Executive and marketing director Chalerm V.tanon said the plan would focus more on securing high-profile commercial contracts and projects. To achieve this, production capacity is to be increased from 4,000 square metres this year to 6,000 square metres by next year.

To exploit the higher output, Chalerm said the company had to open up new export markets. The company's traditional markets are the United States, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

To implement its marketing strategy, the company will appoint more distributors in the Middle East.

The aim of the plan is to boost exports from 20 per cent of production capacity to 50 per cent.

"Export expansion will reduce business risk if the domestic market contracts. Our overseas markets will offset any downturn," he said.

However, focusing on high-end customers' needs takes time to develop the marketing and local service structure. The company has to provide more information about its products.

The company is developing a computer-software package to do this.

To increase domestic market share, Kenzai plans to focus more on attracting customers in northern and southern provinces rather than just Bangkok and surrounding areas.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation