Ichitan bids doubling in sales to Bt3 bn
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Producer looks to first profit next year, listing in 2014
Ichitan aims to more than double its green-tea sales from Bt1.2 billion to about Bt3 billion this year on the way to turning its first profit next year and going public in the following year.
The group, with Bt600 million in registered capital currently, hopes to list on the local bourse by 2014.
Tan Passakornnatee, managing director of Ichitan Group, said yesterday that the overall green-tea market surged by 42.4 per cent year-on-year in the first four months of this year.
This was the first time for the local green-tea market to expand beyond 30 per cent. It grew by 21.2 per cent last year to nearly Bt10 billion.
“The dramatic growth of the green-tea market this year has been driven by the entry of new players such as Ichitan and Mirai and the more proactive campaigns unleashed by existing green-tea manufacturers, such as Oishi, which wants to defend its market share,” he said.
More than Bt1 billion is expected to be splurged on marketing by those new and existing players this year. Ichitan alone will spend Bt400 million, or double its outlay of about Bt200 million last year.
Ichitan posted Bt1.4 billion in sales in the first five months, with more than Bt300 million logged last month alone.
Ichitan has already captured 19.6 per cent of the green-tea market in the first four months of this year, second only to Oishi, which controlled 48.6 per cent. Third was Puriku with 15.1 per cent.
“We want our Ichitan to achieve about 25 per cent by the end of this year,” Tan said. The group has also started to export its ready-to-drink green teas to markets such as Laos, Cambodia and Canada.
The Rojana plant’s green-tea production capacity will be doubled from the present 200 million bottles and 136 million UHT (ultra-high-temperature treated) packs per year. The expansion will be through adding an aseptic
bottling machine and a UHT packing machine, costing about Bt2 billion combined. A second plant be built in Nakhon Ratchasima in two or three years.
A major campaign called “One Year, One Ichitan Bottle Cap for 100,000 Free Movie Tickets” was launched yesterday in partnership with SF Cinema City to celebrate the first anniversary of Ichitan Organic Green Tea and to thank consumers for their support. The campaign will be offered from June 15-20, or until tickets run out.
