Gypsum board maker eyes listing for further expansion
GYPMAN TECH Co Ltd plans to raise up to Bt100 million by listing on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) in 2018, in order to further increase its production capacity.
The gypsum-board maker’s revenue goal, meanwhile, is to double its annual revenue to Bt300 million in the same period.
“We invested Bt100 million last year to increase our production capacity from 6 million to 12 million square metres this year, in a move which will enable our sales to double by the end of 2018. This will build our financial results and make them healthy enough to raise capital from the MAI in 2018,” managing director Supachai Hirunyanitiwatna told The Nation in an interview early this week.
Supachai, 30, established Gypman Tech in 2014 with registered capital Bt20 million to produce gypsum board to serve local demand, when he was helping in his family’s business, Western Shoji Corp, which distributes construction materials such as glass blocks and tiles.
“I learnt from our family business that domestic demand for gypsum board was strong, but that most producers supplying the market were foreign firms. I believed I had sufficient know-how to produce quality gypsum to compete with these foreign makers, so we decided to use our savings to buy land and then get a bank loan to set up a gypsum plant in Nakhon Sawan province, the location of our source gypsum mine, at an investment cost of Bt80 million,” he explained.
Supachai, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Chulalongkorn University and a master’s in engineering management from Southern California University, said Gypman Tech then started to distribute its products under the GM Gypsum brand, with an initial focus on northern provinces located close to the company’s production plant.
“Our products have sold well as we offer prices about 10 per cent lower than those of other producers, while our product quality is similar to that of our competitors,” he said.
With this price strategy, the company generate sales worth Bt150 million last year and decided to double its capacity this year.
The Bt100-million expansion commenced last year and has now been completed, he said, adding that it had been funded by increasing registered capital from Bt20 million to Bt100 million in 2015.
As a result, the company targets sales of Bt200 million this year, a figure that he expects will rise to Bt300 million in 2018.
“Our sales growth will come from both our increased capacity and our market expansion from the provinces to Bangkok and its suburbs, by focusing on supplying GM Gypsum boards to residential projects this year and next,” the managing director said.
Supachai added that the company’s success was down to two main factors: making quality products that match demand at reasonable prices, plus having a workforce |with the ability to drive business growth.
