Betagro plans 50 stores in Bangkok; targets schools, hospitals
Betagro Group hopes to have 50 Betagro Stores planted in Greater Bangkok as part of its plan to harvest Bt6 billion in revenue in two or three years from its wholesale distribution business.
Vasit Taepaisitphongse, executive vice president and chief operating officer, said yesterday that the company’s 100 shops serve as wholesale distribution outlets for fresh chicken meat and pork, sausages and other food products produced by Betagro.
The latest is boiled pig’s blood, targeting customers like markets, food stores, schools, hospitals and hotels.
The stores are well-received by consumers, generating sales of Bt2.5 billion last year.
Betagro’s strategy is to penetrate the market from the outside in by opening branches in provincial districts with a considerable number of stores, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, schools, company canteens and state offices.
The stores fulfil the need of customers for convenience in making purchases with quick delivery of hygienic and fresh products to their sites.
Betagro’s 14 stores in Bangkok face intense competition from rivals offering similar products, so it must tailor its merchandise to best meet customers’ needs while providing an integrated service centre for them to place and follow up on orders.
Store expansion is not as important as providing hygienic and fresh quality products that consumers want in the most convenient manner for them. Expansion must be a gradual process that reflects the business environment to ensure long-term stability and sustainability.
Despite the stiff competition, Betagro sees good prospects for growth and store expansion under the Asean Economic Community in 2015, especially with the changes in consumers’ work and life styles seeking convenience, quick service and quality products. Consumers will also wield greater purchasing power, so Betagro is studying investment opportunities presented by the AEC in 2015.
Narongchai Srisantisaeng, deputy senior vice president, said Betagro (Cambodia) Co plans to build an 18,000 tonne-per-month plant in an industrial estate in Phnom Penh to meet rising demand for animal feed. Construction will commence this month and is expected to be completed by 2014.
Betagro established a sales office in Phnom Penh in 2011. Sales of animal feed under the Betagro, Perm Poon and Bio brands in Cambodia are running at 3,600 tonnes a month.
The plant will help reduce the cost and time in making deliveries to Cambodian customers that are becoming more confident in the prices, product quality and attentive services offered by Betagro.
Betagro is about 95 per cent finished with building a 130-rai pig farm housing 1,500 pure-bred pigs in Kampanang, Cambodia. It should be completed this month. About 750 pure-bred hogs from Betagro Hybrid International Co are being raised on this farm. Some of their piglets will be raised on the farm, and some brought up by contract farmers.
In Cambodia, Betagro strives to minimise the environmental impact on the surrounding communities similarly to its pig farms in Thailand via an effective waste management system, bio-security system and a 30-40 per cent electricity saving system via biogas.
Betagro is conducting a feasibility study into setting up a pork processing plant and a chain of Betagro Stores in Cambodia.
