, including Benz BKK Co and Benz Vipavadee Co, authorised dealers of Mercedes-Benz; Siam Nissan BKK Co, the authorised dealer of Nissan; BKK Auto Mall and Leasing Co,the car financing arm; BKK Chrysler Co,the authorised dealer of Chrysler; and BKK Grand Estate Co, the developer of real estate projects.
       The group no longer sells Jeep/Chrysler products but continues to provide repair and maintenance services.
       BKK Group plans to develop a highrise condominium on nine rai of land opposite Bitec on Bang Na-Trat Highway.Construction will begin at the end of this year and be completed by mid-2012, said Anupong Likitpurkpaisan, the group's executive director.
       "Property development is not new for the group as it earlier invested between 10 million and 100 million baht to develop a few townhouse and singlehouse projects upcountry." said Mr Anupong.
       The group expects to sell 400 Mercedes-Benz and 300 Nissan vehicles this year."Since Mercedes-Benz and Nissan are due to launch many models at the end of this year, the group believes the launch could help stimulate the automobile market's growth," he said.

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