RS Components confident of Thai market
RS COMPONENTS, a global distributor of software and hardware for industrial use, is still confident in Thailand's potential as a regional manufacturing base, and aims to maintain double-digit growth in each of the next five years.
RS Components began operations in Thailand in 2006 as its parent company Electrocomponents, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, wanted to expand into this emerging Asian market.
Currently, RS Components provides its services to more than 5,000 clients in various industries such as oil and gas, cement, food, electronics and automotive parts.
Thailand country manager Suthee Wetchapruekpitak said the company provided free software to help engineers in each industry design prototypes for their businesses quickly.
The company also provides an online community where engineers worldwide can access its open-source prototype-design solution. Engineers can submit their quotations to partners ranging from component producers to 3D-printing operations.
The software, called DesignSpark, is available on the company’s website and via a mobile application. Currently more than 350,000 engineers around the world use it. The firm says DesignSpark has become the tool of choice for sharing and collaborating on open-source hardware designs and projects.
Suthee described this advanced software as a value-added service both for current customers and new users.
He said that besides this free online service and software, his company also provided research and development assistance and distributed a 3D-printing solution for maintenance and repair to its customers.
“We see a huge opportunity in the Kingdom because Thailand still maintains its competitive edge in terms of being a manufacturing base, particularly in the food and automotive industries and in computer chips.”
RS Components targets growing small and medium-sized enterprises in the Kingdom as new customers.
In the first half of its financial year (April to September 2014), the company earned revenue of Bt33 billion. The Asia-Pacific market contributed about Bt4 billion.
