Dusit Enters Luxury Villa Rental Market with Acquisition of Elite Havens

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Dusit Thani Public Company Limited (DTC), one of Thailand’s foremost hotel and property development companies, has expanded into the high-end vacation rental market through the full acquisition of Elite Havens, the leading provider of high-end vacation rentals in Asia.

DTC made the acquisition through its wholly owned Hong Kong-incorporated subsidiary, Dusit Overseas Company Limited, which has bought all shares in LVM Holdings Pte Ltd. (LVMH), a Singapore-incorporated company and the ultimate holding company of Elite Havens, for approximately USD 15,000,000 (THB 495,000,000).

Established in 1998, LVMH directly and indirectly holds shares in nine companies in Southeast Asian countries. The largest company of its kind in Asia, it performs integrated marketing, reservations, concierge and management services for luxury villas and currently maintains a network of more than 200 fully staffed properties across Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

DTC’s acquisition of Elite Havens follows the company’s three-pronged strategy for sustainable and profitable growth, which includes balance, diversification, and expansion, particularly into new market segments, which will enhance DTC’s capacity to provide integrated services and drive revenue growth.

“Our investment in Elite Havens marks another important milestone in our strategic journey, particularly our two-pronged plan for expansion, which includes doubling our number of hotels in operation, and providing broadened experiences for our customers.” said Ms Suphajee Suthumpun, Group CEO, DTC. “Our current brand line up covers the midscale through to luxury hotel segments. Now, with the addition of Elite Havens, we are delighted to cover the luxury villa rental segment too.

“While the integrated luxury villa management business is new to us, Elite Havens has an impressive track record in this segment, successfully expanding from a small enterprise to the leading company of its kind in Asia. And we are confident that our 70 years of experience in operating upper-upscale and luxury hotels will only enhance these operations further, allowing the dynamic Elite Havens team to leverage our own capabilities to continue providing exceptional services for luxury consumers, while simultaneously expanding the brand’s reach in more dream destinations throughout Asia and other key regions.”

Mr Jon Stonham, CEO, Elite Havens, said, “With our strong focus on people and exceeding expectations with our services, Elite Havens shares the same values as Dusit, so there is already a strong synergy for us to build on. We look forward to a very bright future of sustainable and profitable growth as we expand our operations as part of the Dusit family.”

Following its strategy for balance, diversification and expansion, DTC has been actively enhancing its operations with investments in new market segments. The company made moves into the shared economy last year with an investment in Favstay, a Thai hospitality startup offering condos and villas for rent in Thailand’s top destinations, and in April this year DTC announced it would also enter the affordable lifestyle segment with the launch of ASAI Hotels.

A distinctive new brand designed to link curious, millennial-minded travellers with authentic local experiences in vibrant cities and resort destinations worldwide, ASAI Hotels now has five properties in the pipeline across Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.

5 Reasons Why SMEs Should Choose an Inkjet Printer

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Whether it's a start-up or a well-established enterprise, managing a small business is certainly an adventure. The rewards for success are enormous - not the least of which is the satisfaction of knowing that it is due to your own efforts as the business founder or leader. However, along the way Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managers have to face countless challenges that are sure to keep them awake at night.

Factors that weigh heavily on the SME include manpower shortages, high fixed costs for rental and other overheads, competition (including new online market entrants) and the increased costs of raw materials, imported goods and machinery – not to mention today’s more empowered and knowledgeable customers.

SMEs need to save costs wherever they can and managing overhead costs can be key to success of the business. One business task where cost is inevitable is printing. The multi-purpose printer is an essential piece of office equipment, and in a typical busy office it will be in constant use. The individual transaction cost of printing or copying a document may appear to be minimal, but added up over an annual accounting period, the cost can be significant.

All the more reason, then, to give serious thought to this basic component of office productivity.

A common dilemma in acquiring an office printer is choosing between laser and inkjet technology. Laser printers have enjoyed great popularity, not least as a result of their perceived output speed and lower cost-per-page, but recent advances in inkjet technology are bringing about a major rethink by office equipment purchasers. In fact, we can now list five solid reasons for preferring inkjet.


1. Productivity plus

One of the drawbacks of traditional inkjet printers was the need for frequent replacement of the ink cartridges. User would often complain of running out of inkafter printing a few hundred full-colour pages – a time-consuming, annoying and potentially expensive task.

Epson, a leader in the field of document printing and production, pays particular attention to the printing and photocopying needs of small and medium businesses.The company’s solution to the problem of too-frequent cartridge replacement has been the introduction of ink-tank technology - a revolutionary system that stores ink in tanks rather than inside a print cartridge.

Epson’s integrated ink tank printers let users print up to a remarkable 7,500 pages using black ink and 6,000 pages of colour for each set of inks without need for a refill. With a spill-free ink tank design, the new compact integrated ink tank printers enables easy and convenient ink refills from the bottles.

Inkjet printers impact productivity in other ways too. For example, no need for warm-up time means rapid printing right from the first sheet.

Epson’s integrated ink tank printer enables users to enjoy print speeds of up to 15ipm for standard print along with draft print speeds of up to 33ppm, thanks to the revolutionary PrecisionCore™ printhead technology, one of the fastest inkjet delivery technologies in the world with multi-size droplet control capabilities for superior output quality.

2. Cost control

Epson’s L-series is the world’s first ink tank system printer capable of duplex printing. This feature helps small businesses not only improve print productivity but also reduce paper wastage by churning out thousands of pages without a refill. With duplex printing, costs are further reduced for the business user concerned about reducing total cost of ownership.

Inkjet printers are also recognized for their simple structure, which in general delivers low Total cost of Ownership (TCO). Since no heat is involved in the printing process, power consumption is as much as 97% lower than an average laser printer. And fewer components required for standard maintenance means dramatically reduced cost of service and downtime – all factors that will make the accountants smile.

3. High quality output

The colour reproduction quality of inkjet printers has been recognised to outshine the capabilities of their laser competitors, and the integrated ink tank printers continue to deliver superior performance in this area. But in addition to vibrant, glossy photo reproduction on photo media paper, users can look forward to crisp, smudge-resistant black and white printouts, equal to the typical quality of a laser printer.


4. Environmentally friendly

The benefits of low power consumption are not only reflected in the balance sheet. SMEs today are increasingly conscious of the need to protect our environment, and the inkjet printer’s reduced use of power is a definite plus. High-capacity ink tanks combine with a reduction in the use of paper to bring down overall environmental load. In fact, if we evaluate the entire product life cycle, from manufacture to transportation, use, scrapping, and recycling, the total carbon dioxide emissions of Epson’s business inkjets are considerably lower than those of lasers.

5. Functionality

In addition to its basic capabilities of printing, copying and scanning, the integrated ink tank printers comes with auto-duplex functionalities as well as a suite of connectivity features, all of which contribute to the system’s cost-effective speed and quality.

Its Wi-Fi Direct feature allows easy and flexible shared and mobile printing and also allows you to connect up to four devices to the printer without a router.

All in all, today’s most advanced ink jet technology meets the key requirements for an SME office multi-functional printer – high speed cost-effective output, superb print quality on multiple paper types, and all wrapped up in an environmentally friendly package.

Flood Prone LGU Builds Bahangka Flood Boats

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To address frequent flooding in Barangay Sta. Ana in San Mateo, Rizal, the local government unit (LGU) tapped an amateur boat builders organization called the Philippine Home Boatbuilders Yacht Club (PHBYC) to provide assistance in building four flood boats called the Bahangka. These boats will be used by the LGU to facilitate its relief efforts in evacuating residents and delivering relief goods in times of flooding.

The Bahangka was originally developed in 2009 in the wake of typhoon Ondoy which left much of the areas around Metro Manila and surrounding provinces inundated by flood waters for several weeks. The Bahangka is a simple and easy to build boat made from plywood and lumber bonded and protected with epoxy. According to Felix Bautista of PHBYC, the designer of the Bahangka: “This boat is designed with minimal wastage of materials and can be built in less than two days by someone with limited carpentry experience, and because it is a rigid boat made of marine plywood, is not prone to punctures the way that rubber boats can be.” Mr. Bautista said.

Plans for the Bahangka are readily available from PHYC’s website www.pinoyboats.org.

Support from boatbuilding suppliers was solicited by PHBYC to maximize beneficial effect the project. Marine plywood was provided by Zamboply, Epoxy Adhesive and Paint was provided by Republic Chemicals and epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth were provided by Polymer Products. Materials cost to build one boat is around P12,000. Marine plywood is a very durable material, sanded on both sides with high water resistance, states on the Cut My Plastic website.

The Barangay Captain of Sta. Ana, San Mateo, Henry “Butchoy” Cruz was pleased with the outcome of the project and said that the boats will greatly help in times of flooding allowing them to respond immediately and not relying on boats provided by the municipality, "it’s amazing that the four boats were built in two days” Captain Cruz said.