Expanding Srithai lands Sportron deals

S Nature Co, the direct sales company of Srithai Superware, has been renamed Srithai Network Co as part of its business strategy to create wider recognition and further expand abroad.

Srithai Superware is the world’s leading melamine producer and the name of the business is known well among consumers.

Settapong Haemintakun, chief operating officer of Srithai Network, said the name change would attract more people and support the company’s plans to aggressively expand direct sales within Asean.

The company has already set up offices in Myanmar and Laos to operate direct sales marketing. The business in Malaysia is expected to begin in the first quarter of this year while the company has also outlined future expansion in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and India.

Apart from distributing products from its parent company, Srithai Network was recently appointed by Sportron International, the US-based food supplement maker, to distribute Food Matrix supplements in Asia.

Food Matrix products will be sold here next month and expand into other Asian countries in the next few years, he said.

Keith Harding, Sportron International chief executive, said during his visit to Thailand that Food Matrix had been available here for a decade, distributed by another company.

Sportron appointed Srithai Network to become its new distributor because it wants to see faster business growth. “Thailand is an important market for food supplements and Asia is the fastest growing region for food supplements,” he said.

Thailand in particular is a key market for food supplements from the US, said Mr Harding.

Thailand emerged as the 12th largest market for food supplements last year. Mr Harding said that in the past five years, Thailand was not even in the top 30.

He said that sales of Sportron International reached US$172 million last year. Of the total, about 10% of sales came from Asia.

With Srithai Network, he hopes that the sales contribution of Sportron’s business in Asia will at least double over the next 12 months.

Mr Settapong said that with more food supplements in its network and Asian expansion, the company expected sales this year to reach 1 billion baht.