Nestle to add 100 Movenpick ice cream outlets
Switzerland-based Nestle is looking to expand the presence of its Movenpick premium ice-cream brand in the Thai market with 100 additional outlets planned to be opened by next year.
Business development manager Peraphum Prabariphai said the company launched the Movenpick ice-cream business in Thailand in 2008.
"We currently have 200 Movenpick outlets locally, half of which are in five-star hotels, 30 per cent in restaurants, and the remaining 20 per cent in supermarkets," he said.
Peraphum said half of the |100 additional outlets opening next year would be in five-star hotels in Bangkok and tourism destinations such as Pattaya, Hua Hin, Phuket, Krabi, Samui and Chiang Mai.
"Our mission set by Moven
pick headquarters in Switzerland is first to penetrate five-star hotels as much as possible. There are a huge number of them in Thailand, about 800, which provides a lot of potential for a premium ice-cream brand."
He said that according to Kasikorn Research Centre, the overall ice-cream market in Thailand is worth Bt15 billion in sales value, of which Bt5 billion is the premium segment. About 70 per cent of the premium segment is held by imported brands.
"We have seen dramatic growth |of the premium ice-cream segment, about 20 per cent this year," Peraphum said.
However, he said Thais only consumed 1.7 litres of ice cream each per year on average, not much more than 10 years ago, when per capita consumption was about 1.3 litres annually.
"Ice-cream consumption in Thailand is still less than in other markets such as Malaysia, which has per capita consumption of about 3 litres a year.
"In Europe, consumption is 6 litres per person per year, and up to 12 litres in Australia."
Movenpick sales jumped 70 per cent in the first eight months of this year. Peraphum said about 80 per cent of Movenpick ice-cream sales in Thailand were to foreign tourists and expatriates, and the rest to local high-end consumers.
"We are looking to increase the proportion of local consumers to 30 per cent within three years," he said.
The company plans to reshuffle the local distribution of Movenpick and focus on opening retail corners and kiosks as well as ice-cream parlours within five years when the market is ready.
Movenpick yesterday launched two new flavours, pistachio and rum raisin, in the Thai market, as they are among the flavours most requested by its target customers in the Kingdom.
