The target is over three times higher than the THB$700m (US$22m) it achieved last year.
The growth comes despite Thailand reporting its economy shrinking by 12.2% on-year in the second quarter — its deepest economic contraction since the Asian financial crisis in 1998.
Amado says it has been building on its offline presence actively in the past few months, forming a 40-employee strong telesales team.
It is mainly to facilitate enquiries from TV shopping channels and reaching out to the seniors who are less savvy with e-commerce.
Products promoted via this channel include the company’s flagship Colligi hydrolysed fish tripeptide collagen powder for bone and joint health and B-LiNZ, a Lingzhi mushroom capsule combined with vitamin B complex.
Since starting in April, the channel had contributed sales volume of THB$80m (US$2.5m) per month, CFO Promwut Assawasoponkul told NutraIngredients-Asia.
“We do mostly online, social media commerce at first and only have product kiosks in shopping malls for our offline retail.
“But the offline channel is actually big…During COVID-19, people are staying at home watching TV, and when we tried telesales, the response have been good,” he said.
The company also ventured into the 7-Eleven convenience stores across Thailand with its Colligi sachets.
Its other offline retail goal is to increase the number of kiosks in shopping centres from the current 40 to 100 by the end of this year.
The key goal is to push sales to THB$2500m (US$79m) by the end of this year. Promwut revealed that the company is about 56% through the goal, having achieved THB$1,400m (US$44m).
Next year, the company aims to be publicly listed in Thailand’s Market for Alternative Investment (mai).
“With many distribution channels on both offline and online, we can have more flexibility even during the pandemic. In fact, our sales have been growing month-on-month,” he said.
K-pop effect
The company signed an agreement with South Korean actor Hyun Bin as its brand ambassador in July.
“Hyun bin is a superstar in Thailand. I just want to bring confidence to the Thai consumers to show that we are a good company and have the power to afford to have a big superstar from Korea to be our brand ambassador,” Promwut said.
It turns out that the company was spot-on in making the investment.
H-Collagen tripeptide, the product which the lead of the K-drama “Crash Landing on You” is endorsing, became the second best-selling product within a month’s time.
As compared to its Colligi tripeptide collagen powder, which is catered for the seniors, the H-collagen tripeptide is targeted at women in their mid-20s to mid-40s. It contains tripeptide fish collagen, vitamin C, and melon extract.
“Hyun Bin is the key I think (for the sales spike). He got the consumers to pay attention to the product,” he said.
Its bestselling product is the flagship Colligi tripeptide collagen, while Amado Cerigi, a multivitamin and rice extract supplement tablet, took the third spot.
Growing company
The company based in Bangkok is on a continuous expansion for both its product range and its company size.
In July and August alone, the company has launched three new products. Aside from H-Collagen, it also launched B-LiNZ, which is made of rice germ oil, reishi mushroom powder, bitter melon extract, and rice extract, as well as IMMU – a multivitamin for immune support which also contains beta-glucan, kombu extract, and plu kaow (Houttuynia cordata) extract.
The company size also grew from less than 100 to 250, part of it was to form the telesales team.
Further down the road, the company intends to enter the China market.
To prepare for the entry, the company has been manufacturing some of its products, including H-Collagen tripeptide in an OEM factory in South Korea for export back to Thailand.
Promwut said that this was because the manufacturing standards in South Korea were in line with requirements from China.
