Staedtler Thailand looking for sales lift

STAEDTLER, one of the world’s leading stationary suppliers, aims to boost its sales in Thailand and elsewhere in the region following a Bt80 million renovation and expansion of its two manufacturing sites in Bangkok.
Staedtler Manufacturing (Thailand) Ltd, established in 1989, manufactures ball-point pens, erasers, and rulers and is located in Lad Krabang district while Siam Pencil Co Ltd was established in 2001 and manufactures graphite and coloured pencils and is located in Nong Chok district.
They are the company’s only factories in the Kingdom.
The expansion is part of its plan to boost the reach of Staedtler throughout Asia-Pacific and beyond, according to Markus Handfest, managing director of Staedtler Thailand.
“We want to increase sales within Thailand and also export Staedtler worldwide from Thailand,” he said. “With the combination of our high German quality and recent innovative refurbishments, which includes energy efficient and eco-friendly machinery, we will continue to grow. Besides that, we also have more flexibility to meet the needs and expectations of the Thai and other Asian consumers the best.”
“Staedtler Thailand exports to more than 60 countries and within the APAC region, serving Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan as well as Australia and New Zealand. We see Staedtler Thailand as the main pillar of our Asian business. Thailand is a hub for this region and we are excited to see how the picture of production and sales develops in the near future.
“We consider Thailand and especially Bangkok to have great advantages as a production and logistics hub. The infrastructure, with ports and airports in close proximity, is ideal. We have little problems finding qualified staff and the labour cost in Thailand are more competitive and stable than in other Asian countries. We believe that the combination of German production technology as well as our high standards in quality and product safety, together with the already mentioned advantages of the location of our operation in Thailand, will make our factory an even more important piece of Staedtler’s international production strategy.” 
The Staedtler brand has been a well-known name for over 180 years and is well-regarded globally for its high quality and fine production standards, exporting to over 150 countries. 
With pencils, erasers and fineliners being the top three best-selling Staedtler products in the Kingdom and with total sales of Bt830 million in 2016, Thailand’s year-on-year growth last year was 5 per cent.
“While the competition in Thailand is strong, we are convinced that customers will keep seeking high-quality brand products at a reasonable price,” Handfest said. “We still see considerable growth in the market and even more for the Staedtler brand. We expect to grow faster than the average stationery market in Thailand for the foreseeable future. 
“For the export business out of Thailand, we expect two-digit growth rates in the coming years and, considering the successful expansion of our production facilities here, we feel well prepared.
“The expansion of our factories here is a clear commitment for the business location Thailand and we believe that the volume exported to our international partners will keep increasing substantially. Among them, the Asean region is one of the growth regions for stationery and we see good prospects for our products. 
“Many of our products are ideally suited for children and young adults, and the share of these age group in the population is much bigger in the Asean markets than for example in Europe or North America. Apart from demographic differences, the sheer size of the Asean population makes it a very important market for us and the economic growth rates in many Asean countries are also larger than in Europe or North America.”
Handfest added that Staedtler Thailand’s marketing strategy for the next years will be to strengthen its school business. While the stationery market in Thailand is very competitive, he is confident that the region’s interest and trust in Staedtler’s high quality brand products will keep growing.
Konstantin Czeschka, chief technical officer at the Staedtler Group, pointed out that Staedtler continues to integrate with the ever-evolving digital marketplace. Inventiveness has always been part of tradition at what is one of German’s oldest industrial companies. With innovative technologies the company ontinuously succeeds to design more and more efficient production techniques and to enlarge the lifecycle as well as the consumer benefits of its products.
The relevance for creative, analogue tools remains high even in a more and more digital world. One indicator is for example the worldwide adult colouring trend where colouring books for adults have seen a surge in popularity, prompting high demand for coloured pencils and felt tip pens produced by Staedtler. In 2015 and 2016 the Staedtler Group, which was founded in 1835, recorded its best years of the history. One unexpected revenue driver was the global adult colouring phenomenon.
“Adult colouring is a key driver for our sales. Consumers have bought more art supplies over the last few years in general and in this age of digitisation, that really is remarkable,” Handfest said.
“We are convinced that analogue technologies, such as writing, drawing and crafting, play a necessary and complementary role in the digital world as they build a foundation for human development.”