Imports And Exports

[Ted]

Many things that are exported out of Thailand as we all know, whether that's Gem's, Clothing, Art work, Sculptures the list goes one and I feel sure there are many sucessful operations out there. With the right product into the right market there is money to be made. Can anyone recount any tales of legit operations that have done well (In Thailand or around the region) ?

Creative types - maybe you have / had an idea you'd like to share?

[xbusman]

My export operation is far more successful than I could possibly have imagined when I started a few years back. Granted, its very hard to place product in Thailand, China is much cheaper and Taiwan is much higher quality, but about 30 percent of my products end up in Thailand.

I talked with many people before starting my export company and I came to believe the key is not in having "products" but in having customers. If you have buyers you can find the products, maybe not in Thailand but most everything can be outsourced to asia. If you dont have a customer, you have to develop the retail outlet for whatever your trying to peddle. That has to be done in the import location, not the export location.

Best of luck, Thailand can sure use the business. All my manufacturers are starved for business as the Chinese have taken it all away. Hopefully the currencies will straighten around in the next few years and put us back on the map.

[Ted]

Hey thanks for that xbusman; its encouraging to hear that your operation was a success.

You mentioned manufacturers - could you share any more light and what they are / were manufactoring for you?

I would agree with your advice on having a solid customer base. I actually live and work in Singapore, but have worked / travelled all around Asia and am not intent in concentrating on Thailand, more Asia as a region. Would Singapore be where the customers are? Well to be honest, I'm really right at the start of square 1, just hoping to get some ideas thrown around!

The ideal scenario would be something that can start off small and is managable whilst still remaining in my job.

[Upcountry]

I've been wondering about this lately. What are the barriers, what is the red tape and cost of exporting a Thai-made product from Thailand to the US?

If I did something like this, I'd start small and test the waters. I'm guessing the customs and other costs have a tendency to wipe out potential profit, unless the selling price is much higher.

[xbusman]

Jeeze louise, those are some fairly jumbo sized questions regarding a very complex subject. Would take hours to discuss the answers and you might get five differant answers from three differant people.

Regarding barriers and red tape for export to the US, you would be surprised at how simple and inexpensive it is. By far one of the easiest countries to deal with, associated costs of transport, duties and brokerage are just a cost of doing business like paper clips and telephone bills. If you cant create a costing structure that enables you to compete at a profit in any business you end up SOL.

I have dozens of manufacturers, making everything from Harley motorcycle parts to music CDs. If you have money and need a product we get it done and delivered much cheaper than you can get it made in the US or EU. Its very time consuming and if you dont keep control of the details it can go sidewise at great expense in a hurry.

Again, I think the key is not in finding a product and trying to sell it, its in finding a customer and filling their need.

If you want to discuss this in detail, I will be at the TV pissup at Sin on friday for a while. If not, your invited to drop by my company and see some of the products and ask away.

[alesypalsy]

I used to export from thailand to UK, 20ft containers then onto 40ft high cube, stopped last year as the product was oversold here, we wiped out the market for our product in the UK, (dragons by the way) We used to buy in changmai hang dong village and it would go from changmai by truck to bkk onto ship then come to southampton via singapore. Pm me if you need shippers or anything special maybe i can help. I could do with some advice off you actually ted, I am looking at going long term in bangkok and looking for a bank account in sing, i am looking for good interest rates and atm card, do you know if this is possible with a bkk address? Maybe you could find out?

Kindest regards

[~G~]

If you want to export from country A to country B you must some kind of selling capabilities in country B - Either good contacts, agents, or your own staff based there. Finding suppliers and then sending emails simply won't do it.

I have tried to set up an export business in Thailand for a very specific niche market in Europel. It was not very successful, mainly because -

1. I could not rely on my Thai suppliers 100% - the level of certification they had was not enough for EU standards.

2. I did not have strong enough representatives in the destination countries - those that I had were either too expensive or not professional enough.

Realizing that, I have shifted to importing products to Thailand, where I can easily meet with customers, and operate the distribution channels myself. It's not a million dollar business (yet ) but doing pretty well. We are now importing a unique product, which major distributors and retailers in Thailand find very interesting. I would be happy to specify it here, but am not sure whether moderators will approve of that, so for further info you are welcome to PM me.

I also function as an agent of the manufacturer of this product, so you (or anyone else) with distribution capabilities in Asian countires may contact me.

[Ted]

Interesting to hear everyone's post's so far; Particularly mysterious ~G~ !

alexpalsy - FYI The main local banks in S'pore are DBS, UOB and OCBC. As far as I know you have to an employment pass / residency plus local address to open an account locally, but might be worth checking out there websites. The other 2 strong international banks are HSBC and Citibank - could be worth a try?

However, As for the interest rates I fairly sure you'll get a better deal at HSBC and Citibank but its a whole lot less competitive than the UK

Hope this helps

[Thaicoon]

I used to export from thailand to UK, 20ft containers then onto 40ft high cube, stopped last year as the product was oversold here, we wiped out the market for our product in the UK, (dragons by the way) We used to buy in changmai hang dong village and it would go from changmai by truck to bkk onto ship then come to southampton via singapore. Pm me if you need shippers or anything special maybe i can help. I could do with some advice off you actually ted, I am looking at going long term in bangkok and looking for a bank account in sing, i am looking for good interest rates and atm card, do you know if this is possible with a bkk address? Maybe you could find out?

Kindest regards

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was doing the same started about 6 years ago, Dragons and all sorts of carvings etc, benches, Guian's, cartwheels, i use to buy the cartwheels in Buriram and ship them up to Chaing Mai for packing, still got about 100 wheels in a yard up there, i want to sell, i was shipping 40 footers across to Felixstowe, also buying in Hang dong, as a mate of mine has a good Business there, i actually asked him to get Welsh dragons made for me, we designed them and they were selling well, the 6 foot ones, i was knocking out for 399.00 GBP, trouble with doing things like this and designing items, in a few weeks other thais are copying, i also have stopped doing it now, as people are flooding the market in the uk, when i started there were a handfull doing it, i use to use A & P Shipping in Hang dong, very good, but sometimes the packing was a bit untidy, so my mate use to pack the containers for me, no problems. if anybody is interested in buying some cartwheels, i have about 200 in my warehouse in Buriram and about 100 in Chaing-mai.

[alesypalsy]

I used to export from thailand to UK, 20ft containers then onto 40ft high cube, stopped last year as the product was oversold here, we wiped out the market for our product in the UK, (dragons by the way) We used to buy in changmai hang dong village and it would go from changmai by truck to bkk onto ship then come to southampton via singapore. Pm me if you need shippers or anything special maybe i can help. I could do with some advice off you actually ted, I am looking at going long term in bangkok and looking for a bank account in sing, i am looking for good interest rates and atm card, do you know if this is possible with a bkk address? Maybe you could find out?

Kindest regards

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was doing the same started about 6 years ago, Dragons and all sorts of carvings etc, benches, Guian's, cartwheels, i use to buy the cartwheels in Buriram and ship them up to Chaing Mai for packing, still got about 100 wheels in a yard up there, i want to sell, i was shipping 40 footers across to Felixstowe, also buying in Hang dong, as a mate of mine has a good Business there, i actually asked him to get Welsh dragons made for me, we designed them and they were selling well, the 6 foot ones, i was knocking out for 399.00 GBP, trouble with doing things like this and designing items, in a few weeks other thais are copying, i also have stopped doing it now, as people are flooding the market in the uk, when i started there were a handfull doing it, i use to use A & P Shipping in Hang dong, very good, but sometimes the packing was a bit untidy, so my mate use to pack the containers for me, no problems. if anybody is interested in buying some cartwheels, i have about 200 in my warehouse in Buriram and about 100 in Chaing-mai.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How the great minds work!!! thaicoon, Yes it was a great little earner around 3 years up to last year, I always looking for new enterprises,

Ted thanks very much for the info on the banks.