The FINANCIAL — Leading companies in Georgia are set to continue investing in the future expansion of their business and intensifying marketing activity in order to increase sales.
Large businesses which occupy almost 80 percent of business in Georgia are striving to become major players throughout the Caucasus.
“The main focus in 2012 will be on a totally new strategy, Multichannel Banking,” said Ketevan Magalashvili, Media Relations Manager at TBC Bank. “This means that we will try to implement new projects and programmes which will satisfy the increased requirements of our customers and create maximal comfort for them. We plan to see huge results in this direction and through this become an outstanding bank in the Caucasus Region.”
As well as this, TBC Bank plans to attract deposits from Georgian emigrants in TBC Bank in 2012. Nowadays more than one million Georgians live abroad.
“We want to become the second bank for Georgians living not in Georgia. Due to this we have planned lots of activities for 2012,” she explained. “TBC Bank will try to keep the leading position among competing banks.”
Bank of Georgia also claims it will hold the leading place in the banking sector in 2012.
“Bank of Georgia will be in the premium listing of the London Stock Exchange in 2012,” said Nika Gilauri, General Director of Bank of Georgia. “This will happen for the first time in Georgian banking history. After this, Bank of Georgia will be included in the FTSE index.”
Bank of Georgia opened nine express service centres in December 2011. They are service centres of a totally new format. The cost of each centre is 87,000 GEL. The Bank plans to expand the number of express service centres up to 50 by 2012. They will be located not just in Tbilisi, but in the regions of Georgia including Batumi, Kutaisi and Gori.
Bank Republic is not yet revealing their plans for 2012 in detail, but according to Tiko Janashvili, Communications and PR Senior Coordinator, Bank Republic will do its best to become a leading bank in the region.
The main challenges for Wissol Group in 2012 will be the development of Smart Supermarkets and the Torpedo Kutaisi football club.
“We are already a big company and we’ll try to keep up stability in 2012,” said Samson Pkhakadze, Director of the Supervisory Board at Wissol Group. “The Smart supermarket network is a new project. When you start something from zero it requires much force to make it successful. We hope to double the number of Smart supermarkets next year.”
“One of our top plans and challenges for 2012 is the Torpedo Kutaisi football club. We will focus on making this club as successful as its history deserves. We do hope that this club will gain popularity not just among Georgian football clubs but worldwide. Therefore we will continue searching for talented young Georgian footballers,” he said.
Some interesting novelties are planned for the hotel sector in 2012.
Adjara Group, which manages Holiday Inn Tbilisi, decided to found a new Holiday Inn in Batumi after the successful operation of the hotel in Tbilisi. Building has already started and the hotel will be opened in September 2012. The hotel will be a five-storey building with 200 rooms. There will be a swimming pool as well. The style and design of the hotel will be French, but Georgian designers will be responsible for it.
“We think that there is still huge space for premium class hotels in Tbilisi as well as in Batumi,” said Valeri Chekheria the General Director. “New international brands are entering the market every year. This proves that there is high demand for hotels.
Adjara Group is founding the first Georgian hotel brand as well. Two hotels in the mountainous regions Borjomi and Kazbegi will be the first ones of this brand. The hotels will be opened by spring 2012.
“As well as the hotels that Adjara Group will own, the Georgian hotel brand will manage some other hotels as well. We have already received offers for this,” Chekheria said.
According to Atakan Turhan, General Manager of Radisson Blu Iveria, the hotel has much increased its market share in 2011. Due to increased demand, Radisson officials have started discussing plans for opening new hotels in Georgia. There are projects being discussed within both brands of the network, Park Inn by Radisson and Radisson itself.
GMC Group is planning to double the number of its restaurants in 2012.
“We have seven restaurants in total now,” Tamuna Lomtatidze, General Director of GMC, told The FINANCIAL. “We plan to double our business activities in 2012. In regards to this we plan to have about fifteen restaurants. The purchase of seven more restaurants is already planned. After that we will expand our business to the regions including Achara and Svaneti.”
Ici Paris, one of the leading perfumery companies in Georgia, is planning to open at least two more shops in 2012.
“2011 was very successful for us and we plan to keep it up,” said Khatia Shamugia, Head of the Public Relations Department of Ici Paris. “We added two shops in 2011, one on Rustaveli Avenue and the other in the shopping mall Karvasla. We will open at least two more in 2012.”
Unicard is planning a 50 percent increase of its 2011 results in 2012. The company had a goal to issue one million cards and one million gifts by the end of 2011. For 2012 the company plans to increase this achievement by 50 percent. According to Beso Abuladze, CEO of Unicard, the company will achieve such an increase due to its expansion throughout the regions of Georgia.
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