It is always a pleasure to meet you in Bangkok and discuss our further cooperation in managing the brand for you. I’m quite confident that the structure we have established from day one with a selected few and with our general support by setting a pallet buy at 10 cartons to one carton buy on all the food service lines will be able to provide a choice to all the existing food service wholesalers who, in turn, supply to the restaurants.
In general, our price structure allows the selected direct container purchase customers to be able to compete against us. Actually, Auspac has been able to undercut our wholesale price by 50 cents per unit and, in turn, they will collect in cash and yet OM provides other customers a minimum 60 days credit and possibly as long as 90 days credit in such a way that different types of customers have a different preference and, in turn, a more varied type of supply chain is being established under this new system. I certainly will be monitoring this at all times and with only 4 weeks of availability of our stock that we received during the course of early November, I’m quite confident there are a few customers that have been ordering from us in the marketplace.
I have also indicated to you that there is still a fair bit of stock available in the marketplace and we both agree that it will possibly take around 6 months for the stock to be depleted by our appointment. I have also indicated that there are still a fair bit of parallel import coming in and you have indicated to me that the last shipment via the local exporter was in August 2015 and I’m therefore quite confident that within the next 3 months we will be able to verify how much stock is available in the marketplace. I will request my staff to monitor the expiry date on all product so a comprehensive audit can be obtained and, in turn, reflect the overall stock situation throughout Australia. This will enable us to plan our next move in order to confirm our intent of having maximum distribution in the food service market and, at the same time, providing far better consistency in both supply chain and pricing throughout Australia.
By doing an audit of every SKU that we are importing, hopefully we are able to work out how much stock is being held by your ex importers which amount to around 15-16 of them, plus all the other parallel importers. Therefore, by the time you visit early next year, we will be able to review the situation in conjunction with you and, in turn, work out our future strategy in managing both the brand and the supply chain in Australia.
You have indicated to me that you have the intention of putting an advertisement in the Thai newspaper in Sydney which is a very good idea. As I suggested, we should not include OM as the sole agent in your ad, but rather state that the product is available from all food service wholesalers throughout NSW and possibly in other states. I believe that as your product has been in the marketplace for many years, it is not crucial to include a statement of OM as sole agent to remind the end user that Pantai is the preferred product for use in their restaurant or any other users.
I’m also looking for further support for the retail pack and I have the intention of tidying up the display in most of the Asian grocery shops. I will definitely allocate some manpower to put shelf talkers on the shelf and, at the same time, tidy up the display and also create a brand block arrangement for you so that it can create maximum visibility of the Pantai brand in all the retail outlets. I will work out the possible exercise and, at the same time, I will evaluate the cost. If it is too expensive, I will be seeking your support to ease some of the financial burden that will be exerted on this very laborious exercise. I’m also contemplating that during this exercise, I would like to provide some encouragement to seek support from the retailers to allow us to do this exercise. Therefore, I wonder if you would consider to provide some support for the retail pack so we can pass it on to encourage any retailers willing to support this exercise. I would also like to confirm that we are looking forward to receiving your advice regarding the shelf talkers you have indicated you have. I believe you have sighted the shelf talker we have done for Lee Kum Kee a few years ago and I hope that it will be able to create the visibility for you in the marketplace.
I think that since you are looking at visiting us during the course of January (hopefully early January), then we certainly can go through the above suggested exercise and, in turn, I hope that it can be implemented in the first quarter of 2016. I believe we will be able to confirm this exercise during your coming visit. Therefore, I will be very grateful you could advise us the earliest possible time of your pending visit in early 2016.
I also mentioned the possibility of gluten free sweet chilli sauce which I believe is a very unique product in the marketplace. I’m therefore seeking your staff to put in a bit of effort to redesign the label and preferably a bottle that I have mentioned during our meeting so that we can do a presentation for Woolworths. I hope we can convince the Woolworths buyer to range this unique product in Woolworths in the course of April/May. Therefore, I hope you can understand the urgency of the matter and I’m looking forward to receiving your label design plus the bottle I mentioned during our meeting.
In reference to Ireland, I have submitted the full range of products for you which is from the list of products we require under Pantai brand two products namely the coconut milk and the rice stick. You have indicated to me that you are willing to get a contract packer for these two SKUs in order to provide a comprehensive range of Pantai brand of Thai products for Ireland supermarket. You have also confirmed that there is no direct importer into Ireland from your company and therefore it is agreed that you will provide us with a period of two years as exclusive direct import for our Ireland customer to try to list your product into the supermarket chain throughout Ireland. We both agree it is quite a lengthy and challenging exercise and therefore a two year timeline will be an acceptable exercise for both parties to re-evaluate the agency arrangement. I’m looking for your confirmation of all the products I have provided for you and hopefully you can provide the best possible price for us for Ireland so we can conclude this matter as soon as possible, then an appropriate arrangement with my Ireland customer can be arranged. I will confirm that for the first year, the maximum will be 2-3 containers as a trial shipment to test the market. Hopefully it will be successful so that during the second year we will work very hard to push the product into further supermarket chains. I would also like to confirm that the product will be shipped directly from Bangkok into Irish port without any trans-shipment. Upon confirming the price, our Melbourne procurement team will deal with you directly so that all payments, shipping arrangements, etc. will be communicated between the Melbourne procurement team and you for all the Irish purchases.
I believe I have covered all the points discussed. If I have missed anything please do not hesitate to advise me.
I look forward to meeting you during the course of early next year and I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a very successful and healthy 2016.
In the meantime, I also take this opportunity to congratulate Golf on becoming a father again two weeks ago. I’m quite certain he will enjoy the new baby’s presence and, although being a parent is a challenge, I have no doubt he will make a very good father. My best regards to the mother too.