Witoon Suriyawanakul to speak at the Buriram Global House Store Grand Opening March 28
Mr. Witoon Suriyawanakul is scheduled to speak Saturday Morning March 28 at the new Buriram Global House Store Grand Opening Sale. Please read the article in Forbes Asia Magazine on this successful Business Man.
below from the Forbes Asia magazine article:
Thailand's Richest Newcomer Is A Retailer Who Made His Fortune In Nation's Poorest Area
This story appears in the July 2013 issue of Forbes Asia.
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Thailand's richest newcomer is Witoon Suriyawanaku
With his Siam Global House headquartered in Thailand’s northeastern city of Roi Et (pop. circa 40,000), Witoon Suriyawanakul, 55, has made a fortune in a place few others have. There are some who, like him, hail from the nation’s northeast region, but most moved to Bangkok to strike it rich.
The son of mom-and-pop shopkeepers, Witoon grew up in a humble house in the city, studied civil engineering in nearby Khon Kaen and then got work as a contractor, always staying close to home. After a few years he earned enough money to open his first store in his hometown, a cramped little shop filled with building supplies. Eventually, after a trip to Home Depot HD +1.33% and Lowe’s in the U.S., he began opening similar superstores called Siam Global House throughout the northeast. Isan, as the region is called, is the country’s poorest area and home to a third of Thailand’s population. Despite its relative poverty, Isan’s economy is booming, growing at double the pace of Bangkok over the past five years. The average household saw its income rise 40% between 2007 and 2011, a bigger jump than any other part of Thailand.
Siam Global’s hangar-size stores, of which he has 23 so far, cater to small contractors and do-it-yourselfers, who are using their increased purchasing power to upgrade their living quarters. Their shopping trips have pushed up sales and generated investor interest. Siam Cement , Thailand’s largest conglomerate by market cap, bought a third of Siam Global last year; Witoon pocketed $190 million. Its shares rose 129% in the past year and are up more than eightfold since its 2009 listing, enough to make him the year’s richest newcomer, with a net worth of $700 million.
There are plenty of signs that Isan’s quiet boom will continue, thanks in part to a minimum wage hike that went into effect in January plus generous farm subsidies . Another telling sign is the fact that other Thai tycoons are increasing their investments in the region. Prateep Tangmatitham’s (No. 47) Bangkok development outfit Supalai has plans for a housing development in the northeast province of Udon Thani, as does Anant Asavabhokin’s (No. 18) Land & Houses. TheChirathivat family‘s (No. 2) Central Group, also Bangkok-based, which already has two shopping malls in Isan, opened a $90 million project in another of Isan’s cities, Ubon Ratchathani, in April.
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