While the bird-flu outbreak three years ago plunged Sun Group into the red, it gave the chicken producer a valuable lesson it has since applied to keep it on a firmer track.

Taking care of employees in all situations, and a new strategy giving all workers the opportunity to share ideas, are both seen as vital to the company's revival.

Three years ago Sun Group's business was doing well, but then came a shock from the European Union as 25 countries slapped a ban on fresh-chicken imports from Thailand as a result of the bird-flu outbreak.

At that time, the group depended solely on the export market. It was recording high annual export volume of 30,000 tonnes, totalling Bt4 billion in value.

The integrated Sun Group comprised six subsidiaries - Sun Feed, Sun Food, Sunny, Sun Farm, Sun Agro and Sun Rendering - operating in areas from breeding parent chickens through to finished products.

Taweesak Jiwawattanawanit, export sales manager of Sun Food International who entered the company shortly before the shock, recalls the nightmare. "We had to stop our hatching-house operation for eight weeks, while our animal feed plant had to slash its production volume by 70 per cent. Our slaughterhouse stopped operation for one and a half months."

He said that in that year the company suffered a loss of Bt2 billion, due mainly to the bird-flu crisis, coupled with declining chicken prices in the world market. Above all, Sun Group had responsibility for 4,000 employees, which was indeed a heavy burden for the company.

Instead of cutting the staff numbers to reduce costs - as many giant firms did when faced with the crisis - Sun Group decided to keep them all. And the strategy has paid off by boosting their loyalty.

"At that time we thought we had to survive. So high-ranking executives to low-level staff talked about it together to find a solution," says Taweesak.

The first move was to transfer hundreds of blue-collar staff to work in one canned-food facility in Kanchanaburi province where it had good connections. Fortunately, the canner was in need of additional employees to enhance its production line.

It also joined forces with the giant consumer-product firm Sahaphat Group, with which it also had good ties, to allow some employees to be temporary salesmen of Sahaphat products.

Importantly, the company shifted from sole reliance on the overseas market and started exploring the domestic market as part of its plan to seek new revenue sources, says Sun Group's president Somkiert Tangjaiavorn.

Sun Group also changed its working strategy, from previously just waiting for orders from customers to initiating the development of a variety of products to be introduced to the market.

Sun Group has also learnt a great lesson from the crisis in terms of management, that is, in order to reverse a negative situation the company needs collaboration from all staff, not only the executives.

"We found that staff had many good ideas, but our old working style didn't give them an opportunity to share them," admits Somkiert.

As a result, the company began to promote a new working atmosphere by encouraging staff to share ideas and communicate more with their supervisors, he says.

In addition, it created a welfare system for employees. One example is the creation of facilities for workers, such as a nursery in one of its plants.

Somkiert says offering welfare to the staff does not add to costs, as he knows how to manage the budget efficiently.

After recovering from the crisis, the company started developing new product lines, one of which is the Gosun Hainanese chicken-rice franchise business operating under the newly established Gosun OK.

The group started developing Hainanese chicken rice shortly after it got back on track, and launched the business in February this year. It now has about 100 franchisees nationwide selling the product for Bt15 per dish, and expects to ultimately have 3,000 franchisees.

Soon Gosun products will be expanded to cover grilled chicken, roasted chicken, lemon chicken and chicken noodles. These planned additions are a result of the discussions between staff and executives.

"After the discussions we ask the employees who proposed the idea to work out ways to achieve success, how to create the new products, and how much investment is needed," he says.

Now Sun Group feels that the new working style has paid off and it is confident of brighter prospects. Next year, it expects to have generated Bt2.5 billion in sales, half of what is was bringing in during its peak before the bird-flu outbreak.

Right now, apart from Gosun Hainanese chicken rice, the company also produces fresh and ready-to-eat chicken for sale to other manufacturers and fresh markets, respectively.

It also plans to resume exporting its finished frozen-chicken products early next year, beginning with 2,000 tonnes.

When asked whether Sun Group wants to regain its position as the country's sixth-largest chicken exporter, Somkiert says that is not his primary concern.

"Being a giant company and ranked among top exporters is not our main goal. What we want to be is a company that serves good Thai products for local people and people globally. The most important thing is, we want to be a company with happy employees," he adds with a big smile.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation