Platinum Fashion Mall aims to be wholesale hub 

“We want to help SMEs expand overseas, and Southeast Asia is the target. Meanwhile, Platinum Fashion Mall hopes the centre will become the best wholesale fashion hub of Asean by 2017,” Chanchai Phansopha, president of The Platinum Group, said yesterday.
Under its project called “Empowering SMEs”, small and medium-sized enterprises will learn to create fashion goods that can meet the demands of other countries.
Already 20 shops have joined the pilot project and more are on the waiting list. 
The selection criteria are having their own brand, designing by themselves or having their own factory, having a deep understanding of basic marketing to extend their business significantly, and being exemplary. 
The shop-development model will focus on promoting knowledge of marketing, improving shop assistants’ service skills, giving advice on accessing loans, organising business-matching activities, recommending shops to foreign tourist groups, and advertising and providing public relations for shops in various media both inside and outside the shopping mall.
The company says the project has developed at a satisfactory level, with target groups inside the country and overseas asking about products through various channels. The owners of the shops are also satisfied as the number of customers is growing.

Group profit up 14% 
The group raised its profit by 14 per cent year on year to Bt523 million and its revenue by 7 per cent to Bt1.38 billion in the first nine months of the year. 
For the third quarter, the company increased net profit 13 per cent year on year to Bt179 million.
The key factors behind the growth in operating revenue were higher rental rates for spaces at Platinum Fashion Mall. 
The company has changed its self-operated restaurant zone into a rental space.
Revenue from the hotel business for the first nine months improved 5 per cent year over year, thanks to higher room rates and more corporate customers.
On December 1, the company will open the “Talad Neon – Downtown Night Market” on Phetchaburi Road in Bangkok between Sois 23 and 29. It will feature 900 shops on 5,600 square metres of rental space on the 10-rai (1.6-hectare) site and a parking lot for 200 cars.
“The budget is more than Bt80 million. The payback period is expected to be one year after opening. 
“The night market will help increase revenue-profit of the company and emphasise the selling point of being a large night market that meets the urban lifestyle of the digital age,” Chanchai said.
Development of the Bt5.8-billion The Market project, a large shopping centre on Rajdamri Road with total area of 170,000sqm, is ongoing and expected to be completed in the second half of 2018.