Jintan agent further expands product range
THAI Jintan, a regional and global distributor of Jintan products from Japan, is adding food supplements and cosmetics to its line-up to nearly double sales this year.
Managing director Narit Vittayavarakorn said that the company expects to achieve sales of Bt200 million this year after recently introducing Jintan Nudeliquid toothpaste, appointing a distributor for the domestic market, expanding exports and launching more products.
Having focused on the confectionery and oral care business, Thai Jintan is now looking to expand to other product segments that its parent firm in Japan is involved in – healthcare, skincare and personal care.
Pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration, Thai Jintan plans to enter the dietary supplement market with its Jintan Bifina probiotic products and to introduce its Baby D vitamins for children shortly.
Narit has high confidence in the Bifina product line-ups since they have been the bestsellers in Japan for 17 years, and Thai Jintan, which has won the right to market the products in Asia, has already successfully introduced them in Vietnam.
“The supplement market is worth Bt49 billion in Thailand, of which probiotics alone total around Bt10 billion.
“We hope to find a conclusion with the FDA in two to three months,” he said.
Thai Jintan plans to enter the cosmetics market late this year with a full range of Jintan Bifina skincare products, starting with direct sales.
It will also court speciality store chains like Watson and Boots.
They are expected to be successful, considering that they are “all-Japan” products with effective and proprietary ingredients and are price competitive, he said.
Thai Jintan makes most of its sales from Jintan Nude confectioneries that Narit had initiated and developed with Morishita Jintan when he took charge of the family business in 2009, while the original Jintan silver pills are still mostly available only in drugstores.
The firm, which is the authorised global distributor of Jintan Nude, is expanding its overseas sales and is being approached by Alibaba to distribute the products in China.
Domestic sales have also been rising since it has appointed in April Sino-Pacific Trading (Thailand), a leading distributor of confectionery and other fast-moving consumer goods, to handle its confectionery line.
Claiming 5 per cent of the Bt10 billion confectionery market, Thai Jintan also plans to expand early next year into the hard-candy segment led by Halls.
“As we’ve set a target to achieve sales of Bt500 million in three years, we will introduce a hard candy early next year to penetrate the lower-end segment,” he said.
It also plans to enter the personal care market in two years.
Thai Jintan expects to finish talks on forming a joint venture with Morishita Jintan in August to build a factory in Pathum Thani for exporting Jintan products to worldwide markets.
It plans to raise funds from the Thai stock market to finance the manufacturing investment in five years.
The company targets to expand its exports to 70 per cent of total sales in three to five years, up from less than half at present.
During a knowledge-sharing session held by CP All and the Panyapiwat Institute of Management last week, Narit said Jintan Nude toothpaste had won a lot of recognition from consumers, though it remained a challenge to convince them to switch from traditional toothpaste to using liquid toothpaste.
It has hired popular TV host Vuthithorn “Woody” Milintachinda as the presenter for the product.
