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Published on November 13, 2007

The company will spend 20 per cent of its Bt100-million marketing budget next year to promote its "Think GAIA" vision through numerous activities and media advertisements, aiming to become an "advanced environment and energy maker".

Assistant director Miike Kazuhisa said yesterday that Sanyo would arrange roadshows in universities, distribute leaflets, have its product reviewed in mainstream media and build awareness through its website.

Kazuhisa said Sanyo would strive to make consumers realise the importance of using electronic products that would not harm the global environment.

It also plans to launch many environment-friendly products like "Eneloop" rechargeable batteries, which could be used repeatedly for over 1,000 times. The executive, however, declined to reveal details of other planned products.

In the past three years, since Sanyo Electric announced its new "Think GAIA" global vision - focusing on environment, energy and lifestyle - the company has already launched a number of products embracing the vision.

At the same time, it has also gradually adjusted its internal operations and manufacturing systems by applying "Energreen technology", which helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and "Rohas technology".

Sanyo managing director Tsutomu Morimoto, however, said it was difficult to put a figure on how much Sanyo had invested for that globally.

However, general manager Surapon Limthongkam said about 50 per cent of consumer electronic products in Thailand were being manufactured under "Think GAIA". It expects the proportion to reach 90 per cent in the next three years.

He admitted that many products under the vision had to be sold at much higher prices than usual products. And since environment-friendly products are usually more expensive, some had not got the positive response they should have.

Kazuhisa said Thais were still less concerned about environmental issues than people in many countries. Yet, as the government and some other organisations in the private sector have paid higher attention to global warming, he believed Thais would have more understanding and soon learn the importance of using environment-friendly products.

Sanyo (Thailand) has experienced low sales growth during the first 10 months of this year but it believes it can still reach its sales target of Bt2.4 billion, a 20-per-cent growth year on year, Morimoto said.

Sanyo (Thailand) has three core businesses - consumer electronics, digital and commercial. Consumer electronics contributed 60 per cent of its sales last year, followed by digital and commercial products at 20 per cent each.

However, due to more intense competition and lesser ability to generate higher profits in consumer electronics, the company plans to reduce the proportion of its consumer electronics business and focus more on expanding its digital and commercial businesses instead.

It expects consumer electronics and digital businesses to contribute the same proportion at 35 per cent while the rest would come from commercial products by 2009.

Nitida Asawanipont

 The Nation