• 
• 

Published on February 11, 2008

The company is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for consumer electrical appliances, including washing machines, air-conditioners and heaters.

Income from exports accounts for 95 per cent of the total, and the US is its major destination with 70 per cent, while European and Asian markets represent 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

The deterioration in the health of the US market and the greater strength of the baht against the greenback in recent years have dealt hard blows to Thai export-oriented companies as the lowered income in baht terms eats away at their margins.

Since the end of December 2006 the baht has strengthened by nearly 10 per cent against the dollar, while it has weakened 1 per cent against the euro and 2.1 per cent against the yen.

Team Precision CEO Chakkaphant Manutsathit said the shift would reduce the company's risk from reliance on the US market.

This year the company will increase the income proportion from European and Asian markets to 30 per cent each and shrink that from the US market to 30 per cent.

Chakkaphant said the company must be prudent in risk management amid fluctuations in foreign-exchange markets though all of its transactions were made in US dollars.

"The baht appreciation has had a minor impact on the company, but volatility is a phenomenon around the world, so we have to manage risk efficiently to maintain our competitive edge in the world market. We're trying to manage risk amid the current atmosphere, as most Asian currencies are linked with the US dollar, and we've been hurt a bit by the dollar's weakness," he said.

"We've been applying natural hedge and swap options and raising our sales to manage risk.

"I think this has been good for us, because it's enabled us to strengthen ourselves and beef up competitiveness. All exporters have been encountering the same problem."

To increase sales Team Precision is negotiating with 10-20 European and 10 US companies.

"We expect that around 50 per cent of companies we're talking to will become customers. We now have around 40 clients worldwide," he said.

The company estimates strong growth potential this year due to high demand from customers and the company's longer product life cycle.

Team Precision's plan to expand its plant area from 4,000

to 13,800 square metres will be another engine driving growth, he said.

The company will also become customised product-conscious as quality concerns from now on will play a greater role in doing business under pressure from customer demand.

In the first nine months of last year the company's net profit surged to Bt279.13 million from Bt250.07 million in the corresponding period last year.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation