Bangkok--9 Jul--The way communications
MC GROUP Public Company Limited (“MC”), one of the leading apparel and lifestyle retailers, announced that its founder Mr. Pichai Karnjanarporn has decided to step down as chairman of the board and its board of directors has appointed Ms. Sunee Seripanu as the company’s new chairman of the board. Ms. Seripanu will also continue to serve as chief executive officer.
In addition, Mr. Karnjanarporn has reduced his stake in the company, selling to Ms. Seripanu who has increased her holding 6.25% to 44.08%; and to domestic as well as foreign institutional investors who have shown interests and confidence in the company’s strong underlying fundamentals and superior long-term growth potential, resulting in an increase in institutional investors holdings of 5.68%. The change in the shareholding structure has no impact on the company’s business policies and operations.
“We would like to thank Mr. Karnjanarporn for founding and, through his tireless dedication, building a strong business foundation for the company. The board of directors, executives and staffs will continue this commitment to bring Mc brands to the regional level and MC Group to become a leading lifestyle business.” said Ms. Seripanu.
Since joining the company in 1996 as CEO, Ms. Seripanu has introduced many business strategies which has helped creating solid foundation for MC Group such as expanding the business to the upcountry to weather through Asian financial crisis in 1997 and introducing free-standing store as the new sales channel - two of the key drivers contributing to the company strong growth and Mc brand’s leading position in jeans market in Thailand.
For year 2014, the company will continue to follow its target in expanding the sales network of 110 points of sales. In the first quarter, the company reported revenue growth of 27% and net profit growth of 14% yoy; it was impacted by political instability and slowdown in consumer consumption esp. in the upcountry. However, with the recent NCPO’s economic stimulation measures, the company expects consumer consumption to pick up in the second half of the year. The sales growth target for 2014 is 20-25%.