Central plans 500 million baht reboot for New Years festival season

After months of restrictions for shopping centres, with promotional events banned in areas with high Covid-19 infection rates, 35 Central shopping centres across Thailand are preparing for the holiday shopping season with a multimillion baht market campaign to boost sales.

Central Pattana Plc is set to spend as much as 500 million baht this New Years festival season in an attempt to boost shopping and retail sales. They announced the “Forwarding Happiness 2022” campaign yesterday at a press conference, where Central Group executives unveiled their new plan.

Central Pattana Plc, or CPN, is an SET-listed property developer and retail magnate in Thailand. The “Forwarding Happiness 2022” will be rolled out across 35 different malls and shopping centres between November 12 and January 6, according to the company. The plan involved 400 million baht being spent on marketing for the Christmas and New Year season. The other 100 million baht will be used for New Years countdown events. The company’s executive vice president of marketing Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana explained their strategy.

“Although the Covid-19 pandemic still persists and customer traffic is yet to get back to the level of the pre-crisis period, we are set to spend heavily a budget on par with the pre-crisis level to launch our New Year campaigns which align with the country’s reopening with an aim to establish Thailand as a world-class shopping destination, and stimulate the tourism ecosystem as well as community economies.”

One of the features of this plan will be the largest Christmas tree in Southeast Asia, a 14-metre tall tree at CentralWorld in Bangkok. Also Central EastVille will put up a large ice-skating rink surrounded by Christmas trees.

Consumer interest in shopping has gradually improved this year, according to Nattakit. He expects the positive trend will continue, especially as the country reopens further and vaccinations increase. The company reports that consumer traffic is 100% back to pre-Covid numbers at their malls in Rayong, Mahachai and Samut Sakhon. The numbers are 80-90% normal in the Northeast region and at around 70% in Bangkok. Central expects their fourth quarter earnings to be at about 80% overall of what their numbers were pre-pandemic.

Nattakit is confident that Thailand’s retail sector will get back to normal within a few years, as long as Covid-19 can continue to be managed.

“If there is no fifth and sixth wave of Covid-19 outbreaks, we are confident that the overall retail sector will become normalised over the next 2-3 years…We have to monitor the situation of the retail and tourism markets after the country’s reopening for two weeks before moving forward on New Year’s countdown events.”

SOURCE: Bangkok Post