Casava sets sights on own plant, MAI listing

President and owner Noppasorn Wongchotpinthong, 35, said during an interview with The Nation that in line with the MAI-listing goal, the company intended to increase its registered capital from Bt5 million to Bt30 million by 2020 in annual increments of Bt5 million.
This will support the business plan to double its nationwide distribution network from 400 dealers currently to 800 over the same period.
Casava Co Ltd also added the modern trade to its distribution channels early this year, and now distributes its furniture to HomePro stores. This is expected to boost revenue by up to 50 per cent from last year, when sales of Bt10 million were generated.
The company is also negotiating with other modern traders such as Thai Watsadu for similar distribution deals, Noppasorn said.
Meanwhile, the company is studying construction of its own manufacturing facility in Vietnam next year or in 2017 at an investment cost of about Bt50 million, provided overall sales reach the targeted level, he said.
“We have selected Vietnam because labour costs there are lower than in Thailand. This will help us manufacture products that can compete in the market.”
Noppasorn established Casava Co with registered capital of Bt1 million in 2009 after gaining hands-on experience of the business when working at a furniture company from 2005 to 2008.
“I in fact started to do my own business before graduating with a master’s in business [marketing] from Bangkok University. My father, who owns a jewellery business, asked me whether I wanted to go into business. At that time, I thought I could because of what I had learned about the theory of doing business from the university.
“My father gave me Bt2 million to run my first business in 2005, which was for the import of crystal powder from France, which is used for the treatment of shrimp. But my business failed because I had no experience in the real world of doing business. I didn’t understand the market, and I relied on my staff to do it.
“Within 10 months of establishing my first business, I decided to shut it down and became an employee in my father’s business,” he explained.
However, one year later, Noppasorn decided to resign because he was not keen on working in the jewellery business. He then successfully applied to join the marketing staff at an established furniture company. “Within three months of starting work at the company, I knew that the furniture business was what I wanted to do,” he said.
After three years of gaining business and furniture-sector experience at the company, a friend of his father’s offered Noppasorn the opportunity to import steel from China for use in making table drawers.
He jumped at the chance and spent savings of Bt300,000 to prepare himself for the venture.
When the first import batch worth Bt70,000 was successfully sold, he decided to resign from the furniture company and establish his own business, Casava Co. Noppasorn then visited a furniture factory in China and decided to import furniture under his own brand, Casava, for distribution in Thailand.
From just Bt70,000 worth of business in his first furniture-related venture, he has made great strides: Casava Co last year generated revenue of Bt10 million and he now has ambitions to build a manufacturing facility in Vietnam and list on the Thai stock market by the end of the decade.
“The key to my success is doing the crucial work myself, learning what customers want and selecting the products to meet that demand,” he said.