Issue 29

Thailand’s cosmetics industry is becoming well-known and accepted worldwide. A Thai brand in aromatherapy and organic cosmetics has already made its name in EU and Japan.

Looking beautiful can be good for business as well as for your appearance. Thailand's cosmetics market was valued at around 250 billion baht in 2014 – 150 billion baht for domestic consumption and 100 billion baht in exports – according to the Cosmetics Industry Club part of The Federation of Thai Industries. With the rising awareness of healthcare and wellness, this is only set to get bigger. Thailand's beauty industry is expected to grow by 8% to 10% in 2015.

One person to benefit for the industry’s growth is Wiriya Phungsoonthorn, the CEO and founder of Nature Touch International Co., Ltd.. He launched his first aromatherapy product in 1999, based family knowledge of Thai herbs and his own personal passion. Now, Nature Touch has over 300 products in 20 collections that have been exported to over 20 countries across the world.

“Our core business is aromatic skin care and we started our business from hotel amenities,” says Phungsoonthorn. Specialising in aromatherapy for more than 30 years since studying in advanced blending techniques in France, he develops all the products with exclusive natural essential oils from Charabot, a perfumery leader in France. The combination between Thai traditional recipe and western technology offers unique and fine products.

“We educate hotels that their expertise is services and hospitality while ours is body care and aromatherapy,” he says. “We asked them to put our products in their hotel for 20-30 rooms to check the guests’ feedback. At the end, they got a good feedback. So they felt confident that our good quality products could enhance their image and attract more customers.”

Nature Touch’s main customers are in the retail business and four- to five-star hotels in Europe and Asia, such as the Meridian, Orient Express and Imperial. “We also have created a smell tailor-made for Dusit International which we have supplied globally for almost 20 years,” he says.

Thailand’s cosmetic industry is focusing more on natural and organic products. However, penetrating global market requires fine quality of the product as well as great effort of the entrepreneur. “In the EU, to get certified by Nature Europe as a natural cosmetic, the product must contain 70% natural ingredients… [To be classified as an] organic product, it must contain 60% of organic ingredients. Any products less than specified cannot claim to be a natural or organic product,” says Phungsoonthorn.

Beauty care products sold in Japan also require ingredient approval, quality control, registration and label by MHW and certification. Nature Touch has been accepted by the Japanese market after taking seven to eight years to prove its quality. “Japanese consumers are very sophisticated,” says Phungsoonthorn. “Products must be nicely designed and packaged. They are quite particular about the quality and safety of the products they buy and use.”

Phungsoonthorn says this is a consideration for any business wanting to enter the Japanese market. “You should understand their [the Japanese] detailed-oriented nature,” he says. “Now we have gone through that process and our products are available in the shops, such as Tokyu Hand, Watashi No Heya, Estnation Ginza, Mitsukoshi, and hotels in Japan, such as Mahama Tokyo Disney, Imperial Hotel Japan, for instance.”

For more information, please visit www.naturetouch.co.th

Words by Natthinee Ratanaprasidhi