The Executive Talk: Synergetic Auto Performance (SET:ASAP)
August 21 2017 - 6:00AM
JCN Newswire (English)
BANGKOK, Aug 21, 2017 - (ACN Newswire) - Synergetic Auto
Performance (SET:ASAP) Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Songvit
Titipoonya discusses the company's strategy and outlook in The
Executive Talk (TET) by ShareInvestor.com.
TET: Please explain the history of ASAP.
Privately we began as a car dealership for Nissan automobiles in
1995 and in 2004 expanded our car dealer business for Toyota
Automobiles as well. As we were exploring opportunities to capture
new customers, we discovered that most of new customers were
looking to rent or lease vehicles instead of purchasing them. This
led us to establish Synergetic Auto Performance Co Ltd (SAP) in
2006 to provide self-drive long-term car rental services. Since
then we have continually expanded our fleet and became a publicly
traded company on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in March 2017.
TET: Please explain ASAP's business model.
Today, we have two core businesses. The first is long-term car
rental services and the second is self-driven short-term car rental
services. For the long-term car rental services, we provide full
fleet management services which are fleet procurement, tailored
modification, maintenance, replacement and so forth. The contract
period ranges from four to five years with most customers
self-driving and a smaller portion on the chauffeur-driven service.
Most of our customers are well known large corporations such as
Tesco, Unilever, financial institutions and government agencies.
For the self-driven short-term, we focus on individual customers
that are tourists, businessmen, and commuters. Our fleet is now
over 10,000 automobiles from Toyota, Honda and Nissan, comprising
of passenger cars, vans and pick-ups.
TET: What new services has ASAP expanded to and what future
services does the company plan to launch?
We are continually looking to expand with the automotive services
industry as we see that there are several opportunities to provide
value added services. In late 2015 we launched the self-driven
short-term car rental service under the name "asap" in Thailand's
airports. Today we have kiosks at 7 airports and expect to be at 10
airports by the end of this year.
Next in July 2016 we launched the chauffeur driven car rental
services where we combine our fleet with chauffeur services and
provide fleet and chauffeur management services. Today we are close
to 150 chauffeurs providing this service to our customers.
Next, we launched "asap Go" which is a pay-per-use service for our
customers. In our initial version, we are targeting corporate
customers and we will be placing our vehicles in 30 office
buildings in Bangkok by the end of this year. Customers can use
their phone to reserve a car, open the door, use it and pay for the
use. We have included different rates between parking and driving
and we see that this will be an attractive service to customers as
an additional option for commuting, for the cars will be parked at
convenient locations.
Finally, we are launching "asap Auto Park" which will be an auto
services centers for self-driven short-term car rentals, used car
sales area, maintenance and services and other facilities. The
first asap Auto Park will be located at Bangna-Trad Rd km 12, which
is near the south access entrance to Suvarnabhumi airport, and
target to launch in the first quarter of 2018. This first location
will be fully owned and operated by us. Going forward we are aiming
for future asap Auto Park to be franchised and in locations where
the new high-speed trains are located.
TET: What differentiates ASAP from its competitors?
Access to supply of automobiles, financing and innovation are the
three key elements for success in this business.
We can meet the demand of our customers. For example in the first
half of this year we expanded our fleet by 2,000 vehicles and in
the second half it should be the same figure if not higher.
Secondly, financing, we are thankful that the major financial
institutions have supported us over the past decade and this is due
to our ability to successfully manage our assets and liabilities.
Therefore when we must expand to match our customers' demands we
are able to secure the necessary financing.
Finally, it is innovation. This comes in the form of new services
such as asap Go, asap Auto Park and other ventures that we plan to
launch over the coming years. It also comes in the form of fleet
management. Our model is to ensure that all vehicles have less than
50,000 km mileage which ensures that the vehicles are newer, of
higher quality and cleaner than other providers in the market. Also
when a vehicle is five years old, we sell it via auction houses.
This is both to ensure a modern fleet of vehicles and financing. We
also ensure that 7% of our fleet are available as replacements in
the case of incidents with customers vehicles so that they may have
a replacement vehicle immediately.
TET: What are the biggest risks facing your business?
The risks are predominately internal because we understand the
business and industry and it will be up to us to be able to capture
these opportunities. Today when people are traveling from Bangkok
to Chiang Mai a higher proportion are electing to fly because the
low-cost airlines are far cheaper compared to driving. But when you
arrive in your destination, people will typically require a vehicle
for transportation. In the future, we will have high speed trains
as well where the cost of travel may again decrease but still
customers will need a vehicle for transportation. It is important
to recognise these structural shifts and be able to ensure our
business will thrive around them if we want to continue to be
successful.
TET: Where do you see ASAP in five years from now?
We aim to expand to be more than an automotive leasing company. We
have taken the initial steps with our new services which allow us
to expand to new customers and new markets. An example with asap
Auto Park is that currently we are selling our vehicles via the
auction houses. Typical buyers at auction facilities are used car
dealers that will then add 25-30% margin to sell to the retail
market. One of our aims with asap Auto Park is to capture this
retail market. In my mind, there are multiple plans and options. In
the past few years we could successfully grow at an average of 25
to 30 percent per year and we aim to continue this rate going
forward allowing us to have 20,000 vehicles in our fleet in five
years providing a range of value-added services to our customers in
Thailand.
About The Executive Talk Interview Series
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Source: Synergetic Auto Performance
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