MEDIA / NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING

New plant will improve profitability for Post

POST REPORTERS

Post Publishing Plc expects that its new printing facility will boost profits this year despite a weak economy and advertising market. The 1.1-billion-baht facility, located on 20 rai at Bang Na-Trat Km 19, is now undergoing test printing and will be fully operational within the next few months, according to Suthikiati Chirathivat, the company's executive chairman.

''This is the most modern printing facility in Southeast Asia, and will allow us to print eight-page colour [panoramas] to better serve our customers and support higher circulation growth,'' he said at the annual shareholders' meeting yesterday.

The new plant, with a state-of-the-art KBA Prisma double-width press and Agfa computer-to-plate machines, has the capacity to print up to 70,000 32-page colour sections per hour, including eight-page ''panorama'' advertisements, a first for the Thai market, Mr Suthikiati said.

POST publishes the English-language Bangkok Post and the Thai-language Post Today dailies.

According to Supakorn Vejjajiva, deputy chief operating officer, Post Today would soon be able to introduce panorama ads. The Bangkok Post is scheduled to begin offering the service to advertisers by early August.

''Property and motoring will be our priority targets,'' said Mr Supakorn.

He said both daily papers would also be resized down by 1.5 inches in length and width, to offer greater convenience to readers. The resizing will also generate cost savings for the company through more efficient paper usage. The company expects to save 30 million baht in newsprint costs this year.

Although consumer product manufacturers have shifted to more below-the-line marketing, those activities still rely on conventional advertisements to send information to consumers, executives said.

As a result, Mr Suthikiati was optimistic that Post Publishing's ad revenues would be better than those of the overall industry.

According to Nielsen Media Research, ad spending on newspapers dropped 10.2% in the first quarter of the year to 3.58 billion baht, from 3.99 billion in the same period last year. At the same time, overall ad spending from January to March grew only 4.3% to 21.8 billion baht from 20.9 billion a year earlier.

For 2006, ad spending across the newspaper industry fell by around 11%, compared with a 5% decline in ad revenues for Post Publishing.

Mr Suthikiati also said the company had several projects in the pipeline, including an aggressive marketing plan for the group's magazines, which include the popular Thai-language versions of Elle and Cleo. He declined to give details.

Post Publishing reported a 2006 net profit of 111 million baht on revenue of 1.876 billion, down slightly from a profit of 122.8 million on revenue of 1.825 billion the year before. It paid 80 million baht in dividends to shareholders, at 0.16 baht a share, or about 72% of total profits.

''The POST dividend policy is 60% of net profits, and we have typically exceeded that. I am fully confident that we will do so again for 2007,'' Mr Suthikiati said.

The company will pay a final dividend of 50 million baht, or 0.10 baht per share, on May 18 for shareholders registered as of May 4.

Shareholders yesterday also reappointed Johannes Bernardus van der Linden, Chartsiri Sophonpanich, Kuok Khoon Ean, Worachai Bhicharnchitr and Siri Ganjarerndee to the company board.

Post shares closed unchanged yesterday on the SET at 7.20 baht.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Saturday April 21, 2007