Green Bean- Green Bean is currently our primary business. We have established a leading reputation and have many customers. This core business may change however due to the ASEAN trade agreement which takes effect December 2015.
Currently Thailand taxes imported coffee at 90% which protects Thai Producers from foreign competition. This also has a negative impact in that Thai producers do not compete on quality or price thus Thai Coffee is too expensive and not competitive with quality. If ASEAN does open then Thai Green Bean will be suffer greatly.
If ASEAN does open, we plan to use our existing customer distribution channels to sell ASEAN Green bean.. primarily coffee from Indonesia, Lao and Papau New Guinea to our existing customers.
The Thai Government is making this hard.. ASEAN is said to open.. but no one know if the Thai Government will allow ASEAN coffee in or not and no one in the government can say what the actual policy is. We are working on answering these questions.
Our marketing efforts should focus on the following.
1. Current customer satisfaction and relationship building.
2. Selling current stocks efficiently and for the highest prices possible- We do not want any stock remaining after November 2015. This is done with the Weekly Stock check and Hot Sheet, which specifies the inventory we want to sell that week. Then we use Social Media, E-mail brochures and personal contact to sell this weekly stock.
3. Wan has a Green bean data base that we can use.. this data base is also in the CRM software. We can use the Mail Chimp program with the CRM software to create weekly e-mails to our data base list.
4. Moving to importing and distributing ASEAN green bean to our existing customers.
Roasting Coffee- Roasted coffee has been a side business for us. We sell to shops in Phrao and a few in Chiang mai. We can offer very high quality roasted coffee at good prices because we are factory direct for the shops.. No middle men.. plant to cup.
However- we are not equipped to efficiently sell roasted coffee. This is a very competitive environment and to do it well takes a comprehensive strategy. You need barista trainers and sales people who are coffee professionals and who are also professional sales people.
In order to sell roasted coffee you need to:
1. Establish a reputation through branding and messaging.
a. Social Media
b. News Media
c. Professional recognition
2. Provide training services to the shop baristas so they can properly extract the roasted beans.
3. Have professionally trained sales persons who understand the sales process and can offer coffee shop owners more than roasted beans..
We did hire a sales person and send her to Chiang mai. It was a complete disaster. We paid all the expenses. The person whet to chiang mai and had a party, staying in expensive places, eating lots and lots of food, charging us for gas and only calling on 1 shop per day. The only way to make this work would be to have someone who lives in chiang mai, train them properly and then pay on commission only.. This effort needs to be combined with Social Media, Web site, Media branding and e-mail strategies.
The sales process takes time and relationship building and we just do not have the proper resources at this time. Eing tries very hard but her sales skills are not very good.. I have tried to train her but she is not receptive to training as a professional. Reading, learning and practicing.
Overall, selling roasted coffee is very competitive and takes a complete effort to succeed. It is not our strength so it is not a current priority.
Mill Works- This is the sale of agricultural processing machines. We are currently selling into the coffee market but want to expand to all agricultural products.
This business is well positioned in the market. Thai mills are equipped with old Thai machines that are very inefficient. Thailand’s agricultural products are trying to compete in the world market which require higher quality products. Labor in Thailand is also short and more expensive than in other ASEAN Countries. Thus, Thailand’s mills will be updating to modern machinery which improve both quality and save money.
Thai High is representing Spectrum Machines from India which are precise machines that do improve quality and save time. These machines are also profitable and provide the opportunity to install and sell other equipment such as elevators and electrical panels.
We see this business as a very good opportunity and Thai High is well positioned to do this.. Noi is a good mechanic and can do the install and sourcing.. I can do the importing business very efficiently. And together we can implement a comprehensive marketing strategy to sell lots of machines to many agricultural segments.
Our strategy needs to be comprehensive and should include the following.
1.. Trade Shows..
2. Web Site and Social Media
3. Direct electronic sales through e-mail
4.. Direct sales. Phone and onsite visits.
I am excited about the potential of this business.