Omer Malik, chief executive officer of Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand) Co Ltd, recently announced a supply and partnership agreement with Major Cineplex Group Plc, Thailand’s leading lifestyles entertainment company, represented by Vicha Poolvaraluck, director and chairman.

As part of the five-year agreement until 2024, Pepsi-Cola, Mirinda, 7-Up and goodmood will be served at over 117 branches of Major Cineplex Group Cinemas nationwide, and with more being added in the future. This also includes a range of joint promotions and marketing activities, aiming to create a unique and exciting experience for its customers, he said.

Joint campaign to feature vouchers, airfares, massive points

The Mall Group, led by the general manager for corporate promotion, Nonglak Lohamanop, has joined forces with Voranuch Siratharanont, vice president of credit-card marketing for Bangkok Bank Plc, to launch the “Point Mission” campaign from April 25 to May 20 2019 at every branch of The Mall, Emporium, EmQuartier and Paragon department store. Every department on every floor will offer discounts up to 70 per cent.

Every Friday through Sunday throughout the campaign, customers receive a voucher up to Bt500 or a free roundtrip Bangkok-Hong Kong airfare from Cathay Pacific worth up to Bt8,000 when spent with Bangkok Bank according to conditions. M Card customers will receive up to 5,000 points.

The 26-day-long campaign is expected to generate at least Bt3.3 billion in sales revenue.

The company will also launch other promotional campaigns for the middle of the year.

HALLS XS debuts via Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition pack

The theme is “cool” as the company behind the intensely cooling Halls candy in Thailand joins hands with Marvel to celebrate Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame through an exclusive Halls XS Marvel’s Avengers limited edition pack.

A new set of packaging comes in 12 designs of six beloved Marvel characters. Paired with six Halls XS flavours in a miniature format, the featured characters include Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Black Panther.

The first-time collaboration sees the Mondelez International (Thailand) Co Ltd, the company behind the high-performing candy brand, partnering with a movie franchise.

The union is being promoted as “MINI BUT MIGHTY POWER”. Each flavour is brilliantly paired with a superhero with a stunning shiny finish on the pack.

Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame is the conclusion to Marvel Studios’ 22 films, and is a global phenomenon that fans are eagerly anticipating.

The Halls XS Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition Pack is expected to be highly collectible as a keepsake.

The court upheld an arbitration committee’s ruling in favour of Hopewell whose concession contract for a Bt80-billion elevated road and rail project in Bangkok was scrapped in 1998.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krau-ngam said negotiations could lead to a lower compensation amount, as the court’s verdict against the Transport Ministry and the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is regarded as final.

The Transport Ministry is expected to form a committee to study the court’s verdict and submit details to the Cabinet for consideration, according to Wissanu.

The deputy PM declined to comment on whether legal action could be taken against former politicians who had caused damage to the state, resulting in the massive compensation won by the private company. He also dismissed the possibility of using special powers under Article 44 of the charter to resolve this issue.

However, Wissanu said there could be negotiations with Hopewell to settle the issue, adding that it would likely take a lot of time before a final decision is reached.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said his government was not responsible for the long-standing dispute with Hopewell, but understood that there had been negotiations with the firm in the past to settle the issue.

SRT acting governor Voravuth Mala said public prosecutors will have to study details of the court’s verdict before the agency takes further action, after it was ordered to pay the compensation to Hopewell.

Sawit Kaew-wan, head of SRT’s union, said the agency does not have the financial resources to pay the entire compensation amount so the government will have to share its responsibility.

The Hopewell project, officially known as Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System, was highly controversial when then-transport minister Montri Pongpanich signed the Bt80-billion concession with Gordon Wu, head of Hopewell, back in 1990. Later the project ran into serious financial and technical problems leading to the termination of its concession contract about seven years later when construction work was only 13.7 per cent completed.

According to the 30-year concession contract, Hopewell was supposed to have completed 89 per cent of the overall construction work at that stage, hence the Chuan Leekpai government decided to terminate the contract.

Based on the concession contract, Hopewell was required to pay a total of Bt50 billion in fees to SRT in return for the right to collect revenues from the project’s tollways and community train service as well as develop 2,093 rai of SRT land.

However, the contract had many weaknesses, especially regarding the SRT’s right to end the contract when the private firm could not meet the terms and conditions.

The SRT also faced problems in handing over land plots to Hopewell, as many sites were still occupied by illegal residents. Later, the private firm also had financial and liquidity problems, resulting in work stoppage and isolated pillars along Bangkok’s Vibhavadi Rangsit Road.

The entire project was to consist of 60km of an elevated road and train network. The first section was to have been 18.8km long, running from Yommaraj to Don Muang, while the second section was to have been 18.5km long, from Yommaraj to Makkasan/Chao Phya River.

Construction work on these two sections was supposed to have been completed within 4-5 years, but actual work was far behind when the contract was terminated.

Plastic waste is today considered a major environmental crisis, with much of the problem caused by the reliance on plastic bags.

Plastic bags take almost 500 years to degrade and accumulate in landfills or the natural environment with severe negative impacts on the ecosystem. In Thailand, which is heavily burdened by plastic waste, both the government and private sectors are focusing on environmental campaigns that invite consumers to say no to plastic bags when buying goods from stores.

The situation has led FamilyMart employees to launch the “Green FamilyMart” campaign to promote awareness among Thai consumers of the need to protect natural resources.

Chiranun Poopat, president of Central FamilyMart, says that environmental preservation and sustainability are among the key missions of Central FamilyMart and all other subsidiaries of the Central Group. Activities include giving directions to employees to separate the garbage before leaving, as well as to reduce and stop the single use of plastic bags. The Green FamilyMart committees are committed to play a role in restoring natural resources and not create waste or pollution.

“Over the past several years, we have worked together with our customers, the government sector and local communities on many campaigns, such as the sorting of wet garbage at Koh Samui. This has resulted in the reduction of up to 30 tonnes of wet garbage per annum and allowed processing of biogas for schools on the island. ‘Every No Bag’ is another activity and here we ask for cooperation from our customers to say no to plastic bags while also reducing the number of plastic bags given out at our stores throughout the country. A ‘No Bag Store’ campaign has been launched at selected FamilyMart stores. Other activities include the campaign for reduction of plastic bags in Phuket in cooperation with local communities, and the company’s involvement in the government’s project encouraging people to stop using plastic bags on the fourth day of every month.

“We were able to reduce the amount of plastic bags by more than 30 per cent in 2018 compared to the previous year. For 2019, Green FamilyMart plans to expand its campaign in order to reduce plastic bags in many other areas in collaboration with other companies under the Central Group to underline its commitment to caring for the environment and building sustainability.

“We are also aiming to reduce the amount of plastic bags offered by the FamilyMart stores by another 30 per cent this year,” said Chiranun.

Today, to mark Earth Day, FamilyMart is launching an activity to show its involvement in environmental protection by not offering plastic bags to customers at its stores nationwide. The company has also organised an internal campaign to encourage staff to turn off the electricity for one hour.

FamilyMart operates about 1,010 stores, half of them energy saving outlets. Over the past four years, FamilyMart has reduced its electricity consumption by 80 million units and reduced its carbon footprint by more than 80,000 tonnes.