Imagene acts on Thai potential
IMAGENE Labs, a new Singapore-based company specialising in genetics-driven wellness, has announced plans to expand into Thailand, part of its plan to broaden its presence in Asia.
The company will set up a representative office in Bangkok in the near future.
Dr Wong Mun Yew, founder and chief executive of Asia Genomics and managing director of Imagene Labs, said the latter was launched last year to bring DNA-based customised wellness solutions to individual customers. Its products are skincare, nutritional and vitamin supplements, and fitness aids.
“Based on genetics tests and attemp in customisation, … we will be able to know who you are and create products that are suitable and tailor-made [for] you,” Wong said.
He said Imagene Labs was launched in Singapore, its home market, last September, as well as in Malaysia in October, in Hong Kong in January, and now in Thailand.
“We are looking to launch the business in China in early May and in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, by the third quarter of this year,” Wong said.
He said that at mass-market retailers such as Watsons and GNC, individual consumers needed to buy different brands of food supplements and vitamins to get complete nutritional benefits.
“At Imagene Labs, we have created products that are customised to your genetics so that you need not take different brands for complete nutrition,” he said.
Jia Yi Har, general manager and vice president of Imagene Labs, said the company had |created both business-to-business and business-to-customer models.
For B2B, she said, the company will distribute products via wellness centres, gyms and fitness facilities, beauty and spa operations, aesthetic centres, private hospitals and insurance firms, which want to offer wellness solutions and make their customers more healthy.
For B2C, individual consumers will be able to access Imagene Labs’ genetic-test service and products via AskOri.com. The price will be Bt5,290 for a genetic test and report, and Bt2,500 each for customised serums and vitamins.
“We also plan to set up our own retail shops [at a] later stage,” Wong said.
He said the company would own the business in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore, while in some markets such as Thailand and Indonesia, it might consider joint ventures with local partners. That would depend, however, on the company’s ability to find good local partners in particular markets.
He said the company had already formed a joint venture in China in which it holds a majority stake, and the business |would be officially launched in May. Imagene Labs expects to post US$5 million (Bt175 million) in total revenue in its first year of operation. It expects annual revenue to reach $100 million by 2019, which will include contributions from mainland China, India, Japan and Taiwan.
