Lopburi couple charge up business ambitions with expansion of biomass fuel venture
A COUPLE from Lopburi province are scaling up their biomass energy venture after spending Bt30 million on a new production plant that they hope will this year triple the Bt10 million revenue achieved for last year.
Oratip Tiangyuttitom and her husband Wattanapong Thongsoi chose Earleaf acacia trees as their source stock for the biomass fuel, which they supply to manufacturing plants.
"We decided to resign from our jobs to build our business from our savings of Bt150,000 in 2011," Oratip said in an interview with The Nation recently. "We began trading in agricultural products for supply to paper manufacturing plants and went on to generate sales at an average of Bt8 million a year.
"Then we saw there was strong demand for biomass energy products for supply to manufacturing plants. As a result, we looked into this and saw that a fast-growing tree like Earleaf acacia was the most suitable for processing into biomass energy products. And with that change, we increased our sales value to Bt10 million a year.”
Oratip said that she and her husband saw continued strong demand in the market for biomass energy products, giving them the confidence to commit to the Bt30 million investment last year for the development of the manufacturing plant to produce the biomass fuel from Earleaf acacia. The plant has a production capacity to produce, by chopper type, about 20 tonnes per hour, and up to 3 tonnes per hour by the rod-type option.
The company has signed contracts with 100 nearby farmers to supply the production plant with Earleaf acacia trees. This arrangement has resulted in increased incomes for the participating farmers at an average of Bt4,000 a month.
“The farmers still grow rice and other agricultural products, so by supplying to us they gain extra income, especially as the Earleaf acacia are fast-growing trees,” she said.
She said the manufacturing plant began operations early this year and was producing at up to 90 per cent of its production capacity each day.
The plant also supplies its products to three manufacturing plants that have ordered the biomass fuel products. These customers, at around 300 kilometres from the plant, are not that far away.
With the orders coming in from customers, Oratip said the company estimates its total revenue will reach Bt30 million this year, up from Bt10 million last year. The company also expects sales will jump to Bt50 million in 2019, thanks to strong demand in the market and the capability of the plant to scale up output to meet customers’ needs.
“We decided to go into business by ourselves as we believed we could achieve what we set out to do, after seeing there was demand in the market for biomass energy products from several manufacturing plants in nationwide,” Oratip said.
She said the company plans to increase its production capacity to meet the strong demand, after the production plant begins operating at full capacity sometime this year or the next. Such a move would result in an expansion of the company’s contract farming arrangements to bring in as many 1,000 farmers as suppliers.
