Issue 9: 4 Aug 2014
It might be less than a month since Germany lifted the World Cup, but people around the globe are still wearing the replica kits. Many of these are made in Thailand.
Thailand has long been regarded as one of the major producers of clothing worldwide. Last year, exports in the sector amounted to more than US$5 billion. What is less well known is that much of this is from exports of sportswear particularly to the USA, UK, Germany, China, Hong Kong and Japan.
“We started exporting in 1977,” says SukijKongpiyacharn, the managing director of Hong Seng Knitting, one of Thailand’s leading sportswear manufacturers. “Now at least 90% of our production is sportswear.”
At face value, Hong Seng Knitting is unremarkable. Without its own brand, the company is an original equipment manufacturer or OEM. Traditionally, international sportswear brands would send their specifications to OEM companies, who would quote for the work, send a prototype for improvements and finally for approval. The process normally takes weeks.
Hong Seng Knitting, however, is changing with the times. “We call ourselves Smart OEM,” says Kongpiyacharn. “We offer on-site development to our clients. Instead of the old procedure, our clients fly [to Thailand]. Their designers work and brainstorm with our developers. This shortens the process to three to 10 days.”
A shortened approvals cycle is not the only thing that clients appreciate in the new ‘smart’ system. “Our clients like it – now they fly to Thailand every season,” says Kongpiyacharn.
Issue08 : 22 July 2014
The Thai Wellness sector has a universal reputation for excellence, but within it there is sufficient space for visionary entrepreneurs to cut out a niche market for themselves.
It seems appropriate that Marc-Antoine Cornaz uses an analogy drawn from nature to illustrate his point about business. “Sometimes companies are like oak trees that are built with boards and nails,” he says over lunch by the pool at Kamalaya Koh Samui. “It looks like an oak tree but it isn’t really, it isn’t a stable one.”
There are no oak trees at the wellness sanctuary and holistic spa resort where Cornaz is managing director, rather the foliage surrounding us is typically tropical, but his message is clear nevertheless. “Certain things just take time to grow,” he adds as reinforcement.
Fortunately Kamalaya was given time. Although Cornaz admits the resort had a “very, very difficult” inception – it was not until its fifth year that the business model proved itself – this was not something totally unexpected. “This is not a business that you can just put on the shelf at Tesco’s and it sells,” he says. “It is building nearly exclusively by word of mouth, so that takes time but it’s very solid as it builds.” Just like an oak tree, you might add.
Eight years later and business is as strong as that veritable oak. Occupancy is a year-round 80%, with around 30% repeat customers. On average guests stay for eight nights and take 2.5 treatments or classes each day. Around 40% of revenue stems from wellness, something Cornaz claims is unusual within the industry.
But Kamalaya is no normal spa resort. “We are really a destination wellness resort where guests come to do programmes,” says Cornaz. These range from traditional Asian massage therapy to meditation, yoga and even drawing classes that deliver a result over a week or longer. The approach is decidedly holistic, equating a healthy body with a healthy mind. “That is very different from a spa package where you sprinkle a little bit of everything in a salad.”
Issue06 : 23 June 2014
Jirayuth Chusanachoti has visions of the silver screen and beyond for Thailand’s most popular animated character.
As if creating Thailand’s most successful global television series is not enough, the creator of Shelldon is now intent upon global domination. Jirayuth Chusanachoti plans to bring his animated creation – a half-hour children’s show about a young sea clam, his family and adventures – to the big screen in a US$70 million project, featuring the voices of major Hollywood stars, in a bid to step into the global big league.
It’s just one of a raft of projects that Chusanachoti has on the slate for Shellhut Entertainment the private company that creates the series. His business model is tried and tested. The company creates the characters and stories, brand them and then outsources production to animation houses. It also has a successful range of merchandising within Thailand where the show is watched by five million people, which Chusanachoti wishes to propel upon the rest of the world on the back of the proposed feature animation. And there is even talk of a Shelldon theme park.
But the next project off the block represents quite a departure into unchartered waters – a ground breaking co-production between Asia’s pop cultural behemoth South Korea, Thailand and Hollywood in a US$15 million action romantic comedy with some animation. Chusanachoti explains the intention is to take what has been very much a children’s brand into the lucrative teenage or young adult sector.
Issue07 : 07 July 2014
Thailand has long been recognised for exporting its Hom Mali rice, but as Horizon Thailand discovers, plenty of research goes on behind the scenes in order to preserve the country’s dominant global position.
Thailand has a long history of exporting rice. For at least 400 years, the Kingdom has exported the crop to the West. Now, largely due to the work of the Bureau of Rice Research and Development (BRRD), the country is developing more and more rice varietals to respond to market demands and environmental forces.
“The history of the Bureau goes back almost a hundred years,” says Dr Suwat Jearakongman, the director of BRRD. In fact, it was 1907 when King Rama V organised the first Agriculture and Commerce Exhibition in Thailand. This aimed to find the best rice cultivator in the country and encourage farmers to produce higher quality rice. Then in 1916, the Thai government established an experimental rice field in central - northern Rangsit district, now known as the Pathum Thani Rice Research Centre. This was followed by many rice research centres across the country. However, it was only in 2006 that the current BRRD was established.
Issue05 : 9 June 2014
In our increasingly commercialised existence, it makes a change to meet a designer who has a genuine concern for the environment. Labrador Factory’s Anek Kulthaveesup proves that taking the green route can be the pathway to success.
Walk into any leather workshop and you will see bits of scrap leather scattered all over the floor, deemed useless by visitors and leather workers alike. Yet for Anek Kulthaveesup, lead designer of Labrador Factory these become transformed into handbags, belts and elegant book covers.
What started off as a “hobby” has now become a fully-fledged business, with Kulthaveesup designing while his wife Supreeya, takes care of marketing.
Labrador Factory produces mainly leather book covers, handbags and satchels. Hardly unusual but what makes it a unique experience is what Kulthaveesup calls “green awareness”. One line is called RElabrador – stationery goods made from recycled leather.
Kultheveesup’s environmental conscience does not stop at the materials he uses. Entering one of Labrador Factory’s shops, you will see tables made from slabs of wood displaying green products. And when you leave your acquisition will be stored within a recycled paper bag.
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