Thailand

Thailand’s aggressive True Corp, whose core business is communications, tapped into a captive market of customers passing through its many phone, internet and cable TV retail centres and set up a chain of coffee shops inside some of its larger facilities some years ago. Customers could pay their True utility bills, surf the internet, ogle at the latest phones – and have a cup of coffee all in the same place. The brand has since expanded beyond its own in-house locations and now operates 41 shops, of which nine are in universities.

True is planning to set up another 18 shops in universities in 2009, preferring to stay away from the archetypal shopping mall locations where it established its name as a trendy hang out for lifestyle consumers. A downturn in consumer spending has made True cautious about expanding its up-market mall locations unless there is proven high visitor volume, and university campuses score well in this regard, according to Papon Ratanachaikanont, True Corp’s managing director overseeing the lifestyle retail business.

(Reported by Glenn John and Heneage Mitchell)