JWD, a leading fully integrated in-land logistics service provider, is working to achieve a healthy growth in revenue from its moving business to benefit from the growing tendency among consumers to secure professional moving services for convenience. It is seeking to add more B2C customers to the current customer base, which comprises largely of B2B customers, having introduced the self-storage and box-storage services to provide solutions to prospective customers who demand additional storage space and residents of condominium units with insufficient space. It is also going to launch three to five new sites in urban areas in the next few years and developing an application to enhance customer service.
Mr Charvanin Bunditkitsada, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of JWD InfoLogistics Public Company Limited (JWD), a leading fully integrated in-land logistics service provider, revealed that, seeing high potential for growth in the moving business run by JVK International Movers Ltd., a JWD company, due to the changing consumer behaviour involving an increasing preference for convenient professional moving service, JWD is now expanding its moving service to ensure that the FY2017 group revenue growth will be at least 7%. He noted that, for FY2016, JVK's total sales of THB 256 million accounted for 11.5% of total group revenue.
JWD is among the first operators of moving services in Thailand. It began in 1979 by transporting furniture items for repatriating embassy personnel in the country, before expanding the business to provide integrated services in both domestic and overseas markets. The services now include i) moving of home furniture and household items (for buyers of single homes, duplexes and townhomes in Land & Houses estate projects in Greater Bangkok and Phra Nakhon Si Ayuttthaya, as engaged by Land & Houses PCL); ii) moving of office furniture; iii) packaging, making of wooden crates and boxes and moving of heavy machinery, which require employment of experts and specialised lifting equipment and tools, e.g. cabins for handling of items requiring wall removal to allow items to be moved from high-rise buildings; and iv) moving of medical tools, devices and apparatuses and innovative items at trade exhibitions, including packaging and moving of priceless artworks and relics that requires expertise and special handling methods. The majority of its customers are business organisations and government agencies, including those organising the Metalex event or relocating their government complex or ancient relics of the National Museum. It currently maintains four branch offices in CLMV markets (i.e. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) and 32 overseas sales offices that cover all continents.
In FY2017, a growth in moving service will be contributed significantly by domestic and international machinery moving, which is likely to post a healthy growth rate as businesses (e.g. textile or food businesses) are expanding their manufacturing bases both domestically and internationally, especially in the CLMV markets. Exhibit and artwork moving services are also forecasted to have high growth rates, given year-round events at Impact, Muang Thong Thani and BITEC Bangna, and the rising number of exhibitors, which will positively affect moving business.
“What differentiates us is our ability to offer high quality services using efficiency-enhancing technologies, e.g barcoding, sort coding for different office departments, etc. We are also ISO-certified and an affiliate of FIDI, the global alliance of professional international moving and relocation companies. We have always focused our efforts to ensure precision and high quality and timely service, which have often led to referrals by our previous customers who have been impressed by our services," he said.
The CEO added that recently the company has adopted a plan to increase revenue through introduction of three to five new self-storage and box-storage sites in inner Bangkok areas over the next few years (the existing facility is situated on Krungthep Kritha Road and has 80 rooms) to attract retail customers who are residents of condominiums or apartments with limited storage space or entrepreneurs (e.g. e-commerce businesses) who need more stocking. It is also developing an application to facilitate service request, payment and retrieval request by customers. These, he noted, will draw new customers and help the company in meeting targets.
“This is a business with high-growth potential and above-average rental rates. Our current average monthly occupancy ratio stands at 70%. The range of self-storage fee rates is THB 3,000 to THB 10,000 per month for a room of 4-30sq m. Properly walled and made of fire-resistant construction material, the rooms are accessible by customers on a 24-hour basis and security-protected by a keycard system. We are also having a promotion campaign, where customers with one-year contracts will enjoy a one-month free storage. As for box-storage service, the minimum fee rate is THB 250 per month, which can be cut to THB 125 per month for customers with contracts of one year or longer”, said he.