With the unexpected success of Ichitan ready-to-drink green tea in only its first year, owner Tan Passakornnatee says his achievement was inspired by the philanthropy of billionaire Warren Buffett and the hard work of the late Thiam Chokwatana, founder of Saha Group.
Tan Passakornnatee (left), owner and founder of Ichitan Group, and Suwat Thongrompo, president of SF Cinema City, celebrate the first anniversary of Ichitan green tea. The two companies are running a joint marketing campaign.
As of May 31, sales of Ichitan green tea were 2.8 billion baht, one year after the product was introduced.
The achievement ran ahead of Mr Tan's projections. When he pioneered Oishi green tea a decade ago, it took three years to get sales to the same level.
He sold Oishi to whisky tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and is now focused on Ichitan Group, dealing in both drinks and Japanese restaurants.
Mr Tan said his success came from his own marketing initiation as well as inspiration from his idols.
Mr Buffett is a model for Mr Tan in terms of philanthropy, while Dr Thiam made him believe in the benefits of hard work.
While Mr Buffett pledged to donate 85% of his Berkshire Hathaway fortune worth over US$40 billion to various social foundations, Mr Tan is committed to giving away 90% of the profits from Ichitan Group as social contributions by 2019.
Today, Mr Tan allocates 40% of his time for social work and activities. He travels the country as a guest lecturer at universities and private companies two or three times per week. He tells audiences about his inspirations and successes.
The people in his audience can number as many as 1,200 or as few as 20.
"I'm very tired with it sometimes, but it's part of Ichitan's brand-building without cost and the return I get from this is so huge," he said.
Mr Tan pronounces himself "very satisfied" with the performance of the Ichitan brand so far.
Consumer confusion between the Ichitan and Oishi brands is abating, and the number of customers sending in Ichitan caps to join the latest summer campaign is quite high.
"Though some customers still called our brand wrong, they didn't send the wrong caps to join our campaign," he said with a laugh.
To address growing demand, Ichitan spent 2 billion baht to install two new machines to double the capacity of Ichitan green tea at the factory in Rojana Industrial Park. The capacity of Ichitan will reach 270 million UHT packages and 400 million bottles per year.
The overall green tea market in the first four months of this year grew 42%, higher than in the past five years when average growth was 20%. The highest growth came during hot-weather and summer campaigns for Ichitan, Oishi and Puriku.
Thailand's ready-to-drink green tea market is expected to grow by 30% to 13 billion baht this year.
Mr Tan expects sales of 3 billion baht for green tea products and 500 million baht from the food business this year.
"We lost 200 million baht last year because of the floods," he said. "But we expect to clear all losses this year and to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2014."
Ichitan held 19.6% of the green tea market in the first four months of the year, trailing Oishi's 48.6%. Ichitan aims to raise its share to 25% by year-end.