Oiling the wheels for success in family business

Vichai Jaivisuthansa settled on the Sacha variety of peanut as the foundation of the business diversification into supplements, guided by a suggestion from a friend. He spent a year researching how to produce an oil rich in omega nutrients from the peanuts. The Organoid brand, since its establishment in 2013, has made steady inroads into the domestic and overseas markets and now generates sales of Bt10 million a year.
Vichai brought his daughter Buntita Jaivisuthansa into the business. She serves as marketing manager of Omega 3.6.9 and Lycopene Co Ltd, the company that Vichai set up for the supplements venture.
 In an interview with The Nation, Buntita said the enterprise had benefited from her father’s scientific expertise, citing his studies in organic chemicals for the bachelor’s degree that he gained from Mahidol University.
“My father started his research into the production of an oil rich in the omega fatty acids in 2012,” she said.
“A year into that research, he encouraged a farmer in Kamphaeng Phet to grow the Sacha peanuts in the province. In 2013 he also had a production plant built that can extract the omega-3 nutrient from the peanuts.”
 Buntita said the company began producing and distributing the products resulting from his research under the Organoid brand, including the omega-rich oil from the Sacha peanut and a protein powder that is also made from that peanut variety. By 2015, the company was making annual sales of up to Bt2 million.
“I resigned from a post in executive marketing at Sanook.com to join my father in the business in 2015,” Buntita said.
“In my focus on marketing, I sought ways to expand the market for our products by looking at both offline and online channels. I have also been promoting the products in the traditional and modern trade outlets.”
After three years of pursuing these aggressive marketing strategies, the company made sales of up to Bt10 million in 2017. Up to 97 per cent of these came from the domestic market, with the rest from overseas. The company is confident it can sustain sales growth in the double digits each year.
As part of its marketing efforts, the company joined the One Province, One Agro-Industrial Product (OPOAI) programme conducted by Industry Ministry.
 The scheme provides training for companies to manage their production costs as well as assistance for finding opportunities in the market. The challenge for the company, said Buntita, is to improve its production capacity and better control production costs in order to maintain the target of double-digit growth in annual sales.
Buntita said that among the ways the company has sought to promote the products is consumer education about their quality as well as by expanding distribution channels. On the online side, this includes activities on Facebook and Instagram and offline, outlets include the Lemon Farm and Bai Miang health food stores.
On the export front, the company is selling into the Asean market, including Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The company is negotiating with importers from China for sales to that key market this year, Buntita said.
“The key to our success is the research and development that we put into products with the use of our own technology. This approach differentiates our business from that of our competitors in the market,” she said.
Buoyed by the double-digit sales growth, Buntita said that the company plans to launch a new item, a coffee-like product from the Sacha peanut that will also go out under the Organoid brand. It will be presented at the Thaifex-World of Food Asia 2018 next week. The event runs from Tuesday to June 2 at Impact Muang Thong Thani in Bangkok.
The company also is researching the production of a cosmetic serum from the Sacha peanut and is looking at a launch this year or the next.
Buntita said that the market for health supplements is valued at more than Bt60 billion a year. The challenge for the family business is to get a bigger slice of this market, she said.
“We are confident in the outlook for our products and believe that once we get more opportunities to explain their quality and the health benefits they offer to consumers, we will improve our business and achieve sustainable growth over the long term,” she said.