To capture the growing lifestyle retail market, Vnet has taken a controlling stake in Copperwired and will renovate the biggest iStudio Apple shop at CentralWorld. The shop will re-launch tomorrow and offer people the chance to be part of the current iPod-iPhone craze in Thailand.
Despite the global economic downturn, the company still sees strong potential for Apple in Thailand, and this led it to take a majority stake in Copperwired, explained Vnet Capital's founder and chairman Narong Intanante.
The lifestyle Apple market still has plenty of room to grow, helped by the halo effect from iPod and iPhone users, many of whom are now considering their first MacBook.
Most buyers are mid- to high-end professionals who are not effected by the slowdown in the economy.
Vnet will take more than a 50 percent stake with the rest being held by existing shareholders. It expects a return on investment within three years.
Tomorrow, the company will re-launch the first new-look iStudio shop at CentralWorld. This will be a 550 square meter shop to replace the previous 170 square meter branch and will cost 50 million baht (US$1.42 million), complete with a training area.
This branch will have the same space as the San Francisco shop and will allow for an enhanced Apple experience, with users being able to test and learn about products before buying, he explained.
By the end of 2009, Copperwired has plans to open two more shops at Siam Discovery and Digital Gateway, bringing the number of Copperwired iStudios up to five.
Narong added that although he has Value Systems, one of Thailand's biggest IT distributors, which also sells Apple, under his control, he decided against building up iStudio under the Value Systems because retail sales are not its core business and he did not want to create any conflicts with its other partners. Moreover, Apple has a policy to distribute its products directly though partners with only a small number of sales through distributors.
He also sees more investment coming in from Singapore, Taiwan and Japan after the global financial situation stabilizes. Vnet is searching for investors in everything from environmental technology, food distribution as well as 3G mobile applications.
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