Ans : Centara Hotels & Resorts has its origins in a venture that was begun late in the 1970s by Central Group at a large plot of land in Bangkok's Chatuchak district. The company was aiming to create a first for Thailand, with a megamall, a five-star hotel, and a convention centre. With the Thai economy having been in some turmoil during most of the decade, as indeed had the world economy, the venture was viewed as being a considerable risk.
Construction of a hotel with a minimum of 600 rooms, plus a convention centre, had been part of the terms when purchasing the land. This represented a move in a challenging new direction for the Chirathivat family, who had no experience in hotels or convention centres. They did, however, have confidence that the tourism sector was on its way to becoming one of the country's largest revenue earners.
The Chirathivat family founded Central Plaza Hotel Pcl to handle this project, and the doors opened for the first time at what was initially the Hyatt Central Plaza & Bangkok Convention Centre on 23 April 1983. The name of the hotel was later changed to the Sofitel Centara Grand Bangkok and was rebranded to its present name of Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao Bangkok on 1 January 2012.
On the other hand, Central Restaurants Group Co Ltd (CRG) is one of the leaders in Thailand's chain restaurant industry, established in 1978 with the intention and vision to respond to Thai customers' daily needs with quality food products and excellent services. We have devoted ourselves constantly to creating quality products along with ensuring restaurant decor is fresh and modern, and that the ambience befits customer behaviour patterns. CRG is above all committed to operating our business with a customer-oriented strategy, in which building and maintaining good customer relationships are prioritised through customer relationship management (CRM) with our long-established membership scheme.
Ans :
Hotel business:
One of the key factors in the positive business performance is Centara's commitment to diversifying its geographic guest mix, market segments and product offering. In having a broad brand portfolio that appeals to a multitude of domestic and global markets, and a focus on both leisure and business travellers, the group is able to mitigate the risk of market volatility in individual sectors or regions and replace business from new audiences and markets.
Channel optimisation is another key strategy and effective digital marketing, e-commerce and website management. Increasing the share of revenue from this highest yield, lowest cost channel drives increased the company's profitability.
With aggressive expansion plans comes the need to ensure a vast and diverse customer base, strong brand awareness in existing and prospective source markets, and a robust brand platform to support development. Centara attended all major international trade fairs including WTM in London and ITB in Berlin. Key executives attended all events and gave numerous media interviews to enhance the company's global presence.
Food business:
The company has made major investments in various forms. For Bangkok, the Company continues to focus on expanding its business to major shopping centres, along the sky train and subway lines, as well as other types of retail such as in office buildings, gas stations, hospitals, exhibition centres, etc. New store formats such as Cafés, Pop Up Stores, Food Trucks, Drive Thrus or small shops in the business district (City Store), support the digital lifestyle that requires smart work with Bangkokians who rely on smartphones or notebooks, similar to co-working space (power plug service, USB socket, wi-fi signal), are included in the company's branch expansion plan to cover every lifestyle, including business meetings or meetings within a group of friends. For branch expansion in other provinces, the Company focused on opening new branches in major and secondary cities outside of Bangkok with the continuous growth of city communities and expansion of major transportation routes. These areas are known as special economic areas.
In preparation for the future, proactive expansion of restaurant branches is becoming more necessary. In addition to a sufficient number of branches to adequately meet customer demand, retail businesses must consider approaching consumers directly (not waiting for consumers to come to the store). In addition to re-sizing some branches to reduce the cost of distribution while still providing services covering all areas, the company also plans to develop a new restaurant business expansion model for mass marketing appeal rather than marketing customization. The company also plans to make changes from its original physical location to be based on digital location, for consumer access to products and services covering every step (Journey) and all channels (Touchpoints), focusing on online presence, hence increasing channels of connection for customers via Search Engine, Facebook, Website etc.
Ans : As one of the companies of the Central Group, we adhere to the principles of organisational culture creation, expressing how the business operates in harmony with employees, customers, business partners and communities under the I-CARE concept that is integrated with business practices as follows.
- Innovation: creating and implementing new ideas - because we care about us. This covers all occasions and challenges for more efficiency in work.
- Customer: caring for the customers - because we pay attention, we, therefore, strive to develop services to standards of excellence by focusing on and paying careful attention to customers.
- Alliance: advances both business groups - because we pay attention, we, therefore, respect the values and our differences to be able to work together as a team to advance the entire business group.
- Relationship: reliability - because we care for fellow employees, partners and society for sustainable development.
- Ethic: aiming to maintain ethics - because we care. We aim to apply ethics in business
Ans : There is 3 components which are Basic Fees, Marketing Fees, and Incentive Fees.
- Basic Fees and Marketing Fees are calculated as a percentage of gross revenue.
- Incentive Fees are calculated as a percentage of gross operating profit.
Ans : No less than 60% of net profit of separate financial statements. Historically, the dividend payout ratio is between 62% - 86% or visit https://investor.centarahotelsresorts.com/en/investor-relations/shareholder-information/dividend-payment for details.
