Insider Flash: San Miguel taps Thai health trend

11/01/2007 - San Miguel plans to launch a new water brand and a range of functional beverages in Thailand as part of its strategy to gain a leading position in this market, reveals a report.

The Philippines-based company, already one of south-east Asia's biggest food and drink producers, made its first steps in the Thai beverage market when it bought a brewery from Thai Amarit Brewery in 2004.

But the acquisition of Australia's National Foods in 2005 gave it a new premium juice brand (Berri), which has recently been introduced into Thailand.

Now it wants to become a major player in the country's beverage market by adding an extensive range of non-alcoholic drinks.

"We want to make ourselves a key player in the overall beverage market in Thailand in the next three to five years," Chirawan Assavanich, San Miguel's Thailand marketing and sales director, told The Nation newspaper last week.

Next month, the company will introduce a new drinking water under the Nam Fa brand, initially on test markets in the eastern region, including Chon Buri and Rayong. "We are also interested in launching other non-alcoholic beverages, such as functional drinks, which have high market potential," Assavanich told the paper.

Thai consumers are increasingly interested in healthy foods and beverages, a trend that is reflected in the growing fruit juice market. Juice drinks have been growing annually by 10.7 per cent, reaching around 109 million litres in 2004 or US$90 million, according to the US Foreign Agricultural Service.

San Miguel estimates Thailand's total fruit-juice market to be worth BT5 billion (€107m), with about 40 per cent of sales from pure fruit juice products and the rest from juice drinks.

Domestic player Tipco claims to have a 43 per cent share of the high-end segment of pure fruit and vegetable juice.
The company expects its Berri imported 100-per-cent fruit juice to generate sales of BT10 million this year, according to the report. A further BT200 million will be earned by its SunBlest 40-per-cent juice, produced in a recently completed factory in Rayong since October last year.

Source: ap-foodtechnology.com