Uk A Land Of Opportunity For Thais

[Sumitr Man]

As I'm not authorized to put this in the News Clipping Forum, I thought I'd put this here for general review and comment:

FOREIGN PROSPECTS : UK a land of opportunity for Thais

Published on Sep 2, 2004

Restaurant operators, food importers find success as British tastes change

As Britain’s Asian community grows, Thai businesses and entrepreneurs are finding the country ripe for new business opportunities – but not without legwork.

While restaurants are the most common Thai business, Thai grocery stores and food imports are finding a niche in London and in smaller communities around the country.

There are some 30,000 or 40,000 Thais in Britain, 200,000 Vietnamese, 1.5 million Chinese and between 3 and 4 million Indians, according to one businessman. Moreover, local people are also acquiring tastes for Asian foods, which has increased demand for products that were recently impossible to find in England.

Despite a ready marketplace, laying the foundation for a thriving import business is not always easy. Thai businessmen have found the best way to prosper is through perseverance and working closely with their suppliers.

“In the beginning, I had to ask my friends here [in London]to bring home and eat as much morning glory as they could. And some I had to throw away because I could not find customers to buy big lots of morning glory,” said Chesada Bovornsukul, who owns Evergreen Intertrade Co Ltd, an Asian food importer and wholesaler.

Chesada has lived in London for 18 years. He started his business several years ago after he strolled through London’s Chinatown looking for Thai food ingredients, and came home empty-handed.

“I wanted to offer consumers all the ingredients they can find in Thailand. This encouraged me to import Asian ingredients,” he said.

At first losses mounted for Evergreen, due to Chesada’s lack of experience and poor product management.

But Chesada learned quickly. He found a better supplier in Thailand, which helped improve the quality and the packaging.

He also established a warehouse in Thailand, mainly because it cost less than opening one in London.

Now Chesada’s company imports at least four containers of dried food from Asia per month. He would not disclose the cost of the products and shipping, saying it varied according to demand. The company also imports fresh produce by air.

“We import . . . the goods that are being shelved in Thailand,” he said.

Chesada’ s major customers of fresh goods are Chinese and Vietnamese supermarkets. Thai restaurants buy his dried goods.

Evergreen is in the process of developing a distribution network and improving its services to meet customer demand.

He suggested the Thai government ask Thai Airways International to provide more space for fresh cargo. He also said Thailand needs to improve its chicken and seafood products, which have lost market share to other countries due to chemical residue problems.

Wanjai Poonum, managing director of Thai Rama Co Ltd, which operates restaurants, a Thai handicraft shop and a Thai supermarket, said Thai food has great export potential but needs good management to be competitive with other export rivals, particularly India and China.

“So far, Thai foods and products have been shelved in the low- to medium-end market. We cannot compete with our rivals by cutting prices,” he said.

He said Thai businesses can offer competitive prices by forming joint ventures that import big lots of Thai goods. The strategy would give them better bargaining power with exporters and would bring them economies of scale.

“We can collect orders from Thai restaurant operators here [in London] to create big-lot orders and bargain with trading partners to reduce prices,” he said, adding that forming such a venture would require around ฃ5 million (Bt373.9 million).

Besides its handicraft shop and supermarket, Thai Rama owns two restaurants – Rumwong and Thai Terrace – and manages the Santi-Thai restaurant in the Harrods department store.

Thai Rama logs annual sales of Bt100 million. It employs 80 people, only 2 per cent of whom are not Thais. Thirty of them are cooks in the two restaurants, which are located in Guilford, about 50 kilometres south of London.

Wanjai, former vice president of the Thai Restaurant Association in London, sees growth potential for Thai restaurants, particularly outside of London, where operating costs are lower compared to the capital. He figures there are some 800 Thai eateries in Britain, 200 of which are in London. He said the businesses grow on average 20 per cent a year.

Wanjai said the key to Thai Rama’s success has been its strategy of working closely with its suppliers.

“We deal frankly with our trading partners and we jointly solve problems with them to ensure success,” he said.

Achara Pongvutitham

The Nation, London

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.news....20088&usrsess=1

[jbaldwin]

I spoke to a good friend of mine, who married an English man and spent about a year their. She said that if she went to a nightclub men always wanted to go with her but they never wanted to give her money. From her point of view opportunities were not as good as she expected.

[Santastic]

lol, i like the above post :-)

its what i call, Thailand outsourcing

[IamMaiC]

I spoke to a good friend of mine, who married an English man and spent about a year their. She said that if she went to a nightclub men always wanted to go with her but they never wanted to give her money. From her point of view opportunities were not as good as she expected.

Why is she doing that if she's married???

[thaiwing]

Chesada has lived in London for 18 years. He started his business several years ago after he strolled through London's Chinatown looking for Thai food ingredients, and came home empty-handed.

Just the same livin here in good old thaitee. Not a good tasty pork sausage to be found.

[Sumitr Man]

One of the reasons I was so interested in this article is because it seems to naturally follow on from the Govt.'s incentive scheme last year to export "Thailand". You may remember, last year the Govt. agreed to assist Thais who start SMEs overseas. The industry set out in the article is almost the perfect example of what the Govt. was trying to achieve. And yet, there appears to be no reference to the Govt.'s role in any of this. Doesn't that seem strange to you?