Tee Entertainment eyes consumer products
AFTER LEAVING show business behind for more than eight years, Somchai "Tee" Cheewasutthanon has returned with Tee Entertainment, which next year will bring in a One Direction concert for Thai fans.
“Under my milestone [direction], show business will be only one key pillar for the company. I will diversify its business into the Bt600-billion consumer-products market,” Somchai, once a well-known event and concert promoter and now chief executive officer of Tee Entertainment, said yesterday.
The company plans two international concerts and one local one next year.
“One Direction, an English-Irish pop boy band based in London, has confirmed it will stage a concert with us in Bangkok early next year, while another big one will soon be confirmed,” Somchai said.
He said he had formed a 60:40 joint venture called Sinka Dee Mee Khunnaparp with his business partners. The new company will produce and distribute consumer products.
Though he declined to disclose the type and name of the products, he said the company planned to launch them in the Kingdom by the second quarter of next year and would distribute them through sales representatives in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia later.
This new business is expected to contribute more than 60 per cent of total income within five years, followed by foods and beverages and the event business, he said.
Currently, most of the company’s income is from the event business.
After his departure from Bangkok Broadcasting and Television, the operator of Channel 7, Somchai came back to the event industry in which he was once well known as a top promoter. Last year, he established Tee Entertainment with the intention of making it a leading show-business firm.
The company will organise an event featuring E’Casanova, “Michael Jackson: Relive the Legend”, in Bangkok next month. E’Casanova is an American artist and dancer who used plastic surgery to transform himself into a facsimile of the late singer.
Somchai said his company would almost recoup its investment in this Bt20-million concert from big-name sponsorships such as Samsung Galaxy, Singha soda water and Nok Air. It also projects that 3,500 tickets will be sold.
The firm will also hold Pattaya’s annual fireworks festival next month. This event will be run under a 50:50 joint venture with CMO, a leading organiser.
In the food and beverage business, the company also owns and operates a Thai noodle restaurant chain, Thai dessert shops and HappyLemon tea beverage.
The company expects to generate about Bt100 million in revenue this year.
