Managing director Danai Deerojanawong said the level of stress among employees and sales representatives had increased dramatically, particularly in the three violence-torn provinces of the deep South.

Since the beginning of April, the company's bad debts to sales representatives have increased by almost 20 per cent, from an earlier level of only 2 per cent of sales. The company's sales representatives usually enjoy two weeks' credit.

The average purchase per order placed with sales representatives has also dropped dramatically, by about 10 per cent, from Bt1,500 to about Bt1,300.

"From our recruiting questionnaires, filled out by people applying to be our sales representatives, we can see the level of unemployment among them. We also conducted a survey that showed that many of those who earlier worked at direct-selling as a second job are now unemployed and direct-selling has become their first career," Danai said, adding that the level of unemployment faced by the company's sales people has risen by between 9 per cent and 10 per cent over the past year.

"This is the first time in the past 10 years that we have witnessed these negative signs of economic recession and declining consumer confidence. It has occurred since April," he said.

Danai estimates that Thailand's market for direct-selling cosmetics will grow by no more than 10 per cent this year.

"We have set a conservative target of about 7-per-cent growth, to Bt7 billion, this year. This is much lower than in the past 10 years, when the company achieved double-digit growth in annual sales," Danai said. "We are controlling our operating costs in order to make our organisation flexible enough to run its business."

Meanwhile, Better Way (Thailand) has launched its latest skin-care product, under the MelaKlear brand. The new anti-melasma cream will be sold through the company's network of 600,000 sales representatives and will also be distributed through general pharmacies and 7-Eleven convenience stores.

"We will promote MelaKlear as an umbrella for new skin-care products. We will also launch a MelaKlear anti-ageing product with melasma protection in the fourth quarter of this year," Danai said, adding that almost 80 per cent of working women in Thailand have a melasma problem, with darkened patches of discoloured facial skin. The market for melasma protection products had a value of more than Bt600 million last year, and is expected to grow by as much as 20 per cent this year.

"We are increasing our [number of] sales people to compensate for the drop in value of purchase orders made by individuals amid the current economic and political difficulties. We aim to have nearly 700,000 sales representatives next year, to increase our sales to about Bt8 billion," Danai said. - Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn, The Nation