The company, a subsidiary of Bangkok Glass Plc, will look for investment opportunities to expand its manufacturing portfolio of wall and ceiling products. It could be green-field investments, joint ventures or acquisitions.

“We [BGF] will look at any possible opportunity to expand our manufacturing portfolio for wall and ceiling products in the next three to five years,” said Supasin Leelarit, executive vice president for Group Construction Materials of Bangkok Glass Plc, and managing director of BGF.

He said the company expected its annual sales revenue to reach at least Bt6 billion before deciding to list on the stock market, and that could take three to five years.

The company recorded Bt1.5 billion in total sales last year.

“We have set our business ambition to become a leading provider of total wall and ceiling solutions,” said Supasin, adding that all wall and ceiling-relevant products will be under the “BGF” umbrella brand.

He said the structure was quite similar to SCG, which is a leading provider of building structure and construction materials. However, there are no major players for providing wall and ceiling solutions in Thailand at the moment.

Supasin said that BGF had started manufacturing glass products at its factory in the Si Maha Phot district of Prachin Buri province in October 2017 with an investment of  about Bt5 billion. The setting up of the manufacturing facility, with an annual capacity at about 219,000 tonnes, including float and process glass products, is under a joint venture with Glas Trosch Holding AG, a giant glass manufacturer from Switzerland.

BGF currently has a 19 per cent market share in Thailand’s Bt12-billion basic glass market, which has seen an average growth of between 5 per cent and 6 per cent annually.

The company at the beginning of this year acquired Usam Inter Group and its aluminium extrusion facility in Nakhon Pathom province for Bt1 billion. The factory has the capacity to produce 1,200 tonnes of aluminium extrusion a month or at about 14,400 tonnes a year. The raw material for aluminium extrusion, called aluminium billets, are imported from many countries, including Dubai, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and China, and represents between 60 to 70 per cent of total manufacturing cost.

Supasin said that BGF currently exports 40 per cent of its glass products to many countries in the Asia Pacific, including South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam). Meanwhile, 100 per cent of aluminium extrusion products are distributed within Thailand.

“We are looking to export our aluminium extrusion products to potential markets, especially in CLMV. It includes setting up of facilities for the extrusion process for aluminium alloys in potential countries,” he said.

BGF expected its total sales to reach about Bt4 billion this year, of which half will be from basic glass products and the half from aluminium extrusions.