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INTERVIEW: Signature Aims To Raise Export Revenue Amid Tepid Demand At Home-CEO By Gho Chee Yuan Nikkei Markets KUALA LUMPUR (Jul 14) -- Signature International, a Malaysian kitchen cabinet maker, is seeking to jumpstart its weak retail sales over the next 12 months and pursue more projects abroad to cushion soft demand at home market, its chief executive said. Retail sales will likely be flat for the last financial year ended Jun. 30 after a slump in the previous year, Tan Kee Chong told Nikkei Markets. However, retail revenue may grow 20% this fiscal year thanks largely to voucher sales to property developers, he said. "We received good response from developers and we are expanding our portfolio to include wardrobe systems for the bedroom and the living room, enabling us to cross-sell our products," Tan said. The company is also expanding its dealership network and retail outlets locally, he said. Home sales in Malaysia have fallen nearly 14% by volume in 2016, according to the National Property Information Center, as consumers coped with a slowing economy and rising cost of living. Tighter lending rules after household debt ballooned - it touched record high at 77.6% of gross domestic product in 2011 - following years of easy loans also squeezed housing sales. The industry-wide decline weighed on Signature International that saw retail sales accounting for about 27% of total revenue of 196.77 million ringgit in fiscal 2016. Revenue from big-ticket projects also took a hit as some developers delayed their projects and trimmed piling inventory of unsold units in Malaysia. To cut its reliance on domestic market, Signature International is seeking to broaden its revenue from overseas projects to 30% in five years, Tan said. Exports accounted for less than 2% of its total revenue. "Moving forward, we want to focus more on Southeast Asia especially for the project market," he said. "Countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia would be our main focus as we want to leverage on housing development boom there." Signature International has also bid for installation of kitchen work packages under the Battersea Power Station real estate development project in London. The 8 billion pound ($10.75 billion) project is being led by Malaysian developers Sime Darby and SP Setia. The company's order book currently stands at about 250 million ringgit with about half of the total value to be recognized over the next year, Tan said. "We are also tendering project worth 150 million ringgit." Shares in Signature International that have gained 13.21% so far this year were unchanged at 0.90 ringgit apiece. - By Gho Chee Yuan; terence.gho@nikkeinewsrise.com; +603-20267363 - Edited By Abhrajit Gangopadhyay - Send Feedback to feedback@nikkeinewsrise.com - Copyright (c) 2017 Nikkei NewsRise Asia Pte Ltd.