Singha Corporation Co, the marketer of Singha drinking water, is raising its production capacity and preparing space to stock more water to cope with the anticipated drought in Thailand this year.
Thitiporn Thammabhimookul, Singha's marketing director for non-alcohol business, said the company expects a surge in drinking water consumption to accompany the likely drought.
Singha runs seven facilities for drinking water production countrywide with a combined production capacity of 1.5 billion litres a year.
"Our production utilisation runs at 80%," Mr Thitiporn said.
"We are ready to increase our capacity immediately if demand surges."
He said the expected drought and hot weather are expected to propel Thailand's drinking water market to continue growing at a double-digit pace this year.
"We project Singha drinking water sales to grow by 20%, outpacing the industry's average growth this year," said Mr Thitiporn.
He said the price war in the drinking water market intensified the past three years and will continue this year.
To avoid the price war, the company has adjusted its strategy by putting more focus on educating consumers about quality products and production.
Singha also plans to spend 200 million baht on marketing activities to boost sales.
It hired Thai heart-throb Nadech Kugimiya as brand presenter.
The company aims to increase its market share to 23% this year, up from 21% last year.
In 2018, Thailand's drinking water market was worth 36 billion baht, with sales of 3.3 billion litres, a 9.3% increase from 2017.
Of the total, 34.2 billion baht was drinking water in PET bottles, with the remaining 1.8 billion baht in glass packaging.
Singha claims market leadership for drinking water.
As of February it controlled a 21% share, followed by Sermsuk Plc's Crystal brand (20.6%), Nestle (15.2%), Namthip (8.3%), Chang (2.4%) and Pepsi-Cola Thai Trading's Aquafina (1.5%).