Ichitan Group Public Company Limited (SET: ICHI), one of two most promising non-soda beverage corporations that saw net profit growth in the 2Q/23 year on year. Not only did the company’s bottom line jump by 67.5% to THB 255.56 million, but it was also a new high for the company over the previous 29 quarters.
What makes ICHI more appealing is the company’s CEO had stated that the public can expect a new peak in earnings. Previously, revenue for 3Q/23 was predicted to be THB 7.3 billion, but this has been revised up to THB 7.6 billion as demand continues to surge. CEO of Ichitan Mr. Tan Passakornnatee even led his staff and apologized to his partners and consumers on social media last week after its products ran out of stock and were not delivered on time.
Both of Ichitan’s original and new product lines had received extra attention from the customers in the past months. Domestic market remains to be the company’s key market and is the main focus of the sales strategy rather than the export market.
By the last quarter of the year, the company plans to release a brand-new honey-lemon drink under the Tan San Su non-alcoholic soju imitation product line. Mr. Passakornnatee believes that this new flavour will be the final push of sales before the end of the year.
The company also intends to invest THB 460 million to increase production capacity from 1,500 million bottles of drinks per day to 1,700 million. However, because it will take another 14 months for a new manufacturing facility to be fully constructed, the company will OEM their products in the meantime, but they reassure investors that they can manage cost to be as near to in-house production as possible. The new manufacturing facility is scheduled to be completed by 2024, at which point Ichitan would be Thailand’s largest non-soda beverage producer in terms of quantity.
