"That is what we'd call a 'flavour buddy'," says Mark Fahlin, pointing to a tiny white speck - a suspicious-looking vanilla speck - on a tub of Summer Berries and Cream inside the Italian-made dipping cabinet. "It shouldn't be there."

Häagen-Dazs's new head honcho, featuring white plastic-rimmed glasses and a well-practised behind-the-counter smile, will not tolerate the slightest flaw.

Fair enough. Besides selling in supermarkets, Häagen-Dazs is banking on its cafes and standalone dipping cabinets to reach its customers - an advantage over its rival, Unilever's super-premium Ben & Jerry's ice-cream.

These "entry points" are crucial to building relationships with customers - a principle firmly established in the mid 1990s by former Häagen-Dazs worldwide president and chief executive Michael Paxton. Over the years, little has changed in how the Bronx-born ice-cream chain markets itself. Such attention to detail is regarded as vital to survival.

Häagen-Dazs sources its materials from all over the world - vanilla from Madagascar and Indonesia and macadamia nuts from Hawaii, for instance. However, except for Japan, where it has its own ice-cream-making plant and the US, where Nestle handles the brand's production and distribution, Häagen-Dazs's factory at Arras, about 150 kilometres north of Paris, processes all ingredients using thick French cow milk as its base.

To avoid an erosion of quality, totally reliable logistics and quality control are required. A list of 12 checks is implemented to guarantee maximum freshness of the ice-cream. For instance, temperature, condensation and frost are closely monitored inside the display cabinet.

Just how important is temperature to Häagen-Dazs ice-cream? The French-made delicacies are frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius and, during transportation, cannot be exposed to room temperature for more than 15 minutes. Once in the dipping cabinet, the ice-cream has a shelf-life of two weeks.

Fahlin believes that any logistical mishandling will result in a most unpleasant alteration to the taste of the ice-cream.

While such meticulous behind-the-scenes handling seems to elude most of Fahlin's customers - "discerning gourmands" as he calls them - it should come as no surprise when the smallest cup of Häagen-Dazs will set you back Bt120 and a scoop in one of its cafes will cost Bt105.

In contrast, Häagen-Dazs's office is anything but posh and burgundy-padded. In fact, Mark Fahlin's staff of about 30 people feel a bit "shy" about their little office. Fahlin's room itself exemplifies the low-key and pragmatic feel of the workplace. And for a newcomer, it looks busy enough, with accumulations of files and papers.

Although having relocated here just four months ago, the 33-year-old is no stranger to Thailand. He spent a week of recuperation in Phuket after being hospitalised in the Philippines by the bacterial disease leptosprirosis. So he was elated to be sent to Thailand by his company, General Mills, to run HD Distributors Thailand - a joint venture with local food conglomerate S&P.

The job will test his management skills. Fahlin will now oversee 21 Haagen-Dazs outlets in Thailand as opposed to his last position, supervising just three cafes dotted along the Pale San Vitores Road in Tumon, Guam.

Still learning and adapting to his new role, Fahlin makes his rounds of Bangkok, catching up with the company's major stakeholders, from landlords and retailers to colleagues. But the operation is pretty much set, he says, and he is now reviewing sites for a new Häagen-Dazs cafe.

"It all comes down to the right location and rent," Fahlin says, adding that high-end properties often want Häagen-Dazs on their premises to enhance the overall image.

Determined to overcome the cultural and language barriers, Fahlin and his wife plan to enrol in a two-day seminar for newly arrived expats. Yet he doesn't want to be sucked into the local expat community.

Fed up with his limited vocabulary of liow sai (turn left) or liow kwa (turn right) for taxi drivers, he is determined to pick up some workable Thai.

Meanwhile, he treads carefully by addressing everyone with a courteous Khun (Mister), from the finance manager to the driver. "Basically, it is all about respect," he says, having been given a "dos and don'ts" crash course by the previous managing director Tim Bulow, who is now working for General Mills in Shanghai.

Fahlin seems to have enjoyed his eight years spent outside the US and is glad to be accompanied by his adventurous Minnesotan wife. "Minnesota and 'adventurous' don't normally go together," he says.

He began work for the "bricks-and-mortar" General Mills straight out of university in 1995. Considering the company's pervasive presence in American life and the fact that many of his family and friends also work for General Mills, his affair with the 231-year-old company was almost unavoidable.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, the food giant produces and markets household brands such as Cheerios, Yoplait, Green Giant and Betty Crocker, to name just a few of its more than 100 brands.

Internationally, General Mills is doing well, with net sales of US$1.8 billion (Bt62.12 billion) and average growth of 9 per cent, according to its international division's chief operating officer Chris O'Leary.

Although the ice-cream market is worth a massive $40 billion outside the US, Häagen-Dazs - General Mills International's largest and most profitable business - has almost single-handedly created the super-premium ice-cream market segment, of which it has a 65-per-cent slice.

Presently in 60 countries, the ice-cream chain is expanding aggressively, with total turnover increasing by 8 per cent annually.

In Thailand, under Fahlin's predecessor, the ice-cream company has been growing at a double-digit rate over recent years, with sales split evenly between retail and cafes.

All eyes are now on Fahlin to repeat or surpass that feat.

With 24 flavours selling in shops and about 10 in supermarkets, Fahlin believes there is room for innovation. To keep up with intensifying competition, new tastes and products - such as Sorbet Sipper, a shop speciality - have been introduced.

Still, Fahlin dares anyone to try making a better vanilla ice-cream. It is the most basic element in the calorific realm of the ice-cream addict, and just how good an ice-cream-maker really can be judged by the quality of its vanilla. One small scoop of the Häagen-Dazs variety reveals the enormity of that challenge.

Ki Nan Tsui

The Nation