True bills payable at Power Buy

The Nation (14 December 2007)

True has opened customer-service shops in 20 branches of consumer-electronics shop Power Buy as part of an agreement to increase traffic.

Thiti Nantapatsiri, True's managing director for home, consumer and high-speed access business, said the arrangement reflected the convergence between service and hardware as True customers could shop for Power Buy products and then pay their True service bills in the same area.

True will open another 30 shops in Power Buy branches next year, he added.

True and Power Buy have about 100 and 79 branches nationwide, respectively.

True has a policy of bundling a wide array of its telecom services, from fixed telephones to cellular and pay-TV in one package, to attract consumers.

Thiti claimed that the combined 100 True shops, excluding the shops in Power Buy areas, have recorded customer traffic of about Bt1 million per month.

President Suthisarn Chirathivat said Power Buy had total sales revenue of over Bt10 billion in the last few weeks and it is recording high product sales this month.

Power Buy's vice president for merchandising and new business, Parichart Yamvinic, said that of total sales revenue, 28 per cent was generated by LCD televisions, followed by mobile phones and digital cameras.