ThaiBev, the largest beverage firm in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), will spend 7 billion baht (USD 230 million) in the next six years to renovate its existing breweries in Thailand and increase sales in the region.
President and Chief Executive Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, son of founder and Chairman of ThaiBev, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, said at a conference where he presented ThaiBevs Vision 2025, that Thailand’s biggest drinks company will spend the money foremost in two areas.
After being in operation for 25 years now, ThaiBev plans to renovate and update its breweries located in Kamphaeng Phet, in Ayutthaya's Bang Ban and Wang Noi districts in Thailand. In addition the company plans to further expand sales in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Especially the first three countries with a combined population of 220 million will be strategic key markets for ThaiBev.
"Some of the investment budget in 2020 will be for Sabeco, the brewer of Saigon beer in Vietnam that we acquired in 2017 [inside.beer, 18.12.2017], to reduce debt and financial costs," Mr. Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi said. Other funds will be reserved for Myanmar, another key market for ThaiBev. The Singapore listed company bought in October 2017 a 75 percent stake in Myanmar Distillery Company Group, which was recently renamed into Grand Royal Group International Company. Shortly later, in March 2018, the company announced the foundation of Emerald Brewery Myanmar (inside.beer, 22.3.2018), a 500,000 hl brewery which was officially inaugurated last week (inside.beer, 4.10.2019).
Another interesting market for ThaiBev is Cambodia which belongs like the other Asean countries to one of the fastest-growing regions in the world and where people mainly drink beer. ThaiBev is currently investigating options to acquire a brewery in this country. As Mr. Sirivadhanabkakdi stressed, the population in all Asean countries is expected to increase from 660 million to 700 million by 2025.
On Thursday, ThaiBev also presented excellent figures for the first nine months of 2019. Total sales amounted to THB 205.27 billion (USD 6.7bn), up 18.2 percent year-on-year, with EBITDA being THB 36.26 billion (USD 1.19bn, +31.3%) and net profit THB 21.89 billion (+34%, USD 722m). Earnings per share were THB 0.79.
