SET-listed Sherwood Corporation (Thailand) (SWC), a trading company under TOA Group, is diversifying into fast-moving consumer products to boost sales.
Chanin Yensudchai, chairman of the company's board of directors, said that the diversification strategy will focus on food and non-foods under the safety, wellness and care concept.
"With the new strategy, SWC, a conservative local company, will become an aggressive, professional and global company,'' Mr Chanin said.
In the past, sales of SWC came mostly from insecticides. However, with the new strategy, the consumer food business will become the company's new growth driver. Sales of food and beverages is expected to reach 2.5 billion baht in 2026 or 25% of total sales of SWC, estimated at 10 billion baht during that period. In 2020, sales of SWC products was one billion baht and 6% came from the consumer food business.
The company introduced "Super Fight'', a new health drink brand to the market last month. Carbonated herbal drinks and functional drinks are also in its business pipeline to help strengthen its portfolio.
SWC is involved mainly in three businesses, comprising industrial chemical products; consumer non-foods including Chaindrite insecticide, Teepol cleansing and Chaingard pet shampoo; and consumer food products including Hokkaido dairy and Marucho snack and the Super Fight drink.
Mr Chanin has attributed the company's entry into the health drink sector to the industry's high growth. Currently, Super Fight is available at supermarkets, petrol stations and will be on 7-Eleven shelves from Thursday. It expects to cover 100,000 outlets or 25% of traditional stores by the end of the year. It also plans to spend 100 million baht to promote Super Fight with Phakin "Tono'' Khamwilaisak, an actor, as its product presenter.
"Expanding into the food and beverage business is an important move. Super Fight will not only sell on the domestic market but also the international market, with Africa expected to be a big target area,'' said Thanakorn Wattanawijarn, the company's chief executive.
Currently, the company exports its Super Fight health drink to Togo in West Africa and is eyeing Nigeria, Ghana and the CLMV markets.
Somsak Chansong, the company's chief commercial officer, said that Thailand's beverage consumption is four times larger than food. The market size of three products that the company is involved in -- dairy, beverage and snacks -- is worth 66 billion baht, 155 billion baht and 37.23 billion baht, respectively.
"As food is our new growth engine, we are committed to extending the food portfolio via new product lines and new brands. Merger and acquisitions will also be applied if there is an opportunity,'' Mr Somsak said.
According to Mr Somsak, with mass vaccination taking place, the company expects to see its business resume in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
The company expects its sales to rise to 2.5 billion baht in 2021, up from one billion baht last year. Of the total, the consumer food business will contribute 15%, with 60% from insecticides and the remaining 25% from cleansing and other businesses.
