M-150, a leading Thai-owned energy drink brand, was once again honoured with a “Brand of the Year” award at the World Branding Award 2018 event, recently held in London, England. This important recognition further strengthens M-150’s achievement in brand communications strategies, which include idol marketing, sports marketing, and music marketing.

Sutipa Panyamahasap, chief marketing officer of Osotspa Public Company Limited, said that receiving the “Brand of the Year” award for the second year in a row at the World Branding Forum’s “World Branding Award 2018” presentation ceremony, once again brings a sense of pride and accomplishment to Osotspa through its M-150 brand. M-150 was the only brand from Thailand’s energy beverage category to have won this prestigious award. Award winners are selected based on an evaluation that involves online public voting, brand valuation, and consumer market research.

“Receiving the ‘Brand of the Year’ award for the second consecutive year is a major endorsement of M-150’s marketing practices, which uses idol, sports , and music, along with integrated communications via online and offline channels.

 Together, they broaden and empower M-150’s brand recognition and loyalty among consumers. M-150 also conducts a continuous market penetration strategy for the energy beverage segment through high-quality product development to support the needs of consumers and ensure customer satisfaction,” said Sutipa.

New eforea spa for wellness travellers

To meet the needs of today’s wellness-minded guests, Hilton Hotels & Resorts in Myanmar has added to its legendary offerings with the opening of the eforea spa at the Hilton Nay Pyi Taw.

The eforea spa at Hilton Nay Pyi Taw followed the 31 other eforea spa locations globally, adding new treatment enhancements that embrace ancient healing methods and incorporating a refreshed treatment menu that complements the changes to the concept’s identity worldwide.

The eforea spa at Hilton Nay Pyi Taw’s treatment menu includes unique, carefully-crafted journey enhancements – treatments packed with ancient healing methods plucked from the world’s most fabled spa and health cultures.

East-West Seed excels in helping small farmers

Thailand-based East-West Seed outperformed global giants Bayer and Syngenta in the first-ever Access to Seeds Index for South and Southeast Asia, which evaluated the efforts of 24 leading seed companies in the region to support growth in the productivity of smallholder farmers, one of the main targets of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In South and Southeast Asia, about 350 million people are undernourished, a number that has barely changed in the past two years, according to a recent United Nations report. Around 30 per cent of the children in the region are malnourished. Smallholders provide up to 80 per cent of the food supply, so helping the 170 million smallholder farmers of South and Southeast Asia to grow more and more nutritious food is key to achieving food and nutrition security.

The Access to Seeds Index found that leading seed companies have seed sales activities in all countries in South and Southeast Asia. However, investments in seed production or breeding tend to be concentrated in a select number of countries, most notably India and Thailand.

As a result, the development of local seed industries in Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia run the risk of lagging further behind as few leading seed companies invest in these countries.

Ultimately, 80 per cent of smallholder farmers in South and Southeast Asia have yet to be reached.

“Increasing yields, tackling climate change challenges and reducing the environmental impact of agriculture, it all starts with the seed farmers use,” says Ido Verhagen, executive director of the Access to Seeds Index. “The seed industry plays a key role in improving the accessibility and affordability of quality seeds for smallholder farmers.”

New MD named for group manufacturing

BMW Group Thailand is pleased to announce the appointment of Uwe Quaas as managing director of BMW Group Manufacturing Thailand.

Uwe replaces Jeffrey D Gaudiano who has completed his tenure in Thailand and is taking up a new position as the Head of Steering Production, Production System, and Logistics at BMW Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina, the USA.

Uwe has been with the BMW Group since 2003, working first at Plant Regensburg then moving to Plant Leipzig, Plant Rosslyn and Plant Munich where he held high-level positions in the logistics, quality management and bodyshop departments.

Prior to taking up his new position as managing director at BMW Manufacturing Group Thailand, Uwe headed up the department for overseas material supply in Plant Wackersdorf, which is responsible for supplying parts to various BMW production networks including BMW Motorrad worldwide.

Uwe said: “I love and live for our international BMW network. I firmly believe that we become bulletproof when we come together to work for the success of the BMW Group. This also includes our work at Plant Rayong in Thailand, a country which I admire both for its people and the welcome it offers to all who go there.”

In his new position, Uwe will be responsible for the overall BMW Group Manufacturing Thailand business activities, which assembles BMW automobiles and BMW motorcycles to supply to BMW Group Thailand for domestic sales, as well as exports to other BMW subsidiaries in the region.

Tetra Pak will continue to build on its decades-long presence in Asia, said Kenneally.

“While our operations started much earlier, our first factory in the region was set up as far back as 1971 at Gotemba, Japan followed by the second one in Jurong, Singapore in 1981 and the third one in Chakan, India, in 2013. The group has always believed in the potential of the region and we have made continuous investments, whether in terms of the number of people or the number of offices and sites,” he said.

“Today we have a presence in around 30 countries in South Asia, East Asia and Oceania, which are serviced by more than 2,700 people across seven market companies and 21 sales offices. We currently have three converting plants for packaging material, with the fourth one expected in Vietnam in 2019, one factory for additional materials in Rayong and a Tetra Pak stainless equipment factory in Indonesia.” Since 2014, Tetra Pak has been growing its business revenues at a cumulative annual growth rate of around 4.5 per cent in Asia. This region will continue to be extremely promising in the foreseeable future, and there are clear reasons for it, he said.

“The per capita consumption of various food and beverage categories is quite low in this region as compared to the western world. For instance, the per capita consumption of liquid dairy, fruit-based beverages and dairy alternatives in South Asia, East Asia and Oceania is 32 litres per person per annum, while in Europe it is 87 litres and in the Americas it is 102 litres,” he said.

“From a distribution perspective too, there is significant headroom. Even if we park aside virgin markets like Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, there are massive white spaces in India, Vietnam, Thailand and many other markets where millions of consumers in remote areas don’t have access to safe, packaged food. Against this backdrop, if we layer on the increasing economic growth, growing urbanisation and a burgeoning middle class, the only way to go is up,” said Kenneally.

“We’ve always been conscious of this potential and have therefore consistently strengthened our presence in the region for the last few decades. Our commitment to this region continues, and with that intent we have recently made some big investments in the region: a new packaging material factory in Vietnam, a new packaging closures factory at Rayong and a brand-new customer innovation centre in Singapore.”

Kenneally declined to discuss details of the investment budget for business expansion in the region. He, however, said the company was quite confident of its growth prospects in the region, both in the short-and long-term.

“We strongly believe that there is a huge potential for us to grow the market itself, working closely with our customers, both existing and new, in order to: 1) build existing categories, increasing the overall consumption; 2) enter new categories such as shelf stable food; 3) drive distribution and penetration in existing and new channels/geographies; and 4) leverage innovation to address new consumers and consumption occasions.”

For the past three years, South Asia, East Asia and Oceania have been the biggest growth contributors to Tetra Pak’s global revenues – and that position is expected to remain for the coming year.

Whatever the investment future, the region will remain a priority focus with high expectations, he says.

“India and Vietnam have been the biggest contributors to our absolute volume growth in the last couple of years, growing on a healthy base. Other markets such as Philippines and New Zealand have seen a tremendous spurt in the last one year, although on a relatively smaller scale, New Zealand being driven more by exports. On the other hand, Japan and South Korea have had an interesting performance in the last year. Despite being mature markets with a low population and low category growth, we’ve seen positive growth [versus a conventionally stable market] on the back of new innovations that we have introduced over the past few years,” he said.

“Going forward, we have a positive outlook in almost all our markets. Besides some of the usual growth horses in South Asia and Asean [like India and Vietnam], there is huge untapped potential in markets like Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which are at fairly early stages of evolution,” added Kenneally.

“As part of our efforts to support our customers and to leverage relevant insights to grow the market, we regularly invest in market intelligence and consumer research. Every year we conduct studies on mega-trends globally and in Asia to help shape our strategies and initiatives,” he said.

Kenneally said that the company’s latest research shows global mega-trends that will drive consumer behaviour over the next few years. Most relevant for Asia is that consumers today are looking for products that support easy and fuss-free living, as their lifestyles get increasingly busier. As well, they eagerly want to achieve a healthy balance in food and beverage consumption.

“Consumers are all looking for ways to simplify their lives. The time they are required to invest in products and meals will become as influential as nutrition or ingredient claims,” said Kenneally.

“And consumers’ multitasking lifestyles are driving a need for shortcut solutions that are fresh, nutritious and customisable. The world of snacking and on-the-go products is being fuelled by new products. A healthy lifestyle and well-being are on top of the minds of consumers, and brands are listening and acting on this. We can expect consumers to increasingly look for products that promote good health through what they eat and drink – doing good for both the inner self as well as the body. Consumers are more demanding and expect food and drink products to improve their quality of life and self-image, while still remaining tasty, desirable, attractive and interesting,” he said.

“We expect manufacturers and brand owners to evolve with the trends and offer packaging solutions to address future market needs. Noteworthy amongst these are packages that offer greater functionality, which are designed for on-the-go [eating], easy to carry and use, as well as those with improved opening and pouring abilities, and multi-serving,” said Kenneally. He added that future consumers, especially millennials, want packages that are designed for them. Different shapes, sizes, designs, and surface treatments will be key elements. They will be looking for the environmentally friendly options.

Carton packages have a strong profile today, he said. In the future, bio-based materials for both closures and the package itself will be in demand.

Consumers also seek information through the package, including about the producer of the product, facts about the product and promotions. Different technologies will enable this going forward, such as QR codes.

Kenneally said that digital disruption is affecting almost every stage of the supply chain from the consumer purchase journey, Industry 4.0 manufacturing and supply chain efficiency.

“Being the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company, we believe that we can play a strong role in supporting our customers by consistently bringing about innovations in product formulations through our product development centre: in packaging with advanced functionality, and in equipment bringing about efficiencies and reducing costs, as well as providing end-to-end solutions to our customers – from processing to packaging to after-sales services – so that they can focus on their operations,” said Kenneally.

“We want to ensure the highest levels of quality and food safety and to leverage digital technology to provide multiple benefits … including production control, quality control, and leveraging packaging as a marketing and communication tool [via dynamic QR codes],” he said.

“Last, but not the least, using our global network and our expertise, [we aim to] bring best practices from across the world and deliver value-added services such as marketing services to grow the market,” added Kenneally.

He said that entering the Industry 4.0 era is about working smarter. It is about fully integrated technology that allows the company to respond in real-time to meet changing demands and conditions in the customer’s factory.

“Going through the journey of digital transformation ourselves, we are seeing the benefits that this technology can bring to our business and that of our customers. For example, by embracing new technology in augmented reality, we are able to provide customers with on-site specialist support in a number of hours. This saves us needing to send out an engineer and, more importantly, drastically reduces downtime for the customer.

“This is only one example, but demonstrates the substantial impact Industry 4.0 is having. A key to our success so far has been joining forces with the right partner to help to scale opportunities.”

The high-speed railway project will link up Don Mueang International Airport, Suvarnabhumi International Airport with U-Tapao Airport in Rayong province.

The CP Group-led consortium consists of CP Group holding the majority share of 70 per cent. Other stakeholders are Ch Karnchang Plc, Bangkok Expressway and Metro Plc, China Railway Construction Corp Ltd and Italian-Thai Development Plc.

The BTS-led consortium comprises BTS (60 per cent) with Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction Plc and Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc holding the balance of 40 per cent.

Voravuth Mala, acting governor of State Railway of Thailand (SRT), earlier expressed confidence that no less than two private consortiums would bid for the rail project.

SRT on Monday opened the bidding for the project, the first infrastructure investment project in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

The project will be beneficial to other investments in the EEC provinces spanning from Chachoengsao, Chonburi and Rayong. Winner of the project is expected to be announced within one month.

He added that the company showed healthy growths in most segments and enjoyed full-quarter revenue from CSLF’s food service business and shared profit from PPSEZ.

Raising its full-year revenue target to Bt3 billion, it expects growth to be sustained in the fourth quarter.

It recently set up a joint venture to offer project cargo logistics services in Thailand and Laos.

Nine-month results (January-September) put rental and service revenue at Bt2.26 billion and net profit at Bt160.5 million, up 26.3 per cent and 9.6 per cent from the same period of last year, Eakapong said.

“True embraced Big Data technology five years ago and remains committed to further growing our capabilities in this space,” he said.

The telecom operator has also turned to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for its decision-making.

“AI is not limited to one specific area or project, we aspire to apply AI throughout our business processes. AI is for us the automation of decision-making.

“As such, we are developing applications in every area where we believe we can replace or improve a human decision with technology. Some examples include where should we invest to make the network even better? What offer should I make to a customer given his profile and preferences? Which price plan would work best? What would be the best location to launch a new store?” he added.

He said that True was currently working on using AI to radically personalise the user experience of its applications, thus customers would only see content that truly interests them.

“By applying AI, we are tailoring our interactions better and better to the specific needs of customers. As such, it improves the user experience substantially for all our clients.

“Furthermore, AI helps us optimise the allocation of investment budgets, such as our ongoing investments in the network. As a result, the quality of our network is consistently the best in the country,” he added.

True Corp has set up a separate unit for data science and AI, staffed with hundreds of data scientists.

This unit comes under True Digital Group, which manages innovative technologies used by the company, including IoT (Internet of Things), cybersecurity and blockchain, he said.

He added that the ultimate goal of adopting these technologies was to make the everyday life of customers and employees simpler, so that they could focus on activities that call for human creativity and interaction.

“To place any brand on the consumers’ perception, the most import thing is that those brands are supposed to genuinely understand customers’ needs. As a digital infrastructure developer and telecommunications service provider, True has so far focused primarily on our customers to ensure all of our products and services serve them well.

“We also see AI as a key mechanic that will enable us to further enhance True’s brand in the perception of consumers and to develop our businesses for future success,” Kittinut concluded. True Corp’s core businesses comprise mobile phone, pay-TV and broadband Internet services.