Textile firm aims to sauce up its business
As a diversified business created four years ago by the Ruayfupant family, Mahachai Thai Food, a local producer of seasoning sauces, aims to become a regional player within the next three years with market presence in potential markets such as Vietnam, Si
“In the next five years, we also want our sauce company to achieve half of the annual sales volume of our textile business,” said managing director Ampon Ruayfupant.
Mahachai Thai Food aims to achieve between Bt30 million and Bt40 million in sales this year, of which half are from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business, mainly for export.
Meanwhile, the family’s textile business, being operated under Yong Udom Knitting, will achieve more than Bt1 billion in total revenue this year with the plan to set up its new textile factory in Bago, Myanmar, by next year. Though the labour cost is the same as in Cambodia, the quality and attitude is better in Myanmar, Ampon said.
In the long term, Myanmar will be the company’s manufacturing base for its |textile products meant for export, he added.
Ampon said that his family was also interested in the development of a residential service apartment in the next five to 10 years.
Mahachai Thai Food recently launched its first marinated sauces under the new “AISE” brand.
The move is part of the company’s “Blue Ocean” initiative to diversify its portfolio, moving from traditional seasoning sauces into new lifestyle products with less competition.
The new AISE marinated sauces have been placed at leading supermarkets since last month, priced at between Bt40 and Bt45 for a 300-gram container.
DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY
“As a lifestyle-sauce brand, we are looking to the dynamic lifestyle of Thai consumers, which will always create new needs and product requirements,” he said.
The company manufactured traditional seasoning sauces as the OEM supplier to many brands, as well as under its own “Sun Kitchen” and “Krua Tawan” brands.
“There are hundreds of local players in the battlefield of traditional seasoning sauces, which has been for us a ‘Red Sea’ market. The major players in this market have only 5 per cent share on average,” said Ampon.
Mahachai Thai Food is another potential business founded by the Ruayfupant family, which was also based on its “Blue Ocean” initiative to diversify business risks and create sustainable growth.
Ampon said that the family, which has operated the textile business for more than 35 years, set up a new company in 2008, with a factory in Mahachai for producing traditional seasoning sauces.
The diversification is meant to offset any uncertainty in its textile business caused by the phasing out of the world’s import quota system in 2005, the rise of China as a dominant player in the global textile industry with a strong pricing strategy, and the sub-prime problem in 2008.
Ampon, 43, is the son of Apichart who founded the textile business after setting up a small weaving and garment factory on Charoen Nakhon Road.
The family expanded its textile business by adding a spinning factory in its portfolio in 1997, and bleaching factory in 2001.
Apichart, 69, and his wife Anchalee, 66, have five children, who look after the family businesses separately. Ampon and his older sister Prinda are in charge of the family’s seasoning sauce business, while Ampon’s oldest brother Oran and two youngest sisters Dusanee and Donrudee are in charge of the textile business.
