AMPOL EXPANDS EXPORT FOCUS

       Popularity of Thai restaurants abroad leads food processing company to stretch its overseas goals, writes Walailak Keeratipipatpong

       The rising number of restaurants serving Thai food abroad reflects the popularity of Thai cuisine,which has also fed large exports of ingredients and food from Thailand in recent years.
       About 15,000 Thai food restaurants operate around the world and their number shows steady growth, according to a report from the Commerce Ministry.
       The appeal of Thai food is expected to help export revenue from ready-toeat and ready-to-cook products to pass 330 billion baht this year, out of an estimated 722 billion baht in food exports.
       The sector's export growth has lured many Thai food companies, including Ampol Food Processing Co, to map out expansion plans for more countries.
       "We have set an ambitious goal to distribute products to 65 countries by next year, up from 20 at present," says managing director Kriengsak Theppadungporn.
       The company's key product lines Chaokoh coconut milk, V-Fit beverages and the new Roi Thai ready-to-cook curries - all are in UHT packages that have established themselves strongly in Asian markets.
       New markets in the pipeline include Europe and the United States, where the company has sought permission from the Food and Drug Administration to sell its ready-to-cook lines.
       Roi Thai will be a leading brand for new markets, to which more varieties of curry and soup base will be added including ready-to-cook tom yum ,tom kha (tom yum-like mild-coconut milk soup with galangal), rice noodles in fish curry sauce - on top of ready-to-cook red, green and yellow curry soup, peanut curry soup and massaman curry soup.
       "A lot of our consumers have a fondness for the hot and spicy taste of Thai curries, but we tend to customise the tastes for a mass market's acceptance,"he said.
       Traditional shops and grocery stores will be the company's key focus rather than newer trade channels, said Mr Kriengsak.
       Ampol's strategy is to reposition itself as a maker of ready-to-cook food, rather than a ready-to-eat processor or a supplier of food ingredients. The expansion
       could also raise income from exports to equal that from domestic sales in the near future.
       Ampol Food reported 1.4 billion baht in sales in 2008, of which 30%was derived from exports.Kriengsak: Plan to To support the ship to 65 countries new business positioning, the company plans to set up a new company,Ampol Food and Beverage Co, and to invest about 300-400 million baht in building a manufacturing plant to process ready-to-cook products, said marketing manager Kritsada Sopa.
       The plant, on an 80-rai plot in Ratchaburi, will be Ampol's most modern food and beverage production facility.
       "The compound will be a venue for us to showcase coconut and coconutbased food industries. We will try to establish a demonstration plantation for all coconut varieties in the area," said Mr Kritsada.
       The new plant will support research and innovation from the company's new 180-million-baht research and development centre in Nakhon Pathom,which is designed to host research into new food and beverage products by several food institutes and universities.
       The centre will help add more cereal and health drinks to the brown rice milk and corn milk produced at the firm's current facilities.
       One product in the production pipeline is an energy drink similar to current market leaders such as Gatorade.
       Ampol Food and its parent company, Theppadungporn, are market leaders in Thailand's coconut milk industry. The Chaokoh brand controls about 70% shares of local business while the remaining shares go to the Aroy-Dee and Tip brands.
       To help explore export markets,the company has teamed up with government agencies on roadshows and exhibitions abroad, said Mr Kritsada. The events allow the company to make market surveys, and look at consumer habits and product preferences in each market it visits, he said.
       "For example, we learned that even though there are more than 3,000 Thais living largely in Johannesburg and Cape Town, our real customers for the products there are not Thais but foreigners," he said.
       "In Laos, Roi Thai red curry soup is the best seller while Japanese consumers prefer green curry."
       Ampol Food has yet to set up representative offices overseas. Mr Kriengsak said he would rather strengthen the foreign market team to increase export activities.