TOA aims for top-three in Asean market
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TOA Group, a Thai paint manufacturer, plans within five years to become a top-three player in all Asean markets where it operates, said its founder Prachak Tangkaravakoon, who is now chairman of the advisory board.
Prachak, 70, who founded the group 50 years ago, said he wished to make TOA a regional brand that leads the paint industry in Asean.
He said all five of the world’s top paint manufacturers were in Asia.
TOA “can compete with those leading players in terms of both brand and technology. Where we cannot compete with them is investment capital,” he said.
Prachak said the TOA Group was attempting to penetrate individual markets in Asean by building businesses from the ground up, and the most important driving factors were people. In Vietnam, for example, the group is now No 2 in the market after entering it in 1994.
Jatuphat Tangkaravakoon, deputy chairman of TOA Group, said it was preparing to be the Asean market leader by using strategies of brand recognition through business alliances, developing innovative products and services, and producing paint of the highest standards, including for the environment.
He said the group would focus on in-depth development of its human resources for multi-skill capability and teamwork. It will also adhere to its basic philosophies – customer first, expertise, execution, passion, and change.
Jatuphat, who is the youngest son of Prachak, said TOA first ventured into the Asean market in 1994, with Vietnam the first country it penetrated. It now operates on different scales in five countries in Asean, namely Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Vietnam. The investment scale ranges from Bt200 million each in Myanmar and Laos to about Bt1 billion for a big facility in Vietnam.
The group also operates representative offices in Indonesia and Cambodia.
“Asean now contributes about 15 per cent of our total sales, and we want to raise that to more than 20 per cent in the next five years,” he said.
TOA Group posted about Bt16 billion in total sales last year, holding 48 per cent of Thailand’s decorative paint market.
Jatuphat said TOA would apply successful business models under four main strategies: brand acknowledgement and acceptance, quality of products and services, strength of cooperation of business alliances, and potential of personnel. These backbone strategies will help strengthen TOA in the Asean countries that it operates in on the way to becoming the true No 1 regional brand.
Pongcherd Jameekornkul, president of TOA Paint (Thailand) Co, said the group was also interested in expanding its paint business elsewhere in Asean, including the Philippines, Brunei and Singapore. It is also studying the possibility of setting up factories in Indonesia and Cambodia.
