“Within three years, this new business will be contributing at least 50 per cent of our total income, from an estimated 15 per cent by the end of this year,” RS chief operating officer Pornpan Techarungchaikul said yesterday.

She said the Thai beauty and personal-care segment was worth Bt56 billion and was growing by about 6-8 per cent a year on average.

“Despite the sluggish economy, consumers are continuing to spend on beauty and personal healthcare products to enhance their appearance as well as their health,” she said.

Pornpan said her marketing team had seen the tremendous opportunity in this segment after examining the lists of clients and advertisers on its flagship digital-TV station Channel 8 and satellite-based free-to-air Channel 2. About 40 per cent were in the business of beauty and personal-care products.

Late last year, Life Star, with initial registered capital of Bt100 million, began selling products via teleshopping on Channels 8 and 2.

Chakrit Pichyangkul, managing director of Life Star, said: “We have had satisfactory feedback from this channel [teleshopping]. So we need more distribution channels, particularly in retail stores such as Watsons and EveAndBoy.”

Life Star is planning to introduce four products targeting premium consumers who are looking for beauty products priced from Bt300 to Bt2,000. They are Magique anti-ageing cream, Gravitas facial-lifting cream, Revive hair-loss-control serum, and Noble White, a whitening product. With these four products, the company aims for total sales revenue of Bt600 million by the end of this year.

It also expects to earn additional revenue from other new products.

“The net margin from this business is quite high, about 25 per cent,” Chakrit said.

Life Star has earmarked about Bt200 million to advertise those brands this year.

Pornpan said this diversification aimed to spread risk while the digital-TV business is facing intense competition from strong rivals amid a sluggish economy.

Next month, RS, which is ranked No 5 in the TV broadcasting business, will undertake a major revamp at Channel 8 to stimulate audience attention and attract more revenue. RS targets Bt4.5 billion in revenue this year.