JIMMY Lai Chee-ying, owner of the Next Media Group, first had the concept of a discount home-delivery service about 10 years ago.
'The concept was off and on for a time,' said Wilson Chu Bun, president of Next direct sales unit adMart, who was working with Mr Lai at Giordano at the time. Eventually, in September last year, Mr Lai decided it was time to go ahead.
'It became the right time last year because of the change in economic atmosphere,' Mr Chu said.
Mr Lai's timing seems to be perfect. Since he began advertising the adMart products through the Apple Daily in June, the order lines have been receiving 45,000 to 50,000 calls a day. Initially, the call centre only had the capacity to handle 18,000 calls.
The success proved to be a problem and adMart has had to raise its minimum order size temporarily to $300 from $150 and increase the staff manning the lines to cope.
AdMart's concept is simple. The service offers a limited number of items - usually household basics like rice, oil, colas and nappies - at discount prices. Orders can be placed by phone, fax, over the Internet or through one of the small retail outlets and the goods are delivered the following day. Without retail outlets, adMart can keep cost down and margins low.