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Veerasa palm leaf plates appeal to eco-friendly customers

By SOMLUCK SRIMALEE 
THE NATION

 

Sumalee Phinyo, owner and managing director of Phinyovanich Co Ltd, shows her Veerasa brand eco-friendly plates made from the leaves of the areca nut palm.

 

AFTER building its business to national success in producing and selling eco-friendly plates made from the leaves of the areca nut palm, Phinyovanich Co Ltd is looking this year to export the plates under the Veerasa brand to Dubai and German customers to boost sales, the company’s founder and managing director, Sumalee Phinyo, said in a recent interview with The Nation.

 

Sumalee, 57, is a government official in Sung Noen district, Nakhon Ratchasima province and is responsible for organising the annual Isan-style “Khan Tok” dinner, known as “Kin Kao Kham”, held in Sung Noen district, Nakhon Ratchasima. There is always a mountain of leftover plates for her staff to deal with after the event. The clean-up problem inspired Sumalee to think of a creative solution.

 

“I was considering how to reduce the amount of waste from the event. I asked my husband, who is a military technician, whether we could transform the leaves of the areca nut palm into plates, or not. He said he will try to do it.”

 

And he did, spending their Bt30,000 budget to create a machine that can process the palm leaves into plates. That was back in the year 1995.

 

With that problem solved, Sumalee started making the plats for the Kin Kao Kham festivity. But the plates got unexpected attention as most visitors who joined the event asked whether they could purchase the plates for use at their own hometown events.

 

Their requests inspired Sumalee to begin producing the palm-leaf plates for sale starting in 2004. She established Phinyovanich Co Ltd with registered capital of Bt300,000 to develop the machine to make an average 500 plates daily. It worked, with average sales of Bt1.2 million yearly.

 

Sumalee said her branded Veerasa plates gradually achieved nationwide success, and Tops Supermarket picked them up for sales display. Most bakery restaurants in Bangkok also ordered her products.

 

“When we first produced the products, we found limited demand in the market, but now we’re seeing strong demand growth,” said Sumalee. “People concerned about the environment want to use eco-friendly products to replace plastic. This drives my business to strong growth.” 

 

With strong demand in the market, the company decided to expand its investment by Bt900,000 last year to increase production capacity from 500 plates a day to 3,000 plates a day through 2018. 

 

This will support its overseas export, filling an order the company received to export to Dubai. Meanwhile, Sumalee is waiting for a letter of credit for an order from a German customer interested in importing her products. This will drive her business to double its growth double this year compared with last year, Sumalee said.

 

“Our keys to success are our quality products and also matching the trend of customers who are concerned about the environment,” she said. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Corporate/30337833

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-03

[PETERTHEEATER]

Excellent. Need more of this but at an affordable price to street vendors and a ban on polystyrene.

[Ulic]

46 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

Excellent. Need more of this but at an affordable price to street vendors and a ban on polystyrene.

These plates may be eco-friendly but they are not disposable and unfortunately will

not replace polystyrene.