Equipment distributor eyes 25% growth

“We expect the government’s [spending on] infrastructure projects will be expedited, having a positive impact on our clients’ purchasing power for occupational-safety and environmental-control products,” chief executive officer Boonchai Suwanvutthiwat said.
As part of the three-year (2017-19) business plan, he said the company would focus more on artesian water-supply systems to cash in on the government’s new water-management policy to reduce problems caused by drought.
Boonchai expects the government to allocate more money to establish groundwater supply systems for communities and farmlands.
“The company has been awarded more than 100 projects across the country,” he said, adding that groundwater supply systems were part of its water-treatment services – one of its three main product categories.
The other two are health and safety products and environmental-protection products. The first category consists of safety apparel, glasses, hearing protection, shoes, hard hats, chemical-containment systems, detectors of toxic or flammable gas, and ventilators. Its environmental-control products include clean-room supplies such as specialised clothing.
“Sales of water-treatment projects now account for about 20-25 per cent of the company’s total revenue, and we expect it to increase to 30-35 per cent under the three-year business plan,” Boonchai said.
Although the government relies primarily on tap-water systems in communities, a groundwater supply system that does not have high electricity demands is still needed in some remote localities that are not on the electrical grid but could generate electricity with solar cells, he said.
For buyers of its workplace-safety equipment and machinery, Boonchai said Phol Dhanya had applied information technology in its procurement system, particularly for its big clients, to add to their convenience by saving time and costs. This strategy is meant to help the company keep its existing customer base.
For new clients, he said the company would focus on selling daily-use personal protective products such as gloves, shoes and masks.
Meanwhile, sales of clean-room products now are sluggish in the electronics sector, as some giant international firms have moved their production bases outside the country, Boonchai said. But he is optimistic about hard-disk-drive producers still operating here. In the first nine months of last year, Phol Dhanya enjoyed 77-per-cent growth in net profit year on year to Bt33.25 million on revenue of Bt851.98 million.In 2015, the company posted Bt34.31 million in net profit and Bt917.94 million in revenue.