COSMIC MOBILE Technologies (Thailand) Co has set an aggressive target of more than doubling its sales to Bt700 million this year, from Bt300 million in 2014.
The company is a joint venture between a group of Thai technology investors and the Philippines' Cosmic Technologies Inc. It markets Windows-based tablets and a wide range of Android handsets, both feature phones and smartphones, under the Cherry Mobile moniker, which it hopes to promote as an AEC (Asean Economic Community) brand.
Cherry Mobile's commitment is to become the top value-for-money mobile phone in the Thai market by positioning itself as an "affordable luxury product". The Thai unit posted Bt100 million in sales in 2013 after starting up in July that year.
"Based on the current status, we will not call it a success in Thailand so far," general manager Phassakorn Rianchaisirikul said. "We see ourselves as newbies and are just starting to step into the Thai market, so we still have a long way to go to achieve our goals.
"The key to success is lots of hard work in all aspects. But we will definitely do what it takes to achieve our goals. So near and yet so far, but when we meet our goals, that will be when we call it a successful business."
Phassakorn said the company had set its targets in a few stages that would by executed country by country. In the first stage, the company wants to introduce its brand into the AEC countries in the next three to five years.
"As of today, the Cherry brand has been surprisingly well accepted in the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar. Therefore we hope to expand the brand to other AEC countries in a short time. We really hope that AEC countries are capable of owning our AEC brand, and perhaps Cherry may be expanded to non-AEC countries soon," he said.
"We all know that it's not easy to build a new brand and to maintain it in this competitive environment. What does it take to survive in this industry? Hard work must be implanted in our minds as the first step. We should not slow down at any stage towards achieving our goals - indeed, we will need to work even harder than before, and harder than others. This is what keeps us passionate in executing our tasks and meeting challenges."
He said the company did not have to think like an "Albert Einstein" on every aspect of a its task, but had to work as smart as that great scientist by using limited resources to achieve maximum targets.
Phassakorn said every member of the company's staff knew that there would be a lot of challenges. The market might change from up to down depending on the country's economy and those unpredictable situations that no human being can control. Therefore, the company needed to be patient so as to pass through all the hard times and keep looking forward for new ways that might lead to success.
He said Thailand was one of the most competitive mobile-phone markets. There are a lot of choices and ranges for consumers to choose from. Different people have different demands in choosing what mobile they want.
"For Cherry Mobile, we will focus on the design and the quality of the products, as well as user-friendly functions. We will also put our products in places that are convenient, to be in touch with individual consumers, and with prices that are affordable to all," Phassakorn said.
"Since we only introduced the Cherry brand in Thailand about one and a half years ago, as far as we know we did well in 2014. So we are hoping that more and more people will get to know and recognise our Cherry brand in 2015, and of course we would like to double our revenue compared with last year. Therefore, we will definitely work harder, as we see great potential for our business in Thailand," he sai