CP Ram Co, a food maker under Charoen Pokphand Group, is spending 4 billion baht to build five new food factories across Thailand to support growth over the next five years.
Managing director Wisade Wisidwinyoo said two of the five factories will be built on newly acquired plots in Lamphun and Surat Thani. The other three will be built within the vicinity of existing factories in Khon Kaen, Chon Buri and Pathum Thani.
With the new factories, the company expects the production capacity of its frozen food, chilled food and bakery business to increase by 50-70%.
CP Ram operates nine food factories across the country.
"The investment will support our target to grow our food business by 15% a year over the next five years starting from 2018," Mr Wisade said. "We want CP Ram to be contribute to making Thailand a food innovation centre for Asia."
In addition to the new factories, the company is budgeting 150-200 million baht for R&D to develop innovative food products, particularly for healthy food and food for specific groups such as children, elderly and diabetics.
He said the company is attempting to build food factories across regions to halve transport times and deliver products from the kitchen to customers within 2-3 hours.
This will increase sales opportunity for products.
Founded in 1987, CP Ram specialises in frozen meals, chilled food and bakery products.
Frozen meals and chilled food contribute about 60% of the company's total revenue, with bakery products making up the remaining 40%.
The products are mainly supplied to 7-Eleven convenience stores and to Makro cash-and-carry stores.
By the end of 2016, there were 9,542 7-Eleven stores, an increase of 710 stores from the previous year.
The number of 7-Eleven stores has surpassed 10,000 as of July this year.
About 70% of products available at 7-Eleven stores are food and the remaining 30% belongs to grocery items.
Makro opened 17 new stores in 2016 bringing the total to 115 stores countrywide.
Mr Wisade said apart from providing food products to retail stores under the CP Group, CP Ram also plans to distribute products to new channels such as vending machines, food vans and catering and e-commerce to increase its sales opportunities.
Sales of CP Ram are expected to increase by 9.9% this year to 16.2 billion baht, with net profit forecast to reach 570 million baht this year, up from 399 million last year.
"As lifestyles become more urban, people demand more convenience, resulting in a rise in prepared food consumption," he said.
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