t not least, identifying opportunities outside Thailand. In a recent investor presentation, the last of these was conspicuously absent. This could represent a pivot in the growth strategy or just a delay due to a variety of possible reasons.  Either way, the plan for 2025 is to finish the year with 200 stores in Thailand, which would involve the addition of about 40 new stores. The appetite for Moshi Moshi’s products is high in Southeast Asia, particularly at the price points where it sells them, the ambience in its stores, and the fun customers have with the shopping experience. But competition is heating up and it makes some sense to fortify on the home front before pushing aggressively outside of Thailand. This appears to be exactly what the company plans. Fluffy Omelet enters the merchandise mix After adding six stores in the fourth quarter of 2024, the total portfolio reached 164, of which 61 are in the Bangkok metro area and the rest are dusted all over Thailand. Moshi Moshi still maintains 12 merchandise categories – home accessories, bags, stationery, cosmetics, fashion accessories, beauty, apparel (primarily T-shirts and hoodies), snacks, toys, plush toys, IT gadgets, and ‘Etc’. It has seasonal product lines that cut across these segments and temporarily add a few more. The company’s big competitive advantage and the one that keeps stores fresh and drives repeat visits is new product development. In the fourth quarter alone, it introduced 3000 new SKUs in home furnishings, beauty products and toys, “along with the launch of various collections, including K-pop merchandise and collaborations with Thai artists like Fluffy Omelet”. The new product development in the December quarter was no fluke: Moshi Moshi says it is turning out 1000 new SKUs month-in, month-out. The company has become masterful at producing seasonal merchandise, which is always attractively showcased just inside the store entrances to catch the eyes of passers-by. Targeting the young The profile of the average Moshi Moshi customer is young, which is to say tweenies and teens. Moshi Moshi targets three principal age groups: 13-17 year-old teens, 18- to 25-year-old students and working professionals, and working adults aged 26-34. Chinese tourists are another important customer segment. Stores are not overly large but just big enough to move around in comfortably, even when they are busy, like on Saturday afternoon or any time in May during the massive back-to-school season. The merchandise is attractive and design-rich but functional and exhibits a characteristic of which good Thai retailers are masters: offering items in small packages that make them accessibly priced. Moshi Moshi tops a billion baht for the quarter, and 3.1 billion for the year Total operating revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024, ending December 31, was 1.1 billion Thai baht, up nearly 32.6 per cent on the fourth quarter of the previous year and the first time in company history that it has topped 1 billion baht. Same-store sales growth was 15.6 per cent. This brought revenue for the full year to 3.1 billion baht ($94.3 million), up 23.0 per cent from 2023. The company’s leadership is sticking to its revenue growth target of about 20 per cent and has managed to deliver once again. During the year, the store fleet grew by another 34 new units, which was an important driver of revenue growth, though not the only one: same-store sales grew by a modestly positive 3.9 per cent. The gross margin percentage of revenues in the fourth quarter was 53.3 per cent, a decline from 54.3 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago, but it was stable when measured over the course of the whole year. The highest-margin categories are beauty, fashion and cosmetics. Good control of selling expenses despite growing staff headcounts and leasing costs, and scaling of administrative expenses helped deliver an increase in net profit for the quarter of 205.9 million baht, up 34 per cent from the third quarter in 2023. Net profit for the whole year was up 28 per cent, to 520.7 million baht. It would have been even better had it not been for recognising higher financing costs for the leases on all its new stores. The percentage of sales attributable to wholesale distribution points (a gift and stationery store called OK Station and an outlet in Platinum Wholesale Mall in Bangkok) declined to 16 per cent, from 18 per cent in the previous year, which is predictable in view of the huge expansion of the retail store fleet.  Priorities for 2025 Moshi Moshi is sticking by its revenue target of growth in the 15-20 per cent range for 2025, and it hopes to be able to accomplish that goal with the help of the 40 new stores, which represent an addition of 25 per cent to the store fleet. However, to hit that revenue target, it will need more than just the store openings: Same-store sales will have to kick in a contribution, too. The company’s leadership believes it can further improve store ambience and service and “elevate [the] shopping journey”. Product development will continue at a rapid pace, which will drive traffic and transaction values. In addition to the factors it can control, Moshi Moshi could also use some help from factors it cannot, particularly the domestic and global economies. The company is optimistic about a broad recovery in domestic consumption and growth in foreign tourist arrivals, which could hit 39 million this year and finally match pre-Covid levels. Tourism from China is particularly important, as the Chinese have a special appetite for Moshi Moshi’s merchandise. Flies in the ointment are continued elevated household debt levels, increased operating costs and, last but not least, intensifying competition in Moshi Moshi’s discount variety sector. Further reading: HomePro, Thai Watsadu, Global House vie for Thailand’s home improvement market.