Second plant to double Ireal Plus capacity

The capacity expansion, which is scheduled to come on stream in April, will help double 2015 revenue from last year amid strong demand, managing director Patcharapol Suttidharm said during an interview with The Nation.
However, he declined to disclose a figure for annual sales value.
Patcharapol, 24, established Ireal Plus (Thailand) with registered capital of Bt4 million four years ago after graduating with a master’s in marketing from Ramkhamhaeng University in 2010.
“I decided to go into business following our group thesis for graduation, which wrote about a business and marketing plan to run a cosmetics business. When I graduated, my friends weren’t interested in using the thesis to do business, but I thought I could do so and proposed a business plan to the International Trade Promotion Department of the Commerce Ministry.
“Staff at the department suggested that I revise my proposal, after which I submitted a revised plan to apply for a loan from the banks,” he said.
Most of them rejected the application because of his age, as he was only 20 at the time. However, Krungthai Bank accepted his business plan, but suggested that he apply for a loan guarantee from Thai Credit Guarantee Corp.
“TCG accepted my business plan and guaranteed a loan worth Bt5 million for me to establish my cosmetics business in 2010. If it hadn’t been for TCG, I could not have built my business,” he said.
After being granted the loan, he started working alongside his aunt to formulate the company’s cosmetics, as she had experience in such creative work with a global cosmetics brand.
The first business step for Patcharapol was then to start producing face cream under his Ireal brand from his home in Rangsit, Pathum Thani province, which he initially sold to friends and relatives – generating income of just Bt10,000 in the first month.
However, he then began to receive positive feedback from the market as the word spread about his products, resulting in sales doubling every month, he explained.
After success in the domestic market, Patcharapol started to look overseas, jointly promoting his products with the Trade Promotion Department and selling them in Cambodia in 2011.
The company appointed an exclusive distributor in Cambodia, which suggested that he export to other countries in the region, such as Laos and Myanmar.
Ireal Plus (Thailand) expanded its sales to the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam), since which time it has also sold to Australia, China and Europe under its Ireal brand, and also produces cosmetics under its customers’ brands.
After the business expansion to the export market, Patcharapol decided to invest about Bt100 million to construct a manufacturing plant in Nakhon Pathom in 2012, with capacity to produce 6,000kg of cream per day.
The firm then decided to expand production capacity by investing a further Bt100 million to build a second plant at the site, where production will commence on April 1.