TCP Group, the maker and marketer of Krating Daeng and gold Red Bull energy drinks in Asia, has announced its first huge investment in 61 years of establishment. It is spending 10 billion baht to expand both in the domestic market and abroad, aiming for 100 billion baht in sales by 2022.
The move is part of a five-year organisational transformation programme to run from 2018 to 2022.
Group chief executive Saravoot Yoovidhya said the investment budget will be used in three main areas: strengthening management and staff capabilities, expanding manufacturing capacity and R&D capabilities, and growing on-the-ground presence in other countries.
The investment will focus on the Asean market because it has invested in Asean countries over the years, creating more demand for energy drink products.
The funds will come from the company's cash flow.
TCP Group is set to reach 30 billion baht in sales this year, up from 28 billion last year. Some 60% of this year's sales are expected to be made overseas, excluding Red Bull in Europe and the US, which operates under Red Bull GmbH, a joint venture between the Yoovidhaya family and an Austrian partner.
"This is the first-ever major investment for our group since we were established in Thailand," Mr Saravoot said. "The size of our investment reflects our commitment to enhancing our organisational capabilities and making a major leap into the future."
Under the five-year business plan, TCP will increase its competitiveness by hiring more foreign executives to join the group in the consumer product business to make its management be more professional.
Of the allotment, 100 million baht will be assigned over the next five years to training programmes.
TCP Group has a total production capacity of more than a 1 billion litres of energy drinks per year at its two plants in Thailand and three plants in Indonesia, Vietnam and China.
In the next five years, the company plans to add a marketing office to support local sales in overseas markets and plans to open new plants somewhere in Asean.
Opening office branches overseas to support the marketing and development of products to fit each market is also part of the plan. Marketing is supervised by the head office in Thailand.
TCP sells Krating Daeng in Thailand and gold Red Bull in 14 countries in Asia. More than half of overseas sales come from Asean countries.
The group is also expanding its portfolio to cover eight major brands by adding new categories of products under existing brands and new brands in the future.
"We want to be a global brand house," Mr Saravoot said.
He said the five-year plan will see sales reach 100 billion baht when the plan ends in 2020. Overseas sales will make up the bigger portion of about 80 billion baht and the remaining 20 billion baht will come from the domestic market.
TCP Group sales are expected to reach 30 billion baht in 2017, up from last year's 28 billion baht.
The company also announced that four companies under TCB Group are working under the same group corporate brand.
The four companies are TC Pharmaceutical Industries, the primary maker of group products; Red Bull Beverage, which handles marketing and sales of group products; TG Vending and Showcase Industries, the operator of vending machines for the group and other products; and Durbell, the distributing arm of the group.
The eight brands under the group also include Ready brand energy drink, Sponsor sports drink, Mansome functional drink, Puriku bottled white tea and Sun Snack snack products.