In a press release on Thursday, OfficeMate said it has adopted smart technologies in the management of its warehouse and delivery facilities in order to provide accurate, precise, fast and more efficient services in line with international standards.

The company is continually growing and aims to become a leader in B2B E-Commerce offering convenience to all levels of business clients through an omnichannel strategy.

Worawoot Ounjai, Chief Executive Office of COL Public Company Limited, said that during 2014 – 2018, OfficeMate continued to grow at 9 per cent per annum. In 2018, Significantly, online sales surged by 23 per cent, representing a quarter of total sales.

The buoyant growth was driven by the development of an online platform whose functions meet the shopping lifestyles of B2B customers. OfficeMate “Chat & Shop” or shopping via Line: @OfficeMate also boosted online sales, acting like a personal assistant to entrepreneurs and the purchasing units of enterprises. In addition, OfficeMate focused on E-ordering @ Store, which accounted for 12 per cent of total store sales. In this digital era, OfficeMate has found that customers prefer an omnichannel shopping experience, with 21 per cent of consumers purchasing products through more than one channel, accounting for half of the total sales.

Wilawan Rerkriengkrai, President, OfficeMate Business at COL PCL, added that for the next 5 years (2019 – 2023), OfficeMate has set a growth target of 15 per cent per annum. Following its business plan based on the concept of “Go Further. Go Faster”, OfficeMate is helping to move forward Central Group’s strategy of becoming a leading Digi-Lifestyle Platform.

Today, OfficeMate is gearing up its full range of operations to take the leadership in the B2B Solutions market with outstanding services in the form of an omnichannel.

OfficeMate has taken part in driving Thailand’s economy with its investment of more than Bt1 billion to build the new smart warehouse. This is located on Suwinthawong Road in Chachoengsao Province, which is part of the EEC project under the Thailand 4.0 model.

Using advanced technology and innovations, the new smart warehouse will upgrade service quality to deliver a better experience to corporate customers and SMEs.

Naritta Vipulyasekha, business manager for Nescafe Coffee Mixes, Nestle (Thai) Ltd, said the company is “taking the lead to elevate the coffee-mix market to the next level” with the launch of a new version of Nescafe Blend & Brew.

“It’s the first-ever finely ground roasted coffee mix innovation made from Arabica and Robusta, two types of coffee beans. New Nescafe Blend & Brew uses a proprietary encapsulation technology that captures and protects the full-bodied flavour and aroma of genuine roasted coffee,” Naritta said.

She said the product has been reformulated to meet the changing preferences of Thai consumers.

“The new Nescafe Blend & Brew delivers a perfect cup that combines the complementary flavours of smooth Arabica and intense Robusta coffee beans offering a better and irresistible aroma and improved taste,” Naritta said.

“We think intense competition is a great opportunity for us. It shows that the coffee market has high potential and consumers remain very interested in coffee.

“Nescafe sees a lot of potential for us to respond to consumer needs as we have many product formats and channels to reach consumers. We are constantly bringing new innovations to the Thai market, such as a new version of Nescafe Blend & Brew, and Nescafe Hub.”

Naritta said that the key challenge for Nescafe in operating a coffee business in Thailand is the changing trends in coffee consumption among coffee drinkers. They are becoming more sophisticated from being exposed to a greater number of out-of-home coffee chains, both local and international.

“There are many more choices of coffee in the Thai market,” she said. “Our aim as market leader is to keep up to date on local market trends and respond to changing consumer needs. We strive to move early on opportunities so we can offer innovative products and services that best meet consumer expectations, and offer products that fit every consumer lifestyle and every occasion for drinking coffee.

“We will continue to strengthen our brand to build on our leading market share of 52.9 per cent in the coffee-mix segment. This includes continuous product launches and ongoing promotions to keep the Nescafe brand at the top of consumers’ minds, while developing the best and most innovative products and services in the Thai market to meet consumers’ changing demands.”

Naritta said the company’s ambition is to continually strengthen its leadership position and be the coffee brand that consumers love the most.

“The goal for our coffee business is to surpass overall market growth, just as we did last year. For the medium to long term, Nescafe will keep introducing new products and services so we have something to offer consumers for every coffee-drinking occasion,” she said.

Naritta said that the coffee market segment grew by just over 4 per cent in 2018. The company expected that growth will be around the same this year.

“We aim to have higher growth than the overall market again this year,” she said.

Nescafe has allocated Bt1.2 billion for an integrated marketing communications campaign featuring new Nescafe Blend & Brew co-brand ambassadors Thanawat (Pope) Wattanaputi and Jirayu (James Ji) Tangsrisuk. Promotional activities include a “Battle to be the Best” performance featuring the two stars and handing out 10 million sample cups of new Nescafe Blend & Brew to consumers nationwide.

The product is now in variants including Rich Aroma, Espresso Roast, Less Sugar, and No Table Sugar.

The US$20-million funding was led by Mirae Asset-Naver Growth Fund and other strategic partners, such as LINE Ventures, Singha Ventures and Grab Ventures.

The proceeds of the funding will be used for both city and country expansion, as well as investment into technology and to further support growing the team in a number of specialist functions such as data science, and omnichannel technology.

Talking about the latest funding, Guillem Segarra, CEO, HappyFresh said, “Our primary focus lies on expanding our geo-footprint across the region, investing in the latest technology to drive innovation, and hiring top tier talent to fuel that development.

Our commitment towards the region continues to revolve around further developing the retail industry as a whole, drive social impact across the value chain and create entirely new job opportunities to enable the rapidly evolving consumer trends.

The press release said from innovations at farm level to the supermarket revolution, Asia’s food systems are undergoing a significant transformation and we’re at the centre of it in Southeast Asia.

Everything that we see in our day to day tell us that in the near future everyone in Southeast Asia will buy their groceries online and we’re very confident SEA will lead the way. The grocery business and the consumer verticals are ripe with HappyFresh poised for growth.”

Segarra said, “Moving forward, we will continue to invest in our technology and our data infrastructure. We believe that one of our advantages in the digital world is the ability to build highly efficient, personalized services and that’s the direction.

We have set the foundations to lead in the data revolution as we start designing information-fueled solutions that gather data from purchases made online and enable us to forecast product demand, offering personalized experience across all digital channels and platforms, efficiently coordinating supply and delivery with on demand services – under one hour and moving towards real time/on demand deliveries.

We are pioneering the usage of machine learning algorithms to offer a unique and personalized experience for the grocery journey. Really exciting times!”

HappyFresh has seen exponential growth since its beginning in 2015, being 2018 its best year thus far – a reflection of the rapid increase of the demand for the grocery use case. Growth in the middle class, seek for convenience and personalized service and a great offering when it comes to value for money made HappyFresh a successful service across young professionals and busy families.

The market penetration will be enhanced through a range of technology-driven marketing solutions.

The new partnership will leverage the respective strengths of VGI and iClick to provide brands across Southeast Asia business opportunities and deepen their engagement with the large and growing customer base in China.

Together the firms will generate significant cross-border marketing opportunities through a suite of mobile and new media products. These include an AI-powered mobile application that generates personalised digital content based on users’ interests and preferences, allowing brands to target consumers more effectively with highly granular segmentation. Also featured are a range of so-called China Solutions – marketing intelligence tools, social, and mobile solutions offering clients in-depth insights into the Chinese market based on iClick’s 780 million consumer profiles while also enabling clients to target consumers across different channels in China, especially the significant number of Chinese outbound travellers.

Finally so-called O2O Solutions -have 10,000 new mobile charging stations with the ability to display marketing messages that will be introduced and placed throughout VGI’s network across Thailand, in prominent locations such as BTS SkyTrain stations and the distribution centres of Kerry Express, a leading parcel delivery company in Thailand.

Nelson Leung, CEO of VGI, said, “This collaboration represents an exciting new digital development in Thailand, as well as the entire Southeast Asia region. We are delighted to join forces with iClick, strategically combining our strengths and unlocking the potential of our companies to improve our influence and market share within the region. Through iClick’s expertise in digital market analysis and knowledge of the markets in China and more widely in Asia, we will be better positioned to offer targeted, customized and measurable marketing solutions to our customers. We will also continue to expand our O2O solutions to meet the demands of the ever-growing Chinese market.”

Sammy Hsieh, Co-founder and CEO of iClick, added, “By offering a variety of innovative solutions, this joint venture will strengthen both VGI’s and iClick’s footprint within the region’s digital market. With the fast-changing demands of consumers, the capability to offer effective, flexible and targeted products and services is vital to the success of the future of advertising. We are confident that this strategic alliance with VGI will create even greater and more innovative marketing platforms for brands in the region, and open doors to many new business and investment opportunities between our companies going forward.”

The joint venture will address the significant potential of the Southeast Asia market. China is ranked the top country in the world for the number of outbound travellers, with nearly 150 million outbound trips made by Chinese travellers in 2017. The most popular destination for these travellers was Thailand, followed by Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Chinese outbound travellers also exhibit a strong propensity to spend while abroad. This group spent US$258 billion in 2017, contributing 21 per cent of global total spending while abroad, making China the top country in this metric. The joint venture has also identified opportunities not limited to the travel sector, and plans to capture potential benefits in retail, consumer goods, healthcare and entertainment, among others.