All CPF’s domestic businesses are set to be certified by third and second parties within 2018, the company said in a Friday release. This is to ensure a solid performance in the area of sustainability throughout the organisation.

Virachai Ratanabanchuen, chief operating officer at CPF, said the standard has been drafted specifically for the company’s business to mitigate its impact on the environment and communities, using international principles as a guideline.

It aims to reduce risks for the health and safety of those who work with the company and, consequently, decrease operating costs, thus helping the company to achieve sustainable goals.

“The company is also planning to extend the certification process to overseas operations,” said Virachai.

“The employees from all 16 countries where the company is operating will be trained to make sure that the operation will run smoothly, consistently and with the highest effectiveness across the world.”

One of Thailand’s leading creative innovators, Bit Studio integrates technology through interactive installations in an effort to create enjoyable experiences. Their aim is to bridge people’s digital experience through creative play and interactive activities.

Bit.playground will feature 10 different play stations in an effort to inspire awareness that technologies are more than just screens.

Some bit.playground stations will be presented in San Francisco and Tokyo in May before being fully launched in Bangkok – at the EmQuartier shopping complexes – for seven months.

Kiattiyot Panichprecha, founder and CEO of Bit Studio Co Ltd is hoping the new landmark will be embraced by both Thais and foreigners.

The company has already enjoyed some international recognition as developer and creative technologist for business (B2B), said Kiattiyot, and decided the next step was to host a bit.playground based on the concept of “creative play”.

Unique interactive experiences in this playground will bring people together in creative ways to interact with technology, said the company is a Thursday press release.

This is the first time bit.studio has entered the B2C market. Through bit.playground, they are aiming to give people the opportunity to interact with technology in a new way. Attendees can create their own digital art pieces and experience new forms of technology. They hope that bit.playground will also build public awareness of how people should get benefits from technology by interacting with it more creatively – or better yet, create it themselves.

“Most people nowadays think that using technology is just an experience with a touch screen. Parents are encouraged to keep their children out of technology because of concerns about developmental delay in child or ADHD. As adults, they also begin to limit their use of technology,” said Kiattiyot.

“However, technology has a different meaning for bit.studio – technology is a process of thinking, creating and using information in new ways, creating innovations of various engagements. We want to present this concept to inspire people to gain access to it. One day, Thai people may be the creator by themselves.”

The same-day service applies for orders placed before 11 am.

The new investment means Kerry Express will invest at least a total of Bt1.8 billion, double the fleet size of its Bangkok same-day delivery network, and revise its projected number of services points from 1,500 locations to 2,500 by the end of 2018.

“Kerry Express’ extensive service points network does not only provide Thai people easy access to its first class delivery services, it is also part of Kerry Express’ O2O (online-to-offline) strategies,” the company said.

“Kerry Express also plans to open more distribution centres, build more mega-size sorting centres, procure more vehicles, and most importantly recruit more people to enhance its people’s network.”

The caf้ chain has been in the Thai coffee market for 15 years, expanding from a local enterprise in Chiang Rai province. The company opened its first coffee house in the northern province as a market experiment in 2004, before launching the first franchised branch in 2013 at Krabi International Airport.

Doi Chaang Coffee now operates 50 coffee houses under franchising, and a further 150 branches under a partnered licensing model. By 2022, the company plans to cover every province in Thailand with 300 franchised branches.

“We first started the franchise model to ensure the quality and the integrity of our coffee,” said Phitsanuchai Kaewphichai, a co-founder and business adviser at Doi Chaang Coffee.

“Now it is time to make sure that the quality coffee we produce reaches coffee drinkers everywhere.”

On its 15th anniversary, Phitsanuchai said the company plans to strengthen its status as a cafe franchise business by expanding the number of its franchised outlets from 50 now to 100 by the end of this year.

“As seen in today’s market, there are a lot of newcomers and this increases competition. However, when we look deeper into the market segment, we can see that there is still an untapped space for us as the only brand that produces, roasts, distributes, and franchises single-origin coffee,” said Phitsanuchai.

“While we consider Doi Chaang Coffee to be a premium brand in this niche field, we see the opportunity for growth as the consumer trend for coffee consumption is moving towards ‘interest in origin’ as people become more knowledgeable on coffee.”

Before 2013, Doi Chaang Coffee offered products ranging from green beans to roasted beans, under a licensed partnership. However, the company, wishing to control the premium quality of the product throughout the entire process, put in place a brand philosophy of “From Earth to Cup” and implemented the franchise model in its business strategy.

Doi Chaang Coffee is also the country’s leading coffee exporter, having accounted for US$3.6 million (Bt120 million) in overseas sales in 2015 and US$4.2 million in 2016. This success has spurred the company to plot further growth outside the country, with an existing roaster in Canada, franchise expansion and new roaster plant opportunities in Europe in the frame for Doi Chaang Coffee’s expansion.

“Our wish looking forward is to reach coffee drinkers in Thailand with the same quality that we are known for worldwide,” Phitsanuchai said, “We have been certified to international standards, including an SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) score of over 90. Such recognition is given only to coffee universally graded as specialty coffee, and we want people in our home country to taste our coffee and share in the pride and joy that we have been giving to the world.”

Doi Chaang Coffee’s franchise strategy highlights the importance of reaching consumers with a “1 cafe, 1 province” concept. This strategy envisages one large franchised branch in every province by 2022. For Bangkok and its surrounding areas, the brand plans to go for “new urban areas” – the newly developed real estate communities. Such a move would see it stay true to the brand’s target segment, the company says, as it reaches out to those who have embraced the coffee culture.

However, Predee conceded that the industry faced many challenges due to the intensified competition among banks and non-bank financial operators. His comment came as the major banks start offering clients fee waivers on transactions such as transfers and bill payments when these are made with phone applications or on the computer. These banks include Siam Commercial bank, Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank, Kiatnakin and Krung Thai Bank.

“Fee waivers will have some effect on banks’ profit, but we expected mobile and Internet banking will lower the overall cost,” said Predee, who is also president of Kasikornbank.

Kasikorn Research Centre projects that fee waivers will cost the banking system Bt9 billion in foregone revenue this year – figure dwarfed by the overall fee income of Bt190 billion in 2017.

The move will have little impact on the banks’ profits as they can generate more fee income from other services, according to the research house. Fee income collected on money transfers for the whole system is about Bt15 billion to Bt20 billion.

Consumers’ take-up of mobile and other Internet banking services will lower costs for the whole financial system as they do more transaction on their mobile devices and computers. This means less use of cash and less contact with bank branches.

Predee said that, within Internet-based services, mobile banking is expected to dominate the market as bank customers find it much more convenient, along with the cost savings, to make their transactions by phone. According to data from the Bank of Thailand, the number of transactions via mobile platforms jumped to almost one billion last year. With this growth, that level exceeded the number of transactions made by other forms of Internet banking, as well as by credit card and cheque.

Profit growth in the banking sector shrank 7.2 per cent to Bt174 billion, with fee revenue accounting for 20 per cent of this amount. Kasikorn Research Centre projects that fee revenue for the industry will grow by 2-3 per cent this year.

Among the issues for the industry, Predee said, is that the national e-payment system has cut into fee revenue, and this has resulted in the banks competing on the fee waivers.

The rapid changes in technology have also affected consumer behaviour. This has spurred intense competition among banks and the advances in technology have enable non-bank operators to compete in a reshaped financial services industry.

However, Predee said he was confident Thai banks would be able to compete and survive.

He recounted that with the 1997 financial crisis, many local financial institutions collapsed and foreign banks moved into the country. But, so far. large foreign banks have had limited success in doing business in Thailand. Moreover, the non-bank operators that have begun deploying financial technology to compete with the traditional banks could do better in only some areas, he said.

Lastly, a key challenge came in the form of new accounting standards imposed on the banks by regulators. This will cause bank to have higher financial reserves, and risk weighting on some assets will rise. Such an outcome would increase the cost of lending for some business, Predee said.

He said that bank lending for businesses is expected to grow 4.8 per cent this year, up from 4.6 per cent last year. Government investment in infrastructure projects will lead to more investment by the private sector, Predee said.

Retail lending is expected to ease to 5.5 per cent growth this year, compared with 6 per cent last year. High household debt would limit retail lending growth, Predee said. Household debt is estimated to be about 77-78 per cent of gross domestic product this year.

Anant will replace Paiboon Panuwattanawong, who resigned from his positions as director, member of the executive committee and chief executive officer, also effective May 1.

Anant, 57, has more than 30 years of experience in the IT and telecommunications sectors in Asia, where he has held several executive positions. He was CEO of CS Loxinfo from 2013 to 2018.