Leading food manufacturers under the Saha Group, namely President Bakery and Thai President Foods, have committed themselves to keeping prices unchanged this year despite facing fluctuating production costs and rising oil prices.
Apichart Thammanomai, managing director of President Bakery, which produces bread under the Farmhouse brand, said prices would be kept unchanged in order to ensure a growth in sales while the economy was growing at a slow pace.
"The company will also consider reducing the price of some products in order to help relieve the burden on low and middleincome consumers. Earlier this year, the firm cut the retail prices of two items," Apichart said.
The firm has signed contracts with its flour and sugar suppliers to ensure keeping its production costs stable.
President Bakery targets achieving Bt4.2 billion in sales revenue this year, from last year's Bt3.9 billion. During the first five months of this year, the company's sales grew by 13 per cent.
Apichart added that his firm was expected to pay higher stock dividends to shareholders this year, compared to the Bt5.65 per share last year.
In addition, the company will expand its production lines next year to serve business growth. So far, the company is close to hitting its full production capacity, which currently stands at 80 to 90 per cent of total capacity.
Suchai Ratanajiajaroen, president of Thai President Foods, the producer of Mama brand instant noodles, said that since the price of wheat flour was expected to stay stable it would not increase its retail prices this year.
Wheat flour is a major raw material for most of the goods produced by these two companies. Just like President Bakery, Thai President Foods has made a deal with flour, sugar and palm oil suppliers to ensure steady production costs.
Thai President Foods aims to achieve Bt7.8 billion in sales revenue this year, up by 4 to 5 per cent from last year.