Logistics firm SSL Gourmet diversifies into 'healthy' food

SSL Gourmet was appointed the official Asia Pacific owner of "Well & Good" products, along with SSL Logistics Co, which was allowed to provide logistics transport services for the products in the Asia Pacific, including Thailand.

Ekachai Kacha, managing director of SSL Group, said that this year the company planned to import and sell 14 items of the products, which were now available on shelves of luxury superstores such as Villa Market and Gourmet Market in The Mall, Siam Paragon, and The EmQuartier.

In addition, the products are available at most branches of Makro.

"We expect sales of the products to be about 300-500 tonnes a year," she said, adding the company would expand into Myanmar and Singapore early next year.

Ekachai, 35, the second generation of the family-owned logistics services for 40 years, has extended her logistics business to food after learning that a major ingredient of bakery – as much as 10,000 tonnes of which was imported into the country – was wheat flour. That sparked an idea to start her new business related to ‘organic’ food in response to the trend of people’s changing behaviour of becoming health cautious.

She spent about one year studying whether the food business was feasible. Eventually, she opted for the "Well & Good" brand for several reasons: The brand is No 1 in Australia among organic food products; Australia is the source of clean food; and Indonesia is considered a hub in the Asia Pacific for organic food production and her company could take advantage of the shipping routes that serve its clients.

			Your daily Nation is available as of today in ePaper format with the subscribers also getting Indonesia's Jakarta Post, Philippine Inquirer and Myanmar Eleven free of charge. 1 week $3.50 USD 1 month $12.50 USD 3 month $35.00 USD 6 month $65.00 USD 12 month $115.00 USD SUBSCRIBE NOW

Ekachai said more than 20 hubs and network under the management of SSL Logistics would support the distribution of the "Well & Good" products nationwide, which was the same route of its clients who are in beverages and consumer products.

Ekachia learnt from her family’s business when transporting products for clients from a point to other point. "I want to do what can create demand, not just do what it’s on demand [ordered by clients]," she said.

Although the country’s economy is slowing down, Ekachai said she was confident about the quality of the "Well & Good" products. He said consumers would select them as a choice because they were healthy and clean food. The price is also affordable when compared with rival products.

"The business model has now changed and we manage transport for the whole supply chain in a bid to reduce the logistics cost," she said, adding that apart from distribution, SSL logistics and SSL Gourmet also did branding and marketing for the "Well & Good" products.

"We are in talks with the "Well & Good" owner to add Thai organic rice as ingredients in new products under this brand, which is expected to be available in the Thai market early next year," said Ekachai.