With its focus on health and beauty products, the company maintains that its business has not been shaken by the negative economic situation.

It has joined hands with Malaysian direct-sales company Alliance Teamwork Marketing (ATM) to set up a joint venture in Thailand: Alliance Teamwork Marketing (Thailand), or ATM Thailand.

The Opaskij Group owns 65 per cent and ATM Malaysia the rest.

The group's current annual turnover is Bt10 billion, generated by exporting rice and rubber, manufacturing Fesson bicycles and Pet resin and operating the Metropole Phuket Hotel.

ATM Thailand CEO Trit Ophaswongse yesterday said the direct-sales business had always been able to grow 10 per cent each year on average, no matter what the economic situation. He said the current economic slow-down was actually a good opportunity for the direct-sales business, because more people wanted to be independent sales representatives, in order to secure their financial status.

ATM Malaysia is a direct-sales company offering a variety of health and beauty products. The Cellfood group is a main product line. The company has subsidiaries in Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.

Currently, ATM Thailand has 33,000 members, selling three main product lines: Cellfood health and beauty products, Spirulina seaweed and lubricant oil.

Trit said Cellfood was its top product line at this moment. The company yesterday also launched Colloidal Mineral Blend, manufactured by NuScience in California.

Of its total membership, about 10 per cent are active members, said Trit.

He said the company had not set a target for how many members it expects to have by the end of the year. Instead, it wants to build a strong foundation during the first three years of operation by conducting training courses and setting up infrastructure.

However, the company expects to generate Bt350 million in sales and 30 per cent growth this year.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation