Malee Group tops up budget for restructuring with Bt1 billion

Roongchat described the outlay as “a huge investment’” for the company as it looks ahead to its 40th anniversary next year.
“We invested Bt500 million last year and have continued to expand this investment budget with Bt1 billion for this year and the next,” she said at a press conference yesterday.
“The funds will be used to renovate our head office and increase the production capacity of our manufacturing plant in Sampran district, Nakornpathom province, from 300 million litres to 330 million litres by the end of this year.
“Also, we will develop our operation and information technology to help meet our business target for growth in the double digits each year.”
She added that the company had launched a business strategy built around the “Four Rs” - Rebrand, Reorganise, Renovate, and Reconnect since.
Rebrand refers to a redesign of the company logo, reorganise relates to a restructuring of the management team, renovate refers to the renovation of its head office and manufacturing plan, and reconnect deals with the expansion in investment overseas.
Roongchat cited the setting up of a joint venture firm with Philippines-based Monde Nissin Corp last year as an example of its overseas expansion. It holds 49 per cent of the company with paid-up capital of 150 million pesos from registered capital of 400 million pesos.
 The joint venture firm, Monde Malee Beverage Corporate, has been distributing non-alcoholic drinks that it imports from Malee Group in the Philippine market since last year. They include ready-to-drink coffee under the brand Kratos and ready-to-drink Jelly Vit. The company may consider opening a plant in the Philippines in the future if the market growth matches its business plan, she said.
The company also will join with Mega Lifesciences in a plan to launch health beverage products in the last quarter of this year.
“We will launch more new products categories that relate to health to support our business strategy to become a health-driven global food and beverage company in 2021,“ Roongchat said.
She said the company also will increase its budget for research and development to serve its business strategy by establishing a research and development firm early this year. This will result in a rise in its research and development budget from an average of Bt10 million a year to more than Bt10 million in the future.
Under the business plan, the company is targeting sales of Bt10 billion in 2018, up from sales of Bt6.57 billion and net profit of Bt530 million achieved at the end of 2016. For the first quarter of this year, the company reported total revenue of Bt1.5 billion and net profit of Bt118.5 million. 
“Our sales growth in the first quarter of this year came in lower than our estimated 1 per cent, amid a market slowdown, but our net profit grew 8 per cent from our estimate thanks to our business strategy of reducing operational costs since last year,” Roongchat said.
However, she said she is confident that total revenue by the end of this year will show growth of up to 15 per cent, due to efforts to expand the company’s export market and the plan to launch more products in the second half of this year.
The firm gains 57 per cent of its total sales from the domestic market, with exports accounting for the rest.
Up to 55 per cent of its total revenue comes from contract manufacturing, with the rest from its own brands. The company aims to increase the contribution of exports to 50 per cent in 2021, Roongchat said.
The main export markets under its own brand are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, mainland China, Hong Kong and Pakistan. The company also exports under contract manufacturing to the UK, the US and Australia, Roongchat said.