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Published on September 11, 2007

The company has set up a subsidiary, L-Direct, with registered capital of Bt10 million, for direct sales of products for the mass and middle markets.

Loxley was formerly involved in three main businesses: industrial trading, information technology and services. Late last year, it restructured into five distinct areas: information technology, corporate and government projects, services, joint ventures and direct sales. Its revenue last year was Bt40 billion.

Suraphand Bhasitnirandr, executive vice president and CEO for the trading-business group, yesterday said Loxley actually started the business in April and had already achieved over Bt100 million in sales from 50,000 customers nationwide.

The company expects another 30,000-50,000

members to sign up this year. The membership fee is Bt250.

L-Direct currently sells goods in four categories - skincare, food supplements, beauty products and household items - all priced from Bt20 to about Bt3,000. There are now 80 product items, and this number is

 

 

 expected to increase to 100 this year or next.

Suraphand said the company had decided to stop manufacturing household products as an original-equipment manufacturer and started manufacturing its own brand of products. The change required little investment since Loxley already has manufacturing plants and laboratories for research and development.

The company has seven distribution centres around the Kingdom, two of which are in Bangkok. Suraphand said the centres required little investment, because they were all rented, but that the company would definitely build its own once business reached a certain level.

Suraphand said he was very confident of achieving its sales targets in the next three years, because of the company's strong relationship with wholesalers and retailers nationwide - 1,000 of which are major business partners - in expanding its business.

Apart from having independent sales representatives, it also plans to open kiosks in the next two months. It plans to let its wholesalers and retailers, as well as staff working for its business partners, such as government agencies, state enterprises and private companies, open kiosks and sell its products for additional income. The investment for each kiosk is expected to be Bt20,000.

Newspapers and websites are its main channels for building awareness.

Suraphand said the company was focusing on building awareness for its household and food-supplement products.

Nitida Asawanipont

 The Nation