Improved Profitable Growth at HomePro
Background
Home Product Center Public Company Limited is a Thailand-based retailer of building materials and home improvement products under the name HomePro. HMPRO has 99 stores nationwide, with most in greater Bangkok and upcountry.
Its Hard line unit (home item) accounts for 70% of revenue, Soft line unit (decorative item) 17%, and 13% from subsidiaries.
Business Description
HMPRO is a retailer involved in Home Servicing. Its businesses include selling goods and providing a complete range of services related to construction materials, additions, renovation.
Its operations are home improvement products (including bathroom and sanitary ware), kitchen and home appliances, electrical equipment and lighting, bedding and household decorative goods.
Its HomePro brand targets the end user directly, while Mega Home is a one-stop shopping center, offering a full range of wholesale and retail housing and construction products. HMPRO has over 36 private brands covering more than 3,000 items, sold at 99 outlets in Thailand and six outlets in Malaysia. The Malaysian stores haven’t reached economies of scale yet and therefore not turned a profit.
The HomePro S store format, introduced in 2017, is a smaller format covering geographical areas where larger stores are not feasible. Product offerings consist of high-turnover and decent-margin products, reducing the payback period to 4-5 years versus 6-7 years for a standard store.
Leadership
Manit Udomkunatum has served as the Chairman of HMPRO since 2001 and personally holds 2.27% of total shares. He also holds chairmanship and/or directorship in a large number of non-listed companies. This includes Elysian Development Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Inn Co., Ltd. among others. He has been trained in the Directors Accreditation Program in 2004 at the Thai Institute of directors association.
Khunawut Thumpomkul was appointed the Managing Director of HMPRO in 2001. He is also the executive director of LH Financial Group PCL (LHFG TB) along with numerous other roles in non-listed companies. He holds 1.08% of HMPRO’s shares. His education is comprised of a Bachelors degree in Economics from Ramkanhaeng University, Thailand and Master of Business Administration from National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand.
World Class Benchmarking
Profitable Growth has been performing consistently well, ranked at #3 since 2014 and improved to #2 in the past 12 months. This puts HMPRO among the top 254 out of 1,270 large Consumer Discretionary companies worldwide.
The Profitability ranking closely resembles that of Profitable Growth with an exception of its improvement to #2 already in 2017. Growth has been about average over the years.
Asset utilization has been stable at average ranks in most years but inched up to #4 in the most recent period. Profit margin has ranked above average in all years and in the top 30% since 2017.
Sales growth has deteriorated over the years. The opposite is true for Margin change where great improvements can be seen after 2015.
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