Lactasoy Co, a producer and marketer of soy milk, is poised to resume investment this year as the soy milk market has shown signs of improvement since the final quarter of last year.
Monlika Chiraphadhanakul, the company's general sales manager, said Lactasoy's survey found the value of Thailand's soy milk market increased to 19 billion baht last year, up from 16-17 billion in 2021.
Lactasoy sales grew 2-3% both domestically and overseas, helped by the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, especially with regard to border trade and the resumption of logistics.
The growth of the soy milk market last year was attributed to growing health consciousness during the pandemic and an increase in the popularity of plant-based products.
Given these positive trends, the company plans to spend more than 600 million baht to expand its business this year, Ms Monlika said.
Of the total investment, more than 150 million baht was allocated to the installation of solar cells at its factory in Prachin Buri under a clean energy initiative, with the aim of reducing the company's operation costs.
Lactasoy wants to increase its marketing budget by 20-25% from last year to 400 million baht this year to promote its products. Of the total, 50 million baht was allotted to a new marketing campaign featuring Thai alternative rock duo Paper Planes as presenters.
The duo was selected to present the campaign because they are popular and recognisable among the groups targeted by the campaign, namely families, young people and the general public.
The company is also planning to adjust the formula of Lactasoy's chocolate soy milk and launch new products to the market this year, she said.
The remaining budget was allocated to buy new machinery to increase production capacity at the Prachin Buri factory this year to 2 billion cartons per year, up from 1.7 billion last year.
The higher capacity is to support market growth in Thailand and Indochina, as well as to open two new Lactasoy warehouses in the Isan region in the third quarter this year.
In addition to the domestic market, the company plans to roll out aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns in Indochina this year.
According to Ms Monlika, Lactasoy aims to grow its sales by 5-8% this year from 10.6 billion baht last year.
Of the total, 80% of sales would come from the domestic market, with 20% from sales to 45 other countries. Roughly 80% of export sales came from the Indochina market. The firm expects the portion of sales from overseas operations to rise by another 10-12 percentage points this year.