McBain joined the panel to discuss cleaning the supply chain of forced labour, and she presented the Fishers Fund as an action plan to the conference.

Thai Union yesterday also launched its new SeaChange website yesterday, focusing on the company’s sustainability strategy.

Fishers Fund

McBain presented a plan, along with Australian Ambassador for People Smuggling and Human Trafficking Issues Andrew Goledzinowski and media broadcaster Femi Oke, to establish a Fishers Fund that would put cash in the hands of workers rescued from slavery.

Working closely with local NGOs in Thailand such as the Issara Institute, Migrant Workers Rights Network, Stella Maris and LPN who are already involved in these programmes, will give survivors the funds to make their own choices to build a better future for themselves and their families. It is also aimed at helping restore their human rights and dignity by providing freedom of choice.

McBain asked the conference attendees to lend their skills, expertise and experience to establish the Fishers Fund.

Modern slavery is endemic across many industries and sectors, and it touches all consumers. While most of the global seafood industry applies and enforces decent working and living conditions for workers and fishermen, activities at sea are difficult to regulate as they are reclusive and hard to monitor.

Looking for employment, many migrant workers fall victim to unscrupulous recruitment brokers and find themselves in irrepayable debt, without documentation, working in unbearable conditions, and no access to the outside world. Even when rescued, victims of trafficking often find themselves broke, without contacts, employment and prospects in a foreign country.

“[The Fishers Fund is a] much-needed compensation or support fund to provide redress and contribute to rebuilding the lives of tens or hundreds of thousands of migrant and national workers associated with the Thai fishing industry, who for decades have faced, and indeed still do face, severe abuse too often in situations of modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking,” said Andy Hall, international affairs adviser for the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN).

“This is a bold and impressive move or step forward by Thai Union Group, and reflects what MWRN perceive to be a real commitment by the company, one of the largest seafood companies in the world, to ensure a better and more sustainable future for the Thai seafood industry and its crucially important workforce, often consisting of migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia who continue to face high risks of the most serious kinds of abuse,” Hall added.

Forced labour

During a panel discussion on forced labour in supply chains, McBain discussed the issue of slavery in the Thai seafood sector, and outlined Thai Union’s work to achieve safe and legal labour in the company’s own supply chain.

The panel also included Nick Grono, president and CEO of Freedom Fund; Kevin Hyland, the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner; and speakers from Primark and Hilton.

“To genuinely eradicate slavery, the entire industry needs to work together on sustainable and evidence-based solutions. That means businesses, governments, civil societies and even consumers must actively participate,” said McBain.

Meanwhile, Thai Union Group was honoured yesterday for being named winner of the 2016 Gold Standard Awards for Corporate Citizenship in the Global-Asia Program from PublicAffairsAsia.

The Gold Standard Awards identify excellence in the development of a corporate social responsibility, sustainability or good governance project which enhances corporate reputation and demonstrates a commitment to sustainable business practices, governance values or corporate responsibility.

The Corporate Citizenship in the Global-Asia award is seen as a recognition of the importance of “SeaChange”, Thai Union’s sustainability strategy designed to address some of the most pressing needs in the global fishing industry.

The new innovation – in which the machine accepts empty containers in exchange for money – is under the patent registration process.

The move is in line with the company’s vision to promote a better world by focusing on developing innovative products that help the environment and have health benefits.

“Because we always look at things from a different perspective, we can turn a problem into a business opportunity,” chief executive Nattapol Praditphonlert said. ‘The drinking-water vending machine business can help make the world a better place.

“It allows us to deliver consumers clean drinking water, at an affordable price, and is easily accessible with less packaging. A true commitment to a sustainable lifestyle for today and the future.”

Nattapol founded WaterNet in 1998 amid the financial crisis, which hit the Kingdom a year before and drove up living costs.

“Previously, I was interested in manufacturing bottled drinking water. However, with such a business, individual consumers are burdened with an unfair cost, with the cost of producing a bottle only 10 stang but the retail price Bt10 … a major part of the cost is packaging, transportation, and retailing,” he said.

“I then tried to look for other alternatives and drinking-water vending machines are a good solution for them [consumers].”

He said that the targeted customers of Daily Fresh are residents of apartments, condominiums and housing villages as well as people who buy bottled drinking water.

The Daily Fresh vending machine produces drinking water using the reverse osmosis system, in which dissolved organic solids a removed from the water.

“We have seen a trend where people are more concerned about reducing the impact on the environment. We are trying to educate them to change their buying behaviour so they gradually drink water,” Nattapol said.

Since 1998, the company has sold between 80,000 and 100,000 vending machines throughout the Kingdom. The buyers are those who want to make a one-time investment and reap the benefits.

“We have exported our drinking-water vending machines to more than 25 different markets in Europe, USA, Australia and Japan, as well as Malaysia and CLMV [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam],” Nattapol said, adding that the company’s factory is located on Phaholyothin Road Soi 40 and employs 65 people.

He said that with the economy expected to grow slightly, the company planned to focus more on exports, especially in high-value markets such as the US and Europe.

“I want to increase the ratio of exports from currently 35-40 per cent to exceed the domestic sales within the next three years,” Nattapol said.

“We accepted that if we increase our register capital by ourselves that will not be enough for our business expansion and competition in the digital TV market next year. As a result, we decided to sell shares to our new partner who will support us financially, although we will not change management after the deal is complete,” he said.

However, Prananporn representatives will be directors of One Enterprise when the deal is complete, Takonkiet said.

He added that the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission did not need to be informed of the deal because Prananporn is owned by Poramaporn Prasarttong-Osoth, the daughter of billionaire Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth. Poramaporn has no stake in PPTV digital TV, where Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth is the major stakeholder.

“We are still free to … aggressively invest to produce TV programmes in 2017 that will improve our ratings and income over our earlier estimates, although we cannot provide more information about our business plan,” Takonkiet said.

He added that he will still hold 24.5 per cent shares in One Enterprise Co Ltd after the deal is complete and he has no plans to sell. “But we cannot promise what will happen in the future but for now, we have no plan,” Takonkiet said.

On Tuesday, GMM filed a plan with the Stock Exchange of Thailand to increase the registered capital of One Enterprise, which owns 100 per cent of GMM One TV Co Ltd, the operator of One.

GMM holds 51 per cent of the shares in One Enterprise and Takonkiet’s group holds 49 per cent.

The GMM board acknowledged at the shareholders’ meeting of One Enterprise on November 10 the plan to increase the latter’s registered capital by Bt1.905 billion by issuing 19.05 million newly-issued shares at a par value of Bt100 per share.

The newly issued shares will be offered to Prananporn, which will become a shareholder of One Enterprise before One Enterprise increases its registered capital. After the capital increase, One Enterprise’s registered capital will rise to Bt3.810 billion.

One Enterprise will divide the capital increase into two stages. After the completion of both capital increases, Prananporn will hold a 50-per-cent stake in One Enterprise, while GMM and the Takonkiet group, which will waive the right to buy the newly issued shares, will hold 25.50 per cent and 24.50 per cent, respectively. The deal will be complete on May 31, 2017.

Meanwhile, Takonkiet said that its financial result in the fourth quarter of this year were lower than its estimation by about 10 per cent. He said, however, that the company has confidence its total revenue will achieve its early target of Bt1.8 billion.

Tricia Png, regional director, Asean, said the company originally introduced its SD-WAN solutions in the global market last year, and had made them available in Thailand this year.

SD-WAN is a specific application of software-defined networking (SDN) technology applied to WAN connections, which are used to connect enterprise networks – including branch offices and data centres – over large distances.

The company’s strategy is to distribute its solutions via two tiers of business partner: global partnerships, and technology partners and service providers such as Westcon-Comstor, Ingram, Dell, Fujitsu and Hitachi.

Silver Peak already has three enterprise customers in the Kingdom, and expects next year’s revenue from the Thai market to be 10 times greater than the estimated level for this year, she said.

The main focus is the enterprise market in areas such as manufacturing, finance, insurance, multinationals and education.

“Thailand is a key market for us. We are also continuing to invest, create sales activities and providing a training programme in order to leverage partners in the market.

“Thailand also has huge growth potential, not least for data centres. This offered a very good opportunity to enter the market, and we are confident about our market expansion and growth, as enterprises and service providers are rapidly migrating key business applications to the cloud,” the regional director explained.

The company now has an office in Singapore to service its business in Asean countries, supporting sales, marketing and training.

Shayne Stubbs, Silver Peak’s vice president, Service Providers and Cloud, said the company’s SD-WAN solutions centralised management, which helped enterprises and service providers to flexibly and securely connect users to applications via the cost-effective source of connectivity, without compromising network or application performance, while reducing complexity and lowering WAN costs.

They also create performance in order to improve network connectivity over any link, visibility and control that enables the management of data on the cloud, as well as coming with edge-to-edge security and extensibility, he said.

IDC, the IT market research and analysis firm, has forecast that the global SD-WAN solutions market in 2020 will be worth US$6 billion (Bt213 billion), he said.

The deal gives the family control of their second high-definition TV channel.

The Prasert family owns Bangkok Media and Broadcasting (BMB), operator of the PPTV high-definition digital TV channel. BMB won the licence from the auction of digital TV licences in 2013.

Prananporn, which is a separate corporate entity from BMB, is currently not the owner of any digital TV broadcasting licence services.

Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said the move reflected a change in One’s shareholding structure and he personally did not think they had violated any NBTC rules.

GMM filed with the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday a plan to increase the registered capital of One Enterprise, which owns 100 per cent of GMM One TV Co Ltd, operator of One.

GMM holds 51 per cent of the shares in One Enterprise and the group of Takonkiet Viravan holds 49 per cent.

The GMM board acknowledged on November 10 at the shareholders’ meeting of One Enterprise and the plan to increase the latter’s registered capital by Bt1.905 billion by issuing 19.05 million newly-issued shares at a par value of Bt100 per share.

The newly issued shares will be offered to Prananporn, which will become a shareholder of One Enterprise before One Enterprise increases its registered capital. After the capital increase, One Enterprise’s registered capital will rise to Bt3.810 billion.

One Enterprise will divide the capital increase into two stages. After the completion of both capital increases, Prananporn will hold a 50-per-cent stake in One Enterprise, while GMM and the Takonkiet group, which will waive the right to buy the newly issued shares, will hold 25.50 per cent and 24.50 per cent, respectively.

All these parties will jointly be liable for the guaranteed obligations and debts of One Enterprise Group.

On Wednesday, GMM entered into the agreement of sale and purchase of shares in One Enterprise. As a result of entering into this deal and the waiver of its right to purchase the newly-issued shares of One Enterprise, the GMM shareholding in One Enterprise has decreased from 51 per cent to 25.50 percent of the registered capital.

On February 28, shareholders of One Enterprise will convene to approve the first share-increase lot, when One Enterprise and the involved share-sellers will waive the right to purchase the newly issued ordinary shares.

Then Prananporn will subscribe to the first lot of newly issued capital, amounting to 5 million shares, which is equivalent to 20.79 per cent of the total shares of One Enterprise after the first capital increase at the price of Bt100 per share.

The second share subscription, at Bt100 per share, will take place on May 31, totalling 14.05 million shares, which will be equivalent to 36.88 per cent of the total shares of One Enterprise.

Takonkiat, the chief executive officer of One Enterprise, insisted that the management of his company would remain unchanged despite having a new investor.

He said Prananporn believed One channel had growth potential and had a trusted management team and was highly experienced in content production. That is why Prananporn decided to invest in One Enterprise.