Isuzu relocates production base to Thailand

Tri Petch Isuzu Sales will this week kick start its production line of Isuzu pickups being exported to Australia. The ceremony which took place at Isuzu Motor (Thailand) plant on August 7 was chaired by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, and chairman of Japan’s Isuzu Motor Co. Tri Petch Isuzu is to increase output again after a recent rise in vehicle sales.

According to Isuzu sources, the Thai plant will share production quotas with the rest of Isuzu plants in Japan, in order to gradually make Thailand the production base of Isuzu cars. Tri Petch will send a total of 2,000 units of Thai-made pickups to the Australian market by the end of the year. Pickup exports to Australia will increase to 14,000 units in 2000, and 20,000 units in 2001.

Thai Isuzu now makes only 50,000 units of pickup truck a year, though the assembly line has the capacity to bring out up to 140,000 units of the truck per year. The Thai plant also makes trucks for General Motors.

The company hopes to control 23% of the domestic pickup market this year, while maintaining its leadership in the market of all commercial vehicles.

Campaigns out to discourage Thais from traveling abroad

A rising number of Thais spending their holidays abroad has ignited fear in the government, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand is to spend Baht 0 million in campaigns to encourage Thais to travel inside Thailand. 585,293 Thais went abroad for holidays in the first four months of this year, an increase of 22.69% compared to the number in the same period last year.

According to Patcharapong Apichartapong, director of TAT marketing promotion department, about 1.7 million Thais in all are expected to go abroad in 1999. Those outbound tourists are believed to spend up to Baht 60 billion in foreign countries, Puttipong said. The government fears that the increasing number will bring back an imbalance in the state service sector account, which could undermine the recovery, he said.

As part of the campaign, 10 series of TV commercials are being prepared, a handbook on traveling in rainy season will be distributed, tax privileges for those who travel Thailand are being considered by the cabinet, and a caravan tour, health tour and agricultural tour will be intensively promoted.

Loxinfo to announce free PC campaign

Loxley Information Services Co will soon start a new sales promotion drive which includes a campaign to give away a free PC to every user of Loxinfo Internet service. The PC will be really free, they say, which is much different from the campaign by A Net Internet and the one soon to be launched by KSC Internet, as Loxinfo will not include PC prices in the service package, Managing Director Vivatvong Vijitvhadkarn said.

The new campaign will be announced soon while Loxinfo is to open up 50 more i-Cool Internet kiosks in Bangkok department stores and major shopping centers to tap from the booming Internet market. Loxinfo sources said the first four i-Cool kiosks, which give quick access to the World Wide Web, have been doing well in term of sales. Surfers need to have an i-Cool Card, a microchip-embedded smart card to meter using time, to log on to the Net.

Meanwhile, Loxinfo franchise opportunities have been opened to small investors with about Baht 180,000 in investment.

Northwest Airlines to add new Boeing planes to Thai route

Starting this September, Northwest Airlines will connect Bangkok to the rest of the world with a new fleet of Boeing 747-400 planes recently received from Boeing Co. The airline will also launch its e-ticketing service later this month. The new ticketing system will enable passengers to buy air tickets on Northwest’s Web site, and to pay by credit card.

According to Northwest General Manager in Thailand Sarathul Monthienvichianchai, they believe the new fleet of Boeing planes will help increase Northwest’s market share in Thailand to 10% this year. The airline has been in talks with KLM, Continental Airlines and Alitalia with a plan to form an alliance in the business, Sarathul said.

Northwest currently flies nine flights a week from Bangkok to 250 destinations around the world. A large-body Boeing 747-400 carries 420 passengers, compared to the last version, Boeing 747-200, which carries only 371 passengers. Northwest foresees a boom in the airline industry as Asia starts to recover from the crisis.

US producer in talks with Thai Amarit to produce Bud beer here

Anheuser-Busch Corporation Inc., producer of Budweiser, has been in talks with Thailand’s third largest beer brewer, Thai Amarit NB, over a plan to produce its world renowned beer in Thailand. However, both will still have to continue the talks, especially on ways and means to tackle the sophisticated fermenting process demanded by the US brewer.

Sales of Bud have been steady since the US premium beer was formally introduced to the Thai market in late 1997, following the economic crisis, said Ton Kavi-ananan, chairman of TIS Worldwide Marketing (1997), importer/distributor of the beer. Bud has been sold mainly through entertainment complexes, leading hotels and modern-trade facilities, he said.

The US brewer is keen to tap into the Thai market, which is amongst the largest beer markets in the region.

TIS directly imports Bud from US plants, but also sometimes turned to the Filipino-brewed cans. The company will also introduce Alcoholic fruit juices from UK this month.

HP cuts prices to compete in printer market

Hewlett Packard (Thailand) will not wait for the strategic move by the US parent in introducing low-price fighting-brand printers, but will go its own way by cutting prices of HP printers to compete. HP’s latest move was decided after the company found in a recent marketing survey that buying power remains strong in the low-to-medium-scale markets.

HP will bring down prices immensely of two new models to be introduced this month, in an effort to capture shares in the mass market which is now controlled by Canon bubble jets and Epson. US Hewlett Packard has plans to launch the low-price series under the brand name ‘Apollo’, by a newly-set up subsidiary of the same name, but Apollo models will not be sent to the Thai market, said Prasert Charoonpaisal, manager of consumer marketing.

Prices of the new series have been brought down to around Bt 4,000 a unit.

HP anticipates a slumping market in the second half since corporate and agency customers have slowed down PC and printer purchases after budgets dried up in fighting the millennium bug.

Epson printer has said it will not join the price war but introduce new printing technologies instead.

Thai National predicts sales pick-up in second half

Yoshimisa Tamura, managing director of Siew-National Co. and National Thai Co., said competition in the electronic home appliance market will heat up in the second quarter this year while the group’s year-on-year sale is expected to grow 1% to 2%. Thai National group earned Baht 15.22 billion from sales in the fiscal year 1998 which ended last March, he said. Sales are likely to increase slightly in the second half this year, Tamura said.

The crisis, which slowed down electronic home appliance sales by 40% to 45% last year, has forced all producers to compete in all fronts in the market, Tamura said. A restructuring program has ended with the group setting up 9 other companies to work independently on separate products, under National Thai, which has become the holding company of the group in Thailand. Each of the 9 subsidiaries is 60% majority-owned by Japan’s parent Matsushita Electric, he said.

Siew-National is now responsible for the domestic market only. A model of Panasonic flat-screen TV in the TAU series in being made in Thailand to be competitive in price. Digital technology will be the priority in marketing electronic home appliances next year.

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Updated by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek.