Thai home improvement store Home Product Centre is to open it first shop in Malaysia next year.

Home Product Centre plans to invest 500 million baht in its first Malaysian store, which will open in one of Kuala Lumpur’s shopping malls.

MD Kunnawut Thampromkul sees an immense opportunity in Malaysia where he believes competition is not as tough as in Thailand.

He said the company plans to have 40 stores in Malaysia within the next eight to 10 years.

Besides Malaysia, Home Product Centre also seeks to expand to other Asean countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

In Thailand, it has been expanding continuously with 11 stores already opened this year and a further five opening by the year-end.

The company is expecting to have 64 “HomePro” stores.