Thai company Vachamon Food, which recently won the 2014 Asia Fruit Award for Importer of the Year, has announced plans to construct a new cold storage and distribution hub in Khon Kaen Province in Thailand’s northeast.
The Bangkok-based importer is investing US$2m in the construction of the new operation, according to managing director Wipavee Watcharakorn, who said it will have the capacity to store 35 containers as well as a pre-packing room covering 256m2.
The facility is strategically located five hours’ north of the capital, midway between Bangkok and Laos, and around 10-15km from Tesco Lotus's northeast regional distribution centre.
“The aim of this site is two-fold,” Watcharakorn told Asiafruit. “On the one hand, it enables us to become more cost-efficient in supplying Tesco, which is one of our main customers. On the other, it gives us a platform to penetrate the market of northeast Thailand and Laos country.”
In terms of deliveries to Tesco’s DC, she said the facility would radically cut Vachamon’s transportation costs. “We’ll be able to truck product directly from the port to the regional hub. Currently, we have to bring the product to our Bangkok facility, unload and store it, then truck a portion for Khon Kaen for delivery.”
In addition to improving Vachamon's storage and distribution capabilities, the operation, which is set to open at the turn of the year, will enable the importer to undertake more pre-packing for supermarket customers. “Grapes are mainly sold loose but some are now packed in 500g punnets, and we are doing a lot of apple pre-packs,” said Watcharakorn.
The facility should also become a bridgehead to extend Vachamon’s reach into northeast Thailand and tap into the emerging market across the border in Laos.
“Khon Kaen City is an interesting market in itself because it has a population of 2m and it’s the third richest city in Thailand after Bangkok and Chiang Mai,” said Watcharakorn.
“But across the whole Greater Mekong sub-region, we see huge investment going into infrastructure, and we see huge potential to penetrate the wholesale market in this region.”
In tandem with its investment in Khon Kaen, Vachamon is revamping its home base in Bangkok. “We’re expanding the storage capacity of our Bangkok operation to accommodate a further 20 containers, and we’re converting the loading area from ambient to fully temperature controlled,” detailed Watcharakorn. “Between our two facilities in Bangkok and Khon Kaen, we’ll be able to store 145 containers.”
In the October edition of Asiafruit Magazine, Vachamon’s MD Wipavee Watcharakorn talks about winning the 2014 Asia Fruit Award for Importer of the Year, the company's latest expansion plans and its innovative online marketing campaign for Jazz and Envy apples. To order your copy, email subscriptions@fruitnet.com
