Singha Corporation is expanding its portfolio with a new cider called Syder Bay, to be launched next week.
Mr Chatchai is pinning hopes on the new cider.
Marketing director Chatchai Viratyosin said the beverage with 3.5% alcohol content would be an ideal alternative for beer lovers.
Syder Bay is the first alcoholic drink launched by Thailand's leading brewery group in a decade.
The distribution of Syder Bay will be done by Boonrawd Asia Co, a unit of Singha Corporation, which plans to employ every channel to distribute the drink, which still faces light competition due to the availability of only a few imported brands with limited marketing.
"This will be a great opportunity for our new product to access the market," he said.
Mr Chatchai said cider cocktails were the new drinking trend among consumers in the US and Europe and the popularity of the drink has already reached Asia.
"We want to be a pioneering company to penetrate the market. Syder Bay has huge market potential because it has a wider opportunity compared with beer," Mr Chatchai said.
Syder Bay will be produced by Thai Spirit Industry Co, the maker of the Full Moon brand, and will be available in three flavours: apple, peach and red berry.
The company expects to sell about 1.6 million litres of Syder Bay or 180 million baht in the remainder of this year.
Next year it hopes sales will rise to 20 million litres, amounting to 1.8 billion baht in revenue.
The retail price of Syder Bay is set at 32 baht for a 275-ml bottle. The company plans to spend 140-180 million baht promoting the product from now until next year.
Apart from the domestic market, Mr Chatchai said the company planned to launch Syder Bay on the Asian market including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore next year via distributors of Singha beer.
The coming of Syder Bay is likely to be a boon to the ready-to-drink business, which is estimated to be worth 4.5 billion baht this year and is expected to increase to 6.3 billion baht next year.
Mr Chatchai expects sales of all beer products under the Singha group to exceed 120 billion baht by the end of this year.