Morishita Jintan, a Japanese maker of pharmaceutical products, functional foods and dietary supplements, plans to set up its first factory in Thailand to serve the Southeast Asian market.
Morishita Jintan president Junichi Komamura signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this week with its Thai distributor, Thai Jintan Co, led by president Charnkij Vittayavarakorn.
The MoU focuses on joint investment to set up a factory in Thailand to produce Jintan products for exports in the next 3-5 years. It also includes the promotion of Jintan products in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.
Neither company disclosed further details on the joint factory.
Mr Komamura of Morishita Jintan said the plant would help expand its presence in Southeast Asia with Singapore being targeted first, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
"We plan to use Thailand as a production base for our goods to be exported to the Asean market. This will be our first investment outside of [Japan] and it will require a huge sum of money," he said.
Now Thai Jintan Co imports Jintan freshener beads and repacks them at its plant on Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate, Chon Buri. This plants also produces Jintan liquid toothpaste under a manufacturing licence from Morishita Jintan.
Thai Jintan Co, a subsidiary of Chumsang Group, is the sole distributor of Jintan mouth freshener beads, innovative liquid toothpaste and other dietary supplements.
Thai Jintan Co currently exports some Jintan products to over 10 countries, including Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Belgium.
Thai Jintan managing director Narit Vittayavarakorn said the company has a vision to become a leading company in selling quality and innovative products from Japan in order to respond to high demand in health care products for all genders and ages both in Thailand and in Asean, which boasts 630 million people.
"We have set a target to penetrate the Asean market within 3 years, with our products being exported to all 10 Asean countries," he said.
Mr Narit said the Thai toothpaste market was valued at 7 billion baht last year, with Colgate occupying the largest share at 3 billion. The mouthwash market was valued at 3 billion baht, while breath fresheners brought in 4 billion.