Sermsuk says it has become a role model for other businesses thanks to its efforts to calculate, reduce and offset its greenhouse-gas emissions. The company can now label Crystal drinking water and est Cola with prestigious “Carbon Footprint” and “Carbon Footprint Reduction” labelling, as approved by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation and Thailand Environment Institute under the Federation of Thai Industries.
Sermsuk joined the carbon-footprint-reduction project after a review by the Excellence Centre of Eco-Energy, Department of Chemical Engineering, Thammasat University.
Two of Sermsuk’s projects received the right to use the “Carbon Footprint” label. Its Pathum Thani plant received “Corporate Carbon Footprint Certification” for reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as acting in a responsible and environmentally sustainable manner. The new labels on Crystal drinking water and est Cola represent Sermsuk’s pledge to be transparent about its carbon footprint.
Sermsuk says it is continuing to extend the carbon-footprint project to maximise its carbon-emission reduction and promote environmental conservation, expanding the project to six plants nationwide. The company will also apply carbon-footprint labelling to other Sermsuk products in the near future.
It says these initiatives will position Sermsuk as a driving force in making Thailand a “low-carbon society” and to meet targets to decrease greenhouse-gas emissions by 20-25 per cent by 2030. This is in response to pledges the prime minister made at the 21st Conference of Parties on Climate Change in December last year.

“It is a worrying fact of life in Thailand – and in many Asian countries – that many children do not wear helmets when travelling on motorcycles with their parents,” Goetz Bauer, general manager of the Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa explained.
Figures showed that less than 7 per cent of Thai children wear helmets when riding on motorbikes with their parents. This means that every day more than 93 per cent of Thai children across the country are risking their lives while travelling to and from school.
In order to address this alarming statistic, 14 of Hua Hin’s top hotels joined forces recently to organise the “Helmet Extravaganza” – a CSR event aimed at saving the lives of young people in Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan Province.
Hotels taking part in the initiative included Hyatt Regency Hua Hin, Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa, Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa, Sheraton Hua Hin Resort & Spa, InterContinental Hua Hin, Anantara Hua Hin Resort & Spa, Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin, Dusit Thani Hua Hin, Chiva-Som International, Putahracsa Hua Hin, SO Sofitel Hua Hin, G Hua Hin Resort & Mall, Banyan The Resort Hua Hin, and Amari Hua Hin.
Bauer said there were many reasons for neglecting safety, but often it was simply that children do not have a helmet to wear.
“By donating more than 1,000 helmets to local students, we could be potentially saving the lives of 1,115 children. This is a truly incredible thought, and I can think of no more worthwhile activity to be part of,” Bauer added.
The extravaganza took part at The Wave, the large outdoor event venue at the Hyatt Regency in Hua Hin. An estimated 500 people attended, including schoolchildren, hotel representatives and members of the media.
These hotels also welcomed hundreds of local children for an entertaining event aimed at delivering the message of motorcycle safety.
The hotels as well as Hua Hin Palm Orchid Homes, Hua Hin Business Network, the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin and the Da Vinci International School donated the helmets to students, who later took part in fun activities such as painting and personalising their helmets.
“As we are the leading hotels in Hua Hin, we realise that we are playing a vital role in the corporate social responsibilities for our local community especially about the safety of children,” Christian Wurm, general manager of Hyatt Regency Hua Hin and The Barai, said.
“The combined CSR event by 14 hotels in Hua Hin is comprehensive proof to show that together we can make a bigger impact to save children’s lives in Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan province,” he said.

Chairman Nopporn Khemmanan said the company had seen it as essential to increase capacity because it had other product lines apart from pure coconut water, making the current capacity of 1.2 million cans per month overloaded.
To support the new factory, Mega Solution & Consult will increase registered capital to between Bt20 million and Bt25 million by the end of this year, from Bt1 million currently.
Nopporn founded the company last year with the objective of having his own product and brand to help manage the supply of coconuts through contract farming.
Thailand is well known for its coconuts, and coconut water is in high demand from foreigners, which is something he noticed while working as a consumer-products trader for five years.
The company has signed contract-farming agreements with 13 coconut farms, and it plans to ink deals with an additional 25 farms to support the extra capacity made available through the new factory, construction of which is expected to take 12 months.
Sales revenue is expected to grow 30 to 40 per cent after the new facility is up and running, he said.
Currently, his company generates more than Bt10 million in revenue from the export market.
Normally, there is a seasonal coconut shortage during April and May, but having sufficient contract farmers supplying the company will guarantee there is no disruption of exports to Europe – the first market to which his canned pure coconut water was sold.
With the European market located so far from Thailand, it has been crucial to devise product packaging that ensures that the pure coconut water has a shelf life of 12 months, he explained.
Mega Solution & Consult has expanded its export market to Liaoning province and Xishuangbanna autonomous region in China over the past 10 months, as Chinese consumers like drinking coconut water.
Nopporn believes his canned pure coconut water has received a good welcome not least because it is easier to access the drink than by cracking open a coconut shell.
Buyers in these two parts of China now contribute 70 per cent of the company’s overall sales revenue.
The chairman said his company had also been contacted by hotels and tourist attractions in Thailand about supplying Co-O-Fresh canned pure coconut water, which he sees a welcome development as he wants Thais to consume the product too, and not just foreign customers.
Co-O-Fresh will start to be sold in some Thai hotels and tourist attractions early next year. “If we have more markets, it means we can help increase revenue for several coconut farmers. Even though at first we had no plan to sell our product within Thailand, if Thai people like our product, then we are happy,” he said.
However, he has no plan to sell Co-O-Fresh in modern trade outlets or convenience stores in Thailand.

This is something that gripped the imagination of a creative young man, who has come up with a customer-experience application to facilitate such communication.
About three years ago, Pramote Keeratikriengkrai spent Bt350 on a dish of Thailand’s famous Phat Thai at a restaurant in Bangkok, but was unimpressed with both the service and the quality of the food he received.
He wondered, “How could this happen? Did the owners know about my feelings, and how could I tell them [about my dissatisfaction]?”
This got him thinking about a means of helping consumers share information with business owners about their experience and impressions in real time, regardless of whether they want to complain or offer positive feedback.
“I would say that I’m a businessman who came up with an idea to deal with this problem. I asked some IT friends to create something from the idea I had, and they eventually came up with an application, Zervid, which I call a customer-experience solution,” he said.
Pramote, managing director of the newly established Zervid.com, completed development of the application a few months ago and it is now being trialled at several clients, including a university and a hospital.
Zervid’s motto is “Keep Customer’s Voice Closely”, empowering business owners to learn about and respond to customer feedback in real time, in order to manage their operations and customer satisfaction more efficiently.
Service is the most valued aspect of any business, more so than product or location, he said, adding that many people do not even ask about product quality, and simply buy something because of a company’s good service or reputation.
Good service and good impression, however, are things that can be shared and spread online in today’s digital age, as nearly everyone now has at least one smart personal device, he said.
Pramote explained that the app would serve as a “middle virtual tool”, enabling direct communication between business owners and customers.
Once a business owner has the app, they can show it to customers and invite them to register.
If they want to send feedback, they just make a quick registration via a smart phone or other device, providing their gender and age, and their service rating on a five-level scale ranging from bad to good.
Customers can also add optional details of the nature of any complaint or dissatisfaction, all of which will reach owners in real time.
With the Zervid app, owners can monitor feedback from customers anywhere, anytime without having to wait for a manager or other staff member to inform them.
This will also enable them to monitor the overall sentiment about their service, and customers’ thoughts about their whole operation, Pramote said.
Consumer data can then be analysed by gender, age or the nature of complaints.
Moreover, business owners can then offer some sort discount or voucher for their next purchase to customers providing feedback via the app, he added.
Zervid.com has decided to provide the application for Bt36,000 per year to business owners.
Based on the business-to-business model, the company also offer customers related services such as creative website design, system maintenance and digital consultancy.
Additional tailor-made solutions are also negotiable, the managing director said.
In the future, he said the company planned to extend the use of the app to other businesses, such as operators in the residential, food, beauty, health, fashion and travel sectors.
“I have just started with only 10 per cent of my vision, with a total investment of Bt300,000. My path is still a long one. I’m eager to help business owners get the best customer solution, and also help consumers to voice their needs directly,” Pramote said.
Aside from working on the application, he also runs a website, www.gujaruay.com, which is a digital content provider broadcasting through most online platforms.
With experience in marketing, public relations and magazine-writing, he is now “a freelancer seeking more opportunity”, he added.

With an initial investment cost of Bt2 million, Toybies currently has a shop in The Walk Ratchaphruek and a showroom/office on Phahonyothin 33 in Bangkok, while also distributing its products through bookstore chains, including B2S and SE-ED Book Centre.
After studying demand in Vietnam, the Thai company is convinced of the strong potential for Toybies to expand into the neighbouring market,said managing director Settapong Jintanaphan.
“To open a shop in Vietnam will serve as a centre for us to reach customers directly, as well as through online trading [which it does currently], as it should increase confidence among those using the shop, which will be a showroom where we can take care of our customers,” he said.
The Toybies store in Vietnam will be opened in conjunction with a stationery outlet, with the company having earmarked Bt800,000 to Bt1 million for setting up and launching the operation.
Settapong added that the company had already engaged three local employees in Ho Chi Minh to prepare information on market trends and oversee construction of the outlet, which is expected to open early next year.
He said that with a growing population, especially among the young, and higher spending power, Vietnamese parents would be the company’s main target group.
In terms of overseas sales, |Toybies has until now traded its products online, with many of |its customers being from Vietnam and other Asean countries, he| said.
Besides Vietnam, the company is interested in expanding its business to Indonesia, Singapore and Myanmar, with such an expansion drive leaving it confident that sales can be doubled each year, he said.
Since establishing the business three years ago, the company’s sales have grown strongly and domestic revenue has doubled every year, he added.
The company plans to make Toybies a well-known educational-toy brand in Thailand, Asean and more widely in Asia within the |next three to five years, Settapong said.
Its products have also been shipped to Hong Kong, while sales through online shopping are made via the company’s website on Facebook, Twitter as well as Instagram.
With experience in kindergarten business through his wife’s family, Settapong established Toybies to produce educational toys in response to young children’s needs, and as teaching materials.
The company has eight researchers to create educational toys for six-month-old babies through to six-year-old children.
Its products range from toys for use at home to items and materials suitable for kids learning at kindergarten level.
Products under the Toybies brand include 3D Wall Stickers, Jumbo Jigsaws, learning Flash Cards, 3D Mosaic Art and skill toys.

Kanthapat Nutapotipun, chief marketing officer of Roojai.com, said it offered a new option for vehicle owners to buy coverage at a competitive price any time and anywhere.
“You buy the insurance policies on your mobile phone or desktop computer.
“ We offer full coverage by Krung Thai Panich Insurance Co, a unit of Krungthai Bank. You can do it yourself online in terms of choosing a tailor-made policy to suit your needs.
“As an insurance tech start-up, our system takes just a few seconds to calculate the insurance premiums based on your inputs so that you can compare our prices with others’ in the market.
“For example, you may choose to buy Type 1 coverage with an option to repair your vehicle at the car companies’ in-house garages when there is an accident or you may just for repair at authorised garages [which is cheaper].
“Instead of having to deal with salespersons on the phone, you can take time to make your choice on insurance coverage any time around the clock whenever it’s convenient for you.
“Our price is competitive and you get the coverage immediately after buying the policy online. You can also pay the premiums in 10 instalments with no interest charge using credit cards.
“When you have an accident, just go to the Roojai mobile app to get speedy service, as the platform can monitor your location via GPS [Global Positioning System]. You can also track the location of our claims personnel in real time as they head towards your location.
“Usually, it takes about 30 minutes for one of our representatives to get to a road-accident site in Bangkok and other urban areas of the provinces.
“As an insuretech, we aim to use technology to serve customers better from start to end. Every part of our service will have customer feedback, from buying the insurance policies to waiting for our claims personnel to get to the accident site and afterwards.
“Previously, vehicle owners had fewer choices on buying insurance policies. Usually, they’re tied to one insurance broker year after year. Now, our solution gives customers more choice in terms of premium comparison and other features.
“Using our platform, we know the car makes, drivers’ ages and other personal data, which are used to calculate the premiums instantly. You can also compare prices quoted by multiple insurance firms.
“Besides the claims service, we also offer emergency roadside services when customers’ vehicles break down or they have other urgent problems needing emergency assistance.
“We launched Roojai.com in April. In just a few months, our online sales have jumped to more than Bt25 million, opening up a new channel to market auto-insurance policies.
“As a start-up, we focus on customer feedback, as you can see on our site the various comments on the quality of service and customer satisfaction.
“Most feedback has been positive so far, scoring 4 out of 5 in terms of customer satisfaction.
“We use digital technology to gauge customer feedback right after they buy the policies, after they get the claims service and so forth.
As a result, we have a relatively high score of 84 per cent on net promoters, meaning most customers would share their good experience in social media such as Facebook to encourage others to use our service.”

Some observers of the telecom industry see this team-up between the largest cellular operator, AIS, and the second-largest, DTAC, as a way of competing against the fast-rising and third-largest player, True Corp.
All three operators recently made VoLTE available to their subscribers, but initially only for calls within their own network. The technology enables high-quality voice connections and high-definition video calls.
Sitthichoke Nopchinabutr, DTAC chief marketing officer, and Titipong Khiewpaisal, AIS senior vice president for consumer marketing and sales, issued a joint statement yesterday about the move. They said it marked a significant collaboration offering VoLTE service between two telecom leaders for the first time not only in Thailand but also Asean.
True chief commercial officer Kittinut Tikawan said yesterday that VoLTE was an international standard that should be equally accessible by all consumers. True is confident that in the near future the company will be able to strike a similar collaboration with both AIS and DTAC, he added.
The team-up between AIS and DTAC is also expected to pave the way for the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in Thailand by all three operators this month. The two new iPhones support VoLTE technology.
AIS and DTAC customers with compatible mobile devices can call each other via VoLTE from anywhere in the country where 4G is available and will experience premium-quality voice and video calls for the same price as a regular phone call. The service is available for both prepaid and contracted customers.
AIS-DTAC VoLTE voice calls became available yesterday, while video calls will be available from next Tuesday.

Repayment of the BOEs came due as the media company struggles with a vacuum in its top management structure after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order to ban eight NMG directors.
Ratch Sodsatit, managing director of Asset Plus, said it had purchased Bt50 million worth of NMG’s BOEs from its Asset Plus Fixed Income Fund (ASP) and another Bt50 million from Asset Plus AI Fixed Income Fund 1 (ASP-AIF1) as a way to avoid adverse impacts on investors.
The two funds had earlier invested in the BOEs, which expired on Wednesday.
On October 6, eight former NMG board members were banned by the SEC from holding directorships or executive positions in any listed companies.
The ban has affected NMG’s business and routine operations, as most of the eight directors were also executives of the company.
Ratch said Asset Plus had purchased the BOEs that expired on October 12 to prevent impacts on investors arising from the vacuum in NMG’s top management structure. As a result of the move, neither the ASP nor ASP-AIF1 fund has exposure to these fixed-income instruments, which should ease investors’ concerns about a possible repayment default by NMG.

Extraordinary shareholders’ meeting
He said Asset Plus believed that NMG could expedite an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to finalise the appointment of executive directors prior to the repayment deadline for another BOE issue that ASP AIF2 has invested in.
That repayment is due on March 8, 2017.
NMG has scheduled a special shareholders’ meeting for November 7.
Ratch said NMG was viewed as having healthy financial status with the ability to meet its debt obligations. However, the fund could see lower net asset value for a period in line with the SEC’s watch-and-see principle in a case of fixed income’s default by an issuer. Based on this principle, all funds that invest in such fixed income are required to book zero in its market value.
“In the NMG case, Asset Plus views this difficulty for inability for repayment as an impact from none of the authorised power only, given NMG’s strong financial status and ability for debt repayment,” Ratch said.
He said Asset Plus still adhered to good investment standards and principles with close monitoring of the financial status of the companies it invests in.
When an unexpected difficulty arises that affects the financial instruments Asset Plus funds invest in, the company prudently sets measures to cope with the case and stands ready to solve immediate problems instantly to relieve impacts on investors for their maximum benefit, he said.
After NMG informed the Stock Exchange of Exchange that the company would hold Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting No 1/2016 on November 7, the exchange cancelled suspension signs posted earlier on securities of NMG, Nation Broadcasting Corporation and Nation International Edutainment during yesterday’s morning session.
The meeting agenda includes the appointments of eight directors to replace those suspended by the SEC. and amendment of directors’ authorisation.

By linking their AirAsia BIG member account to their Line account, they can access end-to-end booking and Manage My Booking functions identical to those on airasia.com and the AirAsia mobile app.
AirAsia BIG members who link their accounts will also receive exclusive deals as well as 100 AirAsia BIG Points, subject to conditions.
Malaysian and Indonesian AirAsia BIG members will have access to the same payment options as on the website and mobile app, while Thai members will make use of Line Pay.
Those who are not AirAsia BIG members can join for free at airasia.com.
Siegtraund Teh, chief commercial officer for AirAsia Group, said yesterday that the company is always looking for new ways to improve the booking experience for its guests, especially on social media.
“Through this partnership with Line, the company hopes to create a more seamless flow from offer to booking while giving our guests additional payment options.”
AirAsia is Asia’s largest low-cost carrier by passengers carried and jet fleet, with unmatched frequencies and some 60 unique routes within Asean.
A pioneer in travel and technology, AirAsia offers a wide range of innovative products such as mobile app, extensive self-service options, in-flight Wi-Fi, interactive travel guides, premium coffee, online duty-free shopping, Premium Flex and Fly-Thru.

This was in the late 1950s. I was returning from Hong Kong, where I had been studying, and the name on my passport was the Chinese name given to me by my father. After the Communist Party took power, China’s relations with the staunchly anti-communist Thai government deteriorated. Thailand started restricting immigration from China and urged those of Chinese descent born in Thailand to change their names from Chinese ones to something more Thai-sounding.
The person who named me Dhanin was a civil servant working at Thailand’s immigration bureau. I had no idea what the name meant, but it didn’t sound bad and I took a liking to it. My new name was not something I asked for, but rather something that came to me by chance, and I have used it ever since.
The family name of Chearavanont was first used by my third-oldest brother, Sumet. His Chinese name was XieZhongmin, and like me, he had been told to change it when he returned home from China. I decided to use the same family name he did.

From the bottom up
While I was studying in Swatow (Shantou), Guangzhou and Hong Kong, the family business in Bangkok was growing. Chia Tai, founded by my father, started out as a seed shop. My uncle managed the store in his absence, and in the years since I had left, it had become a large retailer handling not only seeds but also fertiliser and pesticides.
My oldest brother, Jaran, and next-oldest brother, Montri, had finished their studies in China’s Sichuan province and returned to Bangkok. In 1953, my oldest brother launched a feed business. |The thinking was to expand the scope of family business while maintaining its focus on agriculture. He called his company Charoen Pokphand Store.
It was his wife’s foster father, a Thai general, who named the new business. “Charoen” is a Thai word meaning prosperity, while “pokphand” indicates farm produce and goods for the masses.
We continued to use the name of the seed store, Chia Tai, for the original business, and the Chinese characters that inspired it were later reused for the name of the CP Group as a whole in its Chinese operations.
By the time I returned from Hong Kong, CP had grown into a mid-size company. I became involved in the feed business under my two brothers. We primarily sold corn, soybean meal, crushed rice and fish meal as feed for chickens and hogs. We had a small factory but were not yet mixing feed ourselves.
My father told me, “In any job, work your way up from the bottom.” Having just turned 18-years-old, I began as a junior shop assistant doing such basic tasks as opening and closing the store and wiping|the counters. I was also given responsibility for receipts and expenditures, which involved receiving money and paying bills. I hadn’t studied business management |at school. Everything I learned |came from actual, on-the-job experience.
Each morning, an old truck would pull up in front of our store, procure feed ingredients and transport |them to a factory. I wanted to |know what the feed business was |all about, so I got up early one morning and went on a small trip with |the truck. I was able to observe the entire process of making feed, from obtaining the raw materials to processing them into finished products. At the factory, I also saw how the feed was managed.
By the time I returned to the store, it was exactly 8 am, time for me to open up shop and set about my daily duties.

Dhanin Chearavanont is chairman of the Charoen Pokphand Group.
This is the tenth of a 30-part series of “My Personal History” by Dhanin Chearavanont.
Reprint with permission from The Nikkei Asian Review.