Skechers, an American footwear company, yesterday officially opened its largest flagship store in Southeast Asia at CentralWorld.
Vincent Leung, president of Skechers Southeast Asia Ltd, said the company chose Bangkok for the region's largest flagship store, at 275 square metres, because Thailand is a key market with a large population and heavy tourist traffic.
The country is the fastest-growing market for Skechers in Southeast Asia, he said, with sales continuing to grow each year.
"In the first nine months of the year, sales grew by over 50%, much higher than the average growth in this region," Mr Leung said yesterday during a visit to Thailand.
Skechers at CentralWorld incorporates imagery and clear displays with a modern and chic look. Apart from lifestyle, performance and children's lines, the company has added an apparel range at this store for the first time.
Mr Leung said about half of sales by the company's rivals are from apparel, while Skechers just began selling apparel in Thailand. Therefore there is huge potential for sales gains from apparel in the future, he said.
The company expects apparel to generate 20-30% of overall Skechers sales in Thailand.
Skechers was founded in the US in 1992. It later became America's second-biggest footwear brand, with about 120 million pairs sold worldwide.
Skechers sales totalled US$4 billion (131.6 billion baht) in 2017, up from $3.4 billion the year before.
Kaimuk Nilsatetee, assistant vice-president of CRC Sports Co, the licensed distributor of Skechers in Thailand, said that apart from the introduction of the flagship store at CentralWorld, the company has launched an updated version of its popular D'Lites sneaker line.
"Skechers shoes generate the most sales revenue for CRC Sports," Ms Kaimuk said. "Its performance has gone well since expanding its business to Thailand in the past several years. We expect sales to grow by over 50% this year."
CRC Sports has worked closely with the Skechers head office in Singapore to understand Thai customers and design shoes accordingly.
A total of 12 new Skechers branches have opened this year, including varied store formats to serve targeted clientele.
Ms Kaimuk said about 400,000 pairs of Skechers were sold in Thailand last year. She expects the figure to reach 800,000 this year.
Skechers in Thailand are sold at 32 concept stores, two outlet stores, 25 shops-in-shops and 95 branches of leading department stores.
The company plans to open a further 12 Skechers stores in Thailand next year. Each requires an investment of 10-12 million baht.
Plans also call for renovating and enlarging existing stores. A new concept store will be introduced next year, featuring Mark Nason by Skechers, to expand the customer base to younger buyers.
