asia compact plans conquest of Aust, Europe

Asia Compact, a leading Thai manufacturer of brakes, will foray into new markets in Australia and Europe once it receives international product-quality standard certifications which are key to success in securing new customers.

Kasem Issaraphithakul, assistant managing director of marketing, said the company was adjusting production to qualify for ISO/TS 16949 Automotive Quality certification and the e-mark. E-mark certification will enable it to sell automotive equipment in the European Community, whic Kasem said was an interesting market. Asia Compact exports Compact-brand brake products to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa and brakes to Japan on an original-equipment-manufacturer basis.

He said the company was poised to enter the Australian market, exhibiting at the AAAA Trade Show 2009 in Sydney next month.

It will begin to sell under its own brand in Japan in the third quarter of next year.

He said that due to the global economic recession the company was at present focusing on the domestic market because the Thai economy was not bad compared with other countries in the region.

It expects, however, that the domestic brake market will be hurt by the automobile slowdown in the next quarter, which may affect sales, but is optimistic that the situation will be restored in the third quarter.

Kasem said the sales of brakes to foreign car-manufacturers in Thailand was expected to drop nearly 40 per cent in the first quarter while sales of brake products in the retail market was expected to grow in the first quarter but decline in the second quarter in line with falling confidence in the economy. He said the company would market below the line to reach its target group in the retail market and set up a mobile sales unit to stimulate purchases.

Asia Compact targets 23-per-cent sales growth this year, down from 30 per cent last year, but Kasem would not reveal figures.

Asia Compact is the market leader in the commercial-vehicle and passenger-car segments at 53 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. The retail market value of brakes in Thailand is Bt1.4 billion.