This year, it is firming up its position as a global brand. It recently signed a partnership contract with Liverpool Football Club, enabling it to promote its coconut water under the Chaokoh brand among health-conscious people and sportsmen.

TCC also looks to participate in global food fairs in every region while working to retain its No 1 position at home in the coconut-products market.

Besides its best-selling coconut-milk products, TCC is ready to penetrate the markets for virgin coconut oil and coconut drinks while promoting Mae Ploy as a brand that specialises in authentic Thai-style sauce and paste. In addition, TCC emphasises CSR (corporate social responsibility) campaigns to improve people’s health, quality of life, and the environment.

Aphisak Theppadungporn, managing director of TCC, said the company last year earned very positive feedback towards and confidence in its products from its partners and consumers worldwide.

Its best-selling products include coconut milk, sweet chilli sauce, coconut water, curry paste, and virgin coconut oil, while new products like roasted coconut chips are also selling well.

“This year we are fully confident in our potential to continue marketing our products globally while at the same time working more proactively to market our highlight products such as coconut milk, coconut water, and virgin coconut oil under the Chaokoh brand, as well as curry paste and sweet chilli sauce under the Mae Ploy brand.

“We’ll be running roadshows and promotions in celebration of our 40th anniversary throughout the year,” he said.

He added that the company had set two major goals this year: to become a global brand and to be a content provider.

“As a content provider, we will share our deep knowledge of coconut-processed products and Thai seasonings for both coconut growers and the public. For the coconut growers, we will advise them on how to grow coconuts with improved quality, and for the public, we will share with them cooking techniques and health-related knowledge through TV programmes, articles, and research.

“Overseas, we will supply food-trend insights by region, which show that the world has always been looking for healthy food.

“We are able to do all this because we have been in this industry for 40 years. That’s why we can come up with the proactive marketing plans for both the domestic and global markets,” Aphisak said.

To strengthen its position as a global brand, TCC recently signed a contract with Liverpool FC for entering a business partnership. The signing ceremony was attended by the club’s executives and Liverpool FC legend Robbie Fowler as the ambassador.

This is the first time a Thai brand of coconut-based food and milk products has sponsored a globally renowned football club.

Besides the Chaokoh logo appearing in the media with Liverpool FC, Nuntinee Theppadungporn, international sales and marketing manager, said TCC would also launch products with special packages for health-conscious people.

Managing director Francis Vanbellen said that since its Mae Sot zinc mine in Tak province – after 32 years of operation – would be fully depleted by the end of this year, and PDI had failed to obtain permits for new mine deposits in Thailand and neighbouring countries, the company’s board of directors resolved on Thursday to cease its zinc operations by the end of 2017.

Vanbellen said he could not provide exact figures on the number of people who would have to go, since the company wanted to communicate with its staff first, but more than half of its 826-strong workforce would have to leave by the end of next year.

Most of the 460 employees who are currently working at PDI’s zinc smelter in Tak, as well as most of the 200 workers at the Mae Sot mine, as well as some of the 100 staff at its roaster plant in Rayong and smaller numbers of staff at its Bangkok headquarters, will have their employment contracts terminated.

All of them will receive one month’s compensation for every two years of service, on top of severance pay under the normal standards stipulated by law. For example, a staff member who has been with the company for 10 years will receive 10 months of severance pay, plus five months extra.

The provisions for the closure and worker compensations will be announced by the end of this month when PDI reports its 2015 annual results to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Vanbellen said the company would still show a positive result on its consolidated 2015 account, after impairment charges.

Both the Mae Sot mine and the Rayong plant will cease operations by the end of this year. The smelter in Tak will limit its operations by the end of this year, to produce only zinc metal and alloys until the second half of 2017. Beyond 2017, zinc activities will be completed based on recyclable domestic and possibly imported sources, according to PDI’s statement.

Vanbellen said PDI would continue to look for new businesses to succeed its zinc operations, consisting of renewable energy, waste management, recycled materials, and any opportunity in green businesses.

“We have Bt1.5 billion that we have allocated for our equity investments next year for these projects,” he said.

Vanbellen said PDI was conducting due diligence on three biomass power projects that it is looking to take over, and one of them would be finalised in two weeks. Each biomass plant, if managed well, will be able to generate Bt60 million to Bt80 million in annual profit for the company, which booked net profit of Bt312 million in 2014.

PDI is 13.81 per cent owned by the Finance Ministry, which founded the company. Country Group Holdings took a 15-per-cent stake in the company last year.PDI has also been invited to bid for building a municipal-waste treatment plant in Tak, where it has also been vying to obtain official permits to build an industrial waste treatment plant as well as a 50-megawatt solar farm, where it has also been vying to obtain official permits to build an industrial waste treatment plant as well as a 50-megawatt solar farm.

The company has also entered a joint-venture agreement with Carbon Reduction Technology AS, a Scandinavian recycling company, to pursue a project to recover zinc from industrial-waste streams at PDI’s current site in Rayong.

“You may ask if I failed. No, we didn’t fail,” Vanbellen said. “Ten years ago the management believed we could find new mines. We did find some but we can’t get permits [to start mining].

“I’m happy to tell the media I have to close the zinc operations. We [were able to] manage the company during the past years without cash losses. At the end of last year, we had more than Bt1 billion cash, which we can use to invest and pay people who leave.

“So we close in a positive way. That’s not failure. It’s success,” he said.

According to an official statement signed by senior marketing director Payungsak Charnduayvidya, Voice TV is setting its sights on being a forefront cross-platform content provider, putting more focus on providing quality content through various platforms, particularly online media.

To increase its capacity in the fast-changing media industry, Voice TV has to change its business strategy as well as restructure its organisation, the statement said.

It therefore decided to lay off 57 employees ranging from management to frontline, effective on March 1.

However, affected staff will get full compensation under labour law, while the remaining 300 employees will be continually trained and supported, it added.

Voice TV might also reduce its own TV production by 55 per cent, while news production will be cut by 35 per cent to pave the way for outsourcing and cost management, a source said.

Intense competition is believed to be behind the company’s retrenchment.

Makin Petplai was appointed as chief executive officer to steer the digital-TV station after it obtained a licence from the regulator.

However, after two years in operation and a series of marketing efforts, Voice TV is still ranked as hindmost player in the market, according to Nielsen Thailand data last month.

According to the Business Development Department, Voice TV suffered a loss of Bt310.12 million in 2014, after heavily investing in digital-TV business. Voice TV is owned by Panthongtae Shinawatra, the son of ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

“We did no wrong in refusing to pay the remaining instalments of the upfront licence fees and annual licence fee.

“It’s the full responsibility of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to create a digital terrestrial TV market completely safe and sound for new players,” said media veteran Pantipa “Sister Tim” Sakulchai, president of Thai TV.

To protest against this administrative order, the company has petitioned the Central Administrative Court to issue a temporary injunction.

Pantipa claimed that the NBTC had failed to marshal the transition from analog to digital TV in line with the national master plan.

The regulator also broke some of its promises to the industry, such as creating public awareness about this transition and other issues related to channel numbering and TV rating measurement, she said. The public still remained in the dark about digital TV.

Thai TV Co decided last year to return its licences to run news channel Thai TV and another channel for children and families called Loca, which was later renamed MVTV Family, after refusing to pay the Bt288-million second instalment of its upfront licence fee as well as the annual fee.

Last week, Thai TV Co received written notice of the revocation of the licences, which had been suspended for 90 days pending payment. The notice also demanded full payment of the remaining five instalments of the upfront licence fees worth Bt1.63 billion plus value-added tax as well as the unpaid annual licence fees and a daily fine of Bt60,000 within 30 days. But if Thai TV failed to respond, the bank guarantor, Bangkok Bank, should assume this responsibility.

To protest against the NBTC’s decision, Suchat Chomkul, legal adviser for Thai TV, said his company had yesterday asked the Central Administrative Court to void the NBTC’s order and issue a temporary injunction on Monday because the company would not allow the commission to claim the bank guarantee.

Suchat said the court planned to hold its first hearing on the case on Tuesday.

Thai TV has been completely blacklisted from any broadcasting activities, but Pantipa still continues to produce and supply full TV programmes to the “44 TV Pool Movie Hits” satellite TV station under a revenue-sharing agreement. She acknowledged that her son’s company Thai TV Pool was now applying for a broadcasting licence to run a new free-to-air satellite TV channel.

It is recruiting new Thai and foreign pilots while drawing up an emergency plan and seeking collaboration with other airlines and charter operators to serve passengers until Monday.

Patee Sarasin, chief executive officer of the domestic budget carrier, said yesterday that the company had finished compensating 40 per cent of the 3,000 passengers grounded by the cancellation of nine flights caused by a pilots’ strike on Sunday.

The compensation process followed the standard of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, he said.

The company has stopped investigating two of the eight pilots suspected of involvement in the work stoppage after finding that they had nothing to do with it. The investigation of five others is going on, while one has already been fired. The dismissed pilot had earlier accused Nok Air of forcing substandard captains to fly its aircraft. Patee, who has been Nok Air’s CEO for more than 12 years, argued that the airline had strictly complied with all standard practices.

The airline was going through organisational restructuring to upgrade its flight operations to the standards of the IATA (International Air Transport Association) Operational Safety Audit and the European Aviation Safety Agency.

This was part of its business plan to join with a partner in Europe to exchange flights during high and low seasons to reduce operational costs and increase revenue.

“The incident has made us delay our plan to begin the collaboration, originally scheduled for July, to early next year,” he said. Recently Sanit Kongpetch, a pilot and former manager of Nok Air’s flight standards department, who was fired in the wake of the cancellation of nine flights on Valentine’s Day, said the flights were scrubbed because of a shortage of pilots, not because of a strike.

The government has threatened to suspend or revoke Nok Air’s operating licence if the incident in which more than 1,400 passengers were stranded at Don Mueang International Airport is repeated. The Transport Ministry on Monday ordered all 14 Thai-registered carriers to submit flight-cancellation contingency plans to prevent a repeat of an incident like the one on Sunday.