AC-maker aimes to cash in on recovery
Like other businesses, Alter Airconditioning, a manufacturer of industrial air-conditioners, has been affected by the flooding, forced to move some assembly facilities to a newly rented location in Lat Krabang.
The company’s 700-square-metre factory on Ram-Indra Soi 109 in Bangkok has been hit severely by flood water.
“We’re moving our warehouse and some assembly to the new location in Lat Krabang,” said Sorasak Vongchinsrisakul, managing director of Alter Airconditioning.
Sorasak said many customers’ projects had been delayed by the flooding. Contractors and suppliers have also been affected and suspended their activities.
He said Alter Air purchased about 70 per cent of its raw materials from local suppliers, while the rest, such as steel works, were produced by the company itself.
“About five orders, worth a total of more than Bt10 million, have been delayed as we have not been able to deliver to the clients in time during the flood.”
He said the company’s major clients were hospitals, food processors, medical plants and laboratories.
Founded by Sorasak’s father Wong Vongchinsrisakul, who is now chairman of the company, Alter Airconditioning was established in 1989 as a subcontracting company mainly involved in the construction industry, supplying heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, clean rooms, and factory utility systems. In 1991, a joint-venture company with a Japanese air-handling manufacturer was established to assemble air-handling units in Thailand to serve the local Japanese market. At the end of 2003, the Thai partners decided to split off to serve the local market more comprehensively with technology bought from European manufacturers.
“The Japanese market is quite competitive, especially in pricing. Meanwhile, Thai consumers are more concerned with air-conditioning knowhow and technology,” Sorasak said. He said the flood disaster would reduce the company’s sales for a few months. The company expects its sales this year to drop significantly from the Bt55 million targeted earlier to about Bt50 million because of the floods.
“However, we expect dramatic growth in our industrial air-conditioning business as many factories, especially Japanese facilities in flooded industrial estates in Ayutthaya, require major restoration, including their air-conditioning systems.
“The massive flood is expected to affect hundreds of factories in the industrial sites, and more than 10,000 air-conditioning systems have been damaged,” he said.
Sorasak said many food-processing and medical-supply factories needed to improve their product-testing laboratories to meet the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standard.
