Better Way Thailand, the operator of Mistine direct sales, is planning to expand direct sales in India as it aims to become an Asian brand by 2020.
The company is in talks with two business partners in India to distribute Mistine products there, said president Danai Derojanawong.
Negotiations are expected to be finalised by the end of this year. Mistine's beauty business will be initiated online in India.
"We recently participated in a cosmetics fair in India to showcase our business to the locals," Mr Danai said. "The response was better than expected. Indians quite like Thai products, not only cosmetics but also other consumer goods. Thai products have a good reputation in terms of quality."
The Indian market is attractive because of its large population, healthy economy and high purchasing power, he said.
Mr Danai said Indians are the third-largest tourist buyer group for Mistine shops across Thailand after the Chinese and the Vietnamese.
Mistine sales in Thailand were 14.6 billion baht in 2018. Some 70% of total sales came from foreign tourists. Of the sales from foreign tourists, 70% were from China, 15% from Vietnam, 5% from India and 10% from other countries.
Mr Danai said the company has been trying to explore business opportunities in new countries to diversify risk and reduce heavy reliance on only one country.
"Mistine sales in China fared quite well the past four years," he said. "There was a slight hiccup last year after the Chinese government introduced a new import tax rule for cross-border purchases. To address this difficulty, the company shifted to focus more on producing Mistine products in China."
At the beginning of April last year, the Chinese government introduced a new import tax rule for cross-border purchases. Customers who are shopping cross-border have to pay import VAT and consumption tax, replacing the old "parcel tax" system that applied to goods ordered from abroad.
In the domestic market, Better Way plans to spend 700 million baht this year to expand its business. Of the total, 500 million baht will be used for marketing activities, with 200 million baht to open seven new Mistine shops, including at Iconsiam, The Mall Bangkapi, Central Rama IX and Terminal 21 Pattaya, totalling 27 shops by year-end.
Abroad, the company will spend 40 million baht to open a Mistine flagship store at Superbrand Mall in Beijing.
Better Way recently reduced production time from under four months to only two months to respond faster to customer demand.
"Sales of Mistine beauty in the first quarter of this year returned to 26% growth," Mr Danai said. "We are also confident that sales of Mistine in China will reach 5 billion baht this year, up from 4 billion last year, while sales of Mistine in the domestic market are expected to grow by 3% to 14.6 billion baht this year."