Tile maker confident

A similar growth of between 5 per cent and 6 per cent has been projected for 2009, according to Dynasty Ceramic, one of local leading manufacturers for ceramic floor and wall tiles.

"We have a strong growth of 16 per cent in sales in the first nine months of this year. The satisfactory growth is in line with our success in reshuffling ourselves since the financial crisis in 1997. With the business improvement, we can maintain our strength even in the time of current economic and political difficulties," said Sunchai Jencharat, executive vice president of Dynasty Ceramic.

Sunchai said that since 1997, the company had reshuffled theproduction process at its ceramic tile factory in Nong Kae District, Saraburi.

"We have reorganised our production process in a way that we can control cost very closely. We are also the first player in the country to open a factory outlet for ceramic tiles," he said.

Sunchai said the first Dynasty/Tile Top factory outlet had been open since 1998 at Hinkong Sub-District of Saraburi. The company currently has 200 factory outlets in all provinces and major districts throughout the Kingdom.

The company's ceramic floor and wall tiles have also been distributed through more than 600 dealer outlets. "We will next year focus on strengthening the image of our Dynasty/Tile Top factory outlets to be a place offering good quality ceramic tiles at affordable prices.

About Bt70 million will be invested next year on both renovating its existing factory outlets as well as relocating and opening new outlets in potential locations," said Sunchai.

Its ceramic tile prices start from Bt100 per square metre to more than Bt200 per square metre. In order to support a huge expansion of its factory outlets, the company has boosted its tile production at its factory from only 20,000 square metres per day 10 years ago to the current capacity of about 130,000 square metres per day or four million square metres a month.