“We target sales of Aim Thai personal-care products reaching Bt1 million a month during the course of 2017, from Bt200,000 per month currently, while spa products made under our clients’ brands will be maintained at Bt4 million a month,” executive director Jakraphong Buphaniroj told The Nation in a recent interview.
Jakraphong, 45, and his sister Satanunt Vinichwong, 43, who is the company’s product development and marketing director, changed their salaried-employee lives to become entrepreneurs after learning how to do business during roughly five years at a cosmetics firm and in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“My work at a cosmetics firm concerned planning and warehousing, while my sister worked on product research and development. She then resigned from the cosmetics company to join a pharmaceutical manufacturer and I followed suit to work there with her. Then, in 2003, my sister resigned from the pharmaceutical business to do business by herself,” he explained.
Satanunt started on this new career path by making spa products such as scrapes, soaps and lotions for spa shops, while Jakraphong helped run the business part-time after finishing work at the pharmaceutical company each day.
In 2003, his sister’s business generated income averaging Bt20,000 a month, and by 2009 monthly sales of her spa products had soared to Bt1 million.
Sales continued to expand and Jakraphong eventually decided to resign from his post at the pharmaceutical firm to go into business with his sister full-time, establishing Aqua Puri Laboratories with registered capital of Bt3 million.
“Our business saw strong growth to sales of Bt5 million a month until 2011, when the floods hit Bangkok and its suburbs and falling demand for spa products resulted in our monthly sales declining to Bt2 million.
“This inspired us to research and develop our own personal-care products under our Aim Thai brand, launching them in 2012,” Jakraphong said.
Sales of Aim Thai toothpaste, soaps and lotions averaged Bt10,000 a month in the first year, but then grew strongly every month to the point where the company was able to get a loan of Bt10 million from the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank) last year. The loan was guaranteed by the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation.
This has enabled the company to boost Aim Thai sales to Bt200,000 per month, while it also generates sales of around Bt4 million per month from spa products made for clients’ brands, he said.
This year, the company plans to invest Bt5 million thanks to the SME Bank loan, to double production capacity and expand its distribution channel to sell the Aim Thai personal-care range at the Tops supermarket chain from the end of the year.
Aqua Puri Laboratories also plans to export to Asean countries after receiving help from the Industrial Promotion Department of the Industry Ministry, with the initial focus on the neighbouring markets of Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia.
This is expected to boost Aim Thai sales to an average of Bt1 million per month next year, Jakraphong said.
“The key to our success in increasing sales of both personal-care products and spa products is our research and development of products to match what our customers demand, while we also have the best staff to support our business growth,” he added. The company has a workforce of 150.