Ally Data Technology, manufacturer and distributor of modem products from the Netherlands, has established facilities in Thailand to be used as a production base of modem products. A 500 million baht investment was used to establish the factory in Rayong.

The company selected Thailand as its production base because they said they had confidence in the country’s stability. Moreover, Thai workers have high potential to be trained and perform work according to the company’s requirements.

Modems produced in the new plant are for the local marketing as well as worldwide export. The company’s target is to become the leader in modem technology in Europe. Target customers are home PC users, office users and professional users, as well as industrial users. Sales revenue this year is expected to be 1,000 million baht, with a 50% growth rate.

Siripong Akkarasriyuk, MD of Hawel Thailand, said that due to the success of the company’s first ice-cream stand in Central Pinkloaw, and the large numbers of customers that are being drawn to the outlet, the business is making 500,000 baht in sales per day.

From their good start and first success, the company now plans to open more booths. This expansion will be undertaken in 1 of 2 ways ญ 1. Franchising; 2. Co-investment. Interested co-investors are required to spend an initial investment of 50,000 baht or more.

Hawel considers themselves a “newly born business”. Siripong said that subsidizing the expansion themselves through loans from financial institutions might not be a practical and convenient alternative, since it may take a long time for the loan to be granted, and there is the ever present risk of refusal. Instead, the company came up with the franchise and co-investment idea, and expects that it will help the company to expand the business faster.

The managing director of South Asia of Silicon Graphic Pte last week revealed that the company’s marketing direction will now focus on full system services rather than their old practice based only on graphic works.

The new policy is called Value Added Master Reseller. In Thailand, SGI has authorized The Value System as their representative in product distribution, and full services, which include retailing and affiliate selection. SGI will be providing training to the engineers and staff from Value System.

SGI believes that the new marketing practice will bring the company closer to SMEs, E-business groups and the .COM companies. Presently, The Value System is managing 600 main sale representatives, and another 1,200 selling partial product lines.

Mweb ญ a provider of Internet information in Thailand and a member of the M.I.H. Group from South Africa, has launched a portal site www.mweb.co.th to provide free information services to the users of mobile phones using the WAP system.

WAP.MWEB provides three different service types: 1. Infotainment services, which offer information regarding general news, weather forecasts, telephone number searching, song and movie charts, and a fortuneteller; 2. M-Interactive that provides e-mail and e-card services; and 3. M-Commerce - an online marketplace where users can purchase products on-line.

Mweb came up with the portal site idea due to the fact that the number of mobile phone users in Thailand is far larger than the number of PC users. Internet services via mobile phone, they say, is then a truly good business opportunity.

Tawatchai Wilaiuck, MD of Samart Internet, said that after completion of management restructuring within the organization, Samart Group will be focusing on Internet businesses. Two subsidiary companies have already been set up to support the new policy.

The first subsidiary company is Samart Online, which provides services in the form of interactive media, audio text, mobile phones and pagers. Another subsidiary company named Samart Connect will be involved in ISP, website, hosting, and several forms of application services. The Samart Group expects revenue from the new subsidiaries to make up 50% of their overall income.

Samart Online now holds shares in 3 portal sites ญ 100% in www.yumyai.com, 40% in www.thaiticketmaster.com, and 60% in www.thaisupermodels.com.

Responding to motoring market recovery

David Kennedy, the top operations manager of B-Quik Service (car service centers) announced his company is planning to set up new car service centers to cover areas upcountry. The company’s expansion target is to open 40 centers within this year. This is the first time the company has ventured into expansion upcountry.

Presently, the company operates 26 service centers in Bangkok and the Bangkok Metropolitan area. The 27th center will be officially opened at the end of this month, in Ram-Indra.

The company’s expansion policy is being undertaken to respond to the positive change the motoring market is experiencing. It is expected that the overall motoring market will have a growth rate of at least 30% over last year, which saw 220,000 total market units sold.