DKSH Thailand Ltd, a market expansion service company, has expressed confidence that the consumer product business in Thailand will improve next year, driven by strong tourism and government investments.
DKSH business development consumer goods general manager Fabrice Goetschmann said spending power for consumer goods in the first nine months this year was weak. However, consumer spending is likely to improve in the final two months of this year, he said.
After October, consumer purchasing power is expected to rise in the coming festive season, and that spending momentum should continue through next year, said Mr Goetschmann.
He said DKSH is quite confident for an improved consumer product business in 2018 because the government has continued to inject funds to build infrastructures both in Bangkok and upcountry.
The tourism sector will also keep growing and the sector will continue to play a significant role in driving the country's economy.
The business is seen to be improving as the company has been contacted by a large number of new clients that want DKSH to distribute and do marketing for their products.
He said that the company has also imposed several measures to help improve the sales of existing clients.
"We have faced many challenges in 2017. Thai consumers are becoming more sophisticated and they are looking for new innovative products," said Leonard Tan, the company's consumer goods vice-president.
Mr Tan said due to Thailand's retail landscape changes, the products under DKSH's distribution need to be available everywhere, from small shops to big retail chains.
The consumer product market this year grew at slower pace than in the past, but sales of DKSH's consumer goods business in the first nine months of this year are ahead of industry growth, he said.
Though sales of some products handled by DKSH were flat, several products still saw double-digit growth.
Yesterday DKSH was appointed by Tofusan Co, the manufacturer of organic soymilk products, to handle marketing, sales, distribution and logistics services for Tofusan soymilk across the country.
Tofusan was established in the Thai market in 2011 and has distributed and marketed products internally.
Tofusan Co managing director Suranam Parnichakarn said that the partnership with DKSH will help soymilk product sales grow at a faster pace than in the past.
Sales of Tofusan soymilk have grown in double-digits every year.
To cope with the sales expansion, the company is sets to open a new factory in Samut Sakhon province later this year. The new factory will have a capacity of 300,000 bottles of soymilk a day, to add to the 100,000 bottles manufactured by the first factory located in the same compound.
Apart from Thailand, the company plans to export soymilk into the Asean market next year via the DKSH network.