Thailand
08 April 2008
TM Advanced Services (Thailand) Co, a Malaysia-based vending machine company, plans to offer self-service vending machines on June 1.
The Smart Kiosk interactive vending machine has an automated touchscreen that offers a wide range of products and services ranging from mobile top-up, transport tickets, movie and event tickets and bill payment services.
Each machine can provide up to 100 services and products.
"Thai people like convenience. They like everything to be at their footsteps and that's why we think the Smart Kiosk will be a good investment here," said Desmond Chin, the company's vice-president.
The company plans to obtain 90% of its revenues from franchising its Smart Kiosks with the rest coming from operating its own machines.
So far, the company has received reservations for 20 machines under the franchise agreements. A three-year franchise contract is worth 388,000 baht.
Mr Chin estimated that there would be 30 vending machines in Bangkok by the time the Smart Kiosk brand is formally launched in June and 300 machines by the end of this year.
The company aims to bring the total number of Smart Kiosk machines in Bangkok to 3,000 within five years.
The machines would be placed in prime areas including universities, shopping centres, condominiums, big factories and train stations.
One vending machine is expected to generate 10,000 to 30,000 baht per month, or a 30% annual return.
Later this year, the company plans to introduce a new vending machine that accepts cash cards. For the time being, the machine only accepts an exact amount of cash.
Mr Chin explained that the vending machines are operated via a wireless GSM system connected to the main software servers in Malaysia. The company has spent 150 million baht on its own software development and it plans to bring the servers to Thailand in the near future.
Although there seem to be many services available, especially for the prepaid mobile-phone payments, Mr Chin said a 1% market share would be sufficient since there are 50 million prepaid mobile phone users out of 54 million cellular subscribers across the nation.
"We only need just a piece of the pie," said Mr Chin.
The company plans to expand further to other Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
TM Advanced Services, established in 2007, is a subsidiary of Amazed Aims Group, a leading vending machine company in Malaysia. The Thailand office was opened in February 2008.
Source :
www.bangkokpost.com
