Sweet Meet (Thailand), the producer of Ploen vegetable cooking oil for business clients, looks set to expand into palm oil for consumers next year.
Eakkapat Temeeyavej, chief executive of Temeeyavej Group and Sweet Meet Co, said that after five years of selling Ploen cooking oil in the business-to-business (B2B) market, the company is scheduled to sell it to consumers in the second half of 2023.
"Although we are a new player in this market, with our connections and business partner, pricing and quality, we are confident we can compete in the market," he said.
Sweet Meet started producing and distributing its own Ploen vegetable oil for the B2B channel in 2018, and stopped selling and distributing other companies' brands.
"There is a huge opportunity for vegetable cooking oil given its big market value and continuous demand, because vegetable oil is the main ingredient for food, baking and others," said Mr Eakkapat.
He said that the market for vegetable oil in Thailand has continued to grow over the last few years, despite the pandemic, with the figures topping 30 billion baht in 2021, up from 24 billion baht in 2020.
He also expects his company's sales to reach 1.2 billion baht this year, up from 750 million baht last year, 80% of which was from the domestic market and 20% from exports. The company aims to post sales of 3 billion baht next year, with international markets contributing 40%.
The company operates its own plant-based oil refinery in Chon Buri province, having made some recent investments in refinery development and expansion, as well as new machinery to increase efficiency and capacity.
The refinery can produce up to 7.2 million bottles per month, mainly 1-litre receptacles, to serve customer demand, which is expected to significantly increase in 2023.
Mr Eakkapat said global cooking oil prices have been growing in every segment, driven largely by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which affected the supply chain around the world.
In a move to tap into high global demand, the company plans to expand its Ploen vegetable oil into European markets next year.
The company established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Sweet Meet Europe BV, in the Netherlands in June this year to market and distribute Ploen products in Europe next year. It aims to achieve 200-300 million baht in sales of Ploen products in European countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany, alongside a doubling of sales in Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, to 480 million baht in 2023.