Plastic-bag maker DPAC sets sights on ASEAN
DPAC International Corporation, a leading local plastic-bag manufacturer and subsidiary of King Pac Group in charge of the domestic and Asean markets, will this year set up joint venture offices in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia as part of its expansion in th
Methee Athichiskul, deputy managing director, said the company was studying a plan to set up a factory in Yangon in the next couple of years and to use the Myanmar factory as its base to serve the domestic market and for exporting to markets that extend the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) to Myanmar – Japan, the US and European Union. The factory itself will cost between US$3 million (Bt87 million) and $4 million.
“We are interested in Myanmar due to the boom in the domestic economy and the increasing number of expatriates living in the country. The Myanmar people themselves have reshaped their shopping lifestyle in favour of modern trade,” he said.
“Myanmar itself has a deep-sea port named Thilawa Port, which is about 40 minutes drive from Yangon,” he added.
Methee said that he himself would fly to Myanmar in April to finalise the joint venture deal with a potential partner there. The office in Yangon would be set up in June or July this year as a 50/50 joint venture with a local partner, who had distributed the company’s plastic bags, especially carrier bags or T-shirt bags for almost four years. The office would employ about 10 staff, of who about three would be from Thailand. The joint venture office in Myanmar will aim to expand its product portfolio from plastic carrier bags (T-shirt bags) to other kinds of plastic bags such as plastic bags used in modern retail stores as well as plastic bags used for industrial products such as automobile parts.
He said that joint venture offices would be opened in Laos and Cambodia by the second and third quarters of this year. The company would also open the market in Vietnam with the appointment of local distributors both in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City by the second quarter of this year.
“We will distribute our plastic bags via hypermarkets and convenience stores owned by Dairy Farm Group in Singapore, as well as Tesco stores in Malaysia by the third quarter of this year. We are also looking for potential distributors in the Philippines,” said Methee.
He said that DPAC Inter Corporation had achieved Bt1.05 billion in sales last year, of which 18 per cent was from exports to Asean countries. The company expected to earn Bt1.38 billion in total sales this year of which between 20 per cent and 30 per cent would be from exports to Asean markets.
Methee said that DPAC would focus on branded plastic bags. The company had launched three different brands – D, Sawasdee, and Hero, meant for different purposes. The D-branded plastic bags would be for carrier or T-shirt bags exported to Asean countries, while the Sawasdee brand would be for such carrier and T-shirt bags selling within the Thai market.
Meanwhile, the Hero brand would be for other innovative plastic bags and related products, such as zip-lock bags, food bags, garbage bags, cling film, and aluminium foil, selling in Thailand and other Asean countries. The company would launch 5-6 new versions of Hero-branded plastic bags and related products this year.
