Chocolate maker Puratos sees rich future
Belgian supplier plans doubling in Thai output capacity for Asean sales
Puratos (Thailand), a subsidiary of the Belgium-based Puratos Group – the world’s second-largest supplier of chocolate and baking ingredients – plans to double its production in Thailand by 2015 to serve emerging Asean economies.
Managing director Jean-Louis Graindorge said yesterday that the company had invested Bt20 million on expanding its production this year because it expects to experience an annual growth of 20 per cent in the Thai market.
The firm also plans to spend another Bt20 million to Bt40 million every year to expand its business by 2015. Thailand is currently Puratos’s base for exporting chocolate compound under the Chocolante brand to Asean countries as well as Japan and China.
“The firm is projected to achieve Bt500 million in sales by 2015 after we expand our production capacity,” Graindorge said.
The Thai subsidiary’s capacity for producing chocolate ingredients is about 1,700 tonnes a year, and last year it achieved total sales of Bt200 million, contributing about 2 per cent of the Puratos Group’s total sales. The group generated about Bt40 billion in 2011.
Of Puratos (Thailand)’s total income, about 90 per cent was contributed by the local market and the remainder came from exports.
Graindorge said the proportion of the export market was expected to grow considerably each year once the Asean Economic Community comes into effect in 2015.
Japan consumes about 90,000 tonnes of chocolate yearly, and Thailand is one of the leading suppliers of high-quality chocolate compound.
Graindorge said Thailand offered good potential for growth, and though the market is quite small it certainly had a bright future. He added that not only could Thailand become a production base for its Carat range of chocolate ingredients meant for the professional market, it could also serve as a centre for exports to other Asean countries.
Puratos has 60 plants in 42 countries worldwide.
The managing director added that the Thai market, which currently consumes about 30,000 tonnes of chocolate yearly, should grow even more. In a move to penetrate the Thai market, Puratos has recently introduced the Belcolade brand of fine Belgian chocolate, which it supplies to five-star hotels and restaurants.
Graindorge said the firm also expected that its products would help boost the Thai food industry and promote the Kingdom as the Kitchen of the World.
