PB Air plans regional flying services

PB Air, Thailand’s newest airline, said it has plans to fly routes to destinations in Southeast Asia to compliment its regular domestic routes. Three new 78-seat Fokker jet planes will help the company expand its services into neighboring countries, said Chatchai Boonya-anant, executive chairman, who is a former president of Thai Airways International.

PB Air launched the grand opening of its service on Monday, November 29 at a ceremony chaired by Gen Prem Tinsulanonda, chairman of the Privy Council and a former prime minister of Thailand. All the airline’s executives, who are mainly veterans in the industry, were introduced to the public for the first time, Chatchai said.

PB Air, owned by the family which brews Singha beer, will fly new routes to gain a niche in the market. Flights to be started this December 5 include: four times a week from Bangkok to Roi-et and Krabi, twice a week to Ranong and Nakorn Ratchasima, and three times a week to Chiang Mai via Khon Kaen. Quick chartered flights can be arranged within 3 hours.

Regional routes to Bali, Penang, and Singapore, are planned for next year.

Crystal franchising group plans expansion

Swarovsky (Thailand) is the latest company to begin franchising in the Kingdom, believing that the recovery will help spur sales in 2000. Announcing its business plan for next year, Kanokwan Charoenpanont, managing director said new franchised branches will be set up in Chiang Mai, Phuket, Nakorn Ratchasima and Pattaya.

Sales have increased by about 30% in 1999, Miss Kanokwan said. “The shop will change a lot in 2000 as more consumer products will be added to crystal items,” Miss Kanokwan said. A concept store is also planned to be the flagship in franchising, after the first branch - Crystal Symphony - was opened last July in the Peninsula.

More crystal watches and ornaments will be available at Crystal shops. The company has also invested in developing an information technology system. A Swarovsky Club Society was also set up to be a center for collectors of crystal products in Thailand.

Exhibition company gears up for French products festival

About 30 leading French companies are expected to participate in a trade exhibition organized by Sopexa at the World Trade Center in the third week of this month. Products on display and for sale include wines, dairy products, garments and cosmetics. The exhibition is part of a campaign to double or triple French imports to Thailand next year, especially after wine sales fell sharply this year.

The four-day ‘French Products 2000’ will be held between December 16-19 and will introduce new French-made goods to the Kingdom, especially those which have been scarce on the market. French biscuits and potato chips will be among the highlights of the exhibition, said Sopexa executive director, Sivaporn Vanichasenee.

Sopexa will increase its sales promotion budget from Baht 15 million to Baht 20 million for 2000. More low-priced wines will be introduced to the market, and French-grown apples and French-made cheese will be promoted next year with special sales promotion events organized at supermarkets.

Nearly 150 billion baht in foreign investment poured into Kingdom this year

US investors were the leading investors in Thailand over the first 9 months of this year with Baht 27.858 billion in 41 projects, while the Japanese took second with Baht 27.036 billion. However, Japanese investors were more interested in small and medium-sized industries, and they invested in 168 investment projects, according to a recent investment roundup by the office of the Board of Investment.

Investors from the Netherlands invested Baht 19.617 billion in only 13 projects, making up the third largest foreign investment group in the Kingdom during the same period. Singaporean investors, which focused on banking and finance sectors, invested Baht 6.125 billion in 46 projects. Singaporean banks have currently taken control of two Thai banks.

Notes: Currently, Australia ranks at the bottom of the list. US investors invested more than Baht 250 million in AIG Thailand, the country’s largest life insurance group. Wall Street merchandisers brought in more to buy loan assets. US-based Starwood bought about 51% of Sansiri Property, while Conoco Oil dumped over US$100 million to expand Jet refill stations and the Jiffy convenience store chain.

Thai-made Web building software to go overseas

SiamWeb Co. said it is set to appoint retailers abroad for its ‘Web Generator’ - a software package which enables laymen to build a homepage by making just a few clicks with a mouse. SiamWeb has spent the past 6 months researching and developing the software, aiming to attract Web surfers who want to own their own homepages, especially for electronic-commercial purposes.

According to SiamWeb Managing Director Supachai Sukhanin, Web Generator is one of several software packages developed by the company for Web businesses. All will be introduced to the local market, as well as foreign markets in 2000, Supachai said. SiamWeb will introduce new products, as it plans to list in the new stock market - which would open the company to investors.

SiamWeb is also a Web-based service provider offering a wide-range of e-commerce services to both individual and organizational investors. The company’s Web site ‘Thaifreemail’ boasts a high hit rate.

Thai-owned restaurant chain returns home

The owners of Blue Eleven restaurants have decided to set up their first branch in their homeland, after 19 years of success in foreign countries, with about Baht 40 million in investment. The owner, Blue Eleven International Co, also plans to set up a chef school to produce Thai chefs for international restaurant chains, said Nurah Sohmanee, managing director.

The company currently operates 7 branches of the Thai-food restaurant, Blue Eleven, in European and Middle Eastern countries. Mrs Nurah said the inspiration was that foreign tourists had always looked for a Blue Eleven restaurant when they came to Bangkok, and restaurant businesses and services have a great potential to grow in Thailand, Mrs Nurah said.

Notes: Thai cuisine and recipes must be conserved. Thai chefs have been in need in foreign countries, as Thai food has become highly popular. The group has made about Baht 600 million in sales each year. There are Blue Eleven restaurants in Brussels, London, Copenhagen, Paris, Dubai, New Delhi, Beirut, and Malta.

Spirit tycoon likely to win ‘beer-for-whisky’ case

The big boss of the Suramaharas and Surathip groups, Charoen Siriwadhanabhakdee, is likely to win his case after being accused of dumping the beer market by bundling beer sales with whisky. A victory by Charoen would be a setback to Boon Rawd Brewery Co, which filed the market dumping suit with the country’s embryonic anti-trust committee.

Boon Rawd Brewery made the accusation that Charoen’s beer-whisky bundle was against free-trade norm, and damaged sales of Boon Rawd Brewery which brews Singha beer. The trade war between Chang (Elephant) and Singha (Lion) beers will be the first anti-trust case, and a historic one, for the anti-trust committee, which was born under the new charter.

The bundle had made sales of Chang beer - by Charoen’s Beer Thai 1999 Co - skyrocket, with Boon Rawd’s Singha beer paying the price.

Committee sources said sales of Chang were not high enough to control the market, while ‘dumping’ would mean, by law, that the market share must exceed 33%.

Novotel to launch ‘Novoclean’ at BTS stations

Novotel Bangkok Hotel at Siam Square has come up with an idea to extend its services into the terminals of the elevated electric train system - to keep commuters’ clothes clean. Novoclean laundry booths will be set up in at least five main stations of the Bangkok Transit System: at Chitlom, Rajdamri, Sala Daeng, Thong Lor, and at Soi Prompong where the Emporium is.

Chanpen Vimolchaiyajit, PR and marketing promotion director of Novotel at Siam Square, said the laundry business is in line with the management’s plan to expand to BTS terminals. Novoclean kiosks target working people, foreign expats working in prime areas of Bangkok, and people who do not have time to clean their outfits themselves, Ms Chanpen said.

The new service will be available from 6:00 a.m. until midnight.

Novotel will invest 300,000 baht in each Novoclean booth, while rental for a 9-squaremeter area is Baht 54,000 a month. The hotel hopes to open up booths at other stations after one year.

Zip Drive producer to set up Thai office

Iomega, the leader in the data storage and back-up equipment market, and producer of the industry-acclaimed Zip Drive, plans to set up a Thai office in 2000, while appointing an IT veteran to develop the portable drive market here. Iomega manager for South Asia, Richard Lim, said the Thai market has the potential to grow as Internet services and PC sales grow up rapidly.

Though Iomega is known for its portable data storage Zip Drive, the company has several other high technology products, including the Click PC Card - a chip card with a storage capacity up to 40 megabytes - for notebooks, and Zip CD-RW drive which offers solutions to rewritable CD users.

A Hewlett Packard manager was appointed to handle sales in the Thai market.

Several more products in other lines will be introduced.

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Updated by Boosiri Suansuk