Chemico Group is an importer and distributor of high-quality chemicals raw materials for cosmetics, home care, food, dietary supplements, flavoring additives, health & beauty instrument including laboratory appliances and laboratory testing services. We are talking to Khun Prasop Palakornkitti, Managing Director of Chemico Inter Corporation Co., Ltd. about his journey to lead Chemico Group to the regional leader of the chemicals business.

Challenge in the foreign market

Chemical Group was established in 1994 and has achieved tremendous success in 5 years based on Khun Prasop’s vision with his precise analysis in the chemicals industry market, creating a professional sales team with basic knowledge of chemistry, and expanding Chemico Group to international markets as there is more business opportunity. Over 20 years ago, most local manufacturers in Southeast Asian countries had little know-how about chemicals comparing to more advanced countries like Thailand. At that time, there was market potential such as high purchasing power and a large number of populations in Indonesia 274 million, Philippines 109 and Vietnam 97 million, etc. 
 

Khun Prasop shared with us his time when pioneering the business overseas. In the first phase from 2001-2001, the business was launched together in 4 countries namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The market in general at that period was not quite productive due to the economic crisis. Anyway, Khun Prasop viewed that as an opportunity to enter foreign markets while others dared not to. However, a challenge of marketing overseas was not market development but the regulations of destination countries that limited foreign investment by prohibiting foreign investors from making the full investment. “We had to joint venture with a local partner. Unfortunately, all local partners faced problems so we were unable to develop the market at our full potential and had to change the shareholder structure later”, said Khun Prasop. 

Stepping up to be a regional leader in the chemicals beauty industry

Even though the business in overseas markets was not successful at first, Khun Prasop did not give up his goal to drive Chemico Group to grow at a regional level. A new opportunity came when many countries started making changes to regulations about foreign investment. In 2012, Vietnam was lenient toward the rules to welcome foreign investors at full scale. Consequently, Chemico Group returned to Vietnam for investment by starting to joint venture with Japanese partners at the ratio of 50:50. Later in 2017 when disagreement in management occurred, both partners decided to close down the old business and opened a new company under the name of Chemico Vietnam Co., Ltd., and Chemico Group owned 100% shareholder.

Apart from success in Vietnam as the law was more released and Chemical Group had full management authority, more achievement was in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, including Myanmar, India, and Russia which were just launched over 5-6 years ago. Currently, Chemico Group has 9 affiliates in 8 countries, with 2 offices in Indonesia at Jakarta and Surabaya.

Raise strength in Health & Beauty Specialist

Another successful factor of Chemico Group is the strategies to boost marketing strength by emphasizing quality laboratories with technical expertise to support customers in a variety of processes such as, create product formulas, verify products, provide consult for customers, etc. Khun Prasop places strong importance on the laboratory while some other chemical companies do not. He believes that owning a laboratory is to create value to the business more than just trading and it is also a strong point that enhances customers to be partner with Chemico Group. At present, almost all Chemico Group affiliates except Russia, own the laboratories with over 72 technicians. More importantly, Chemico Group has been raised to be the leader in Health & Beauty. The Chemical Asia Health and Beauty Center (CAHB) is built on 3,000 square meters space as the center for health and beauty technology in Asia with many experts who have developed product formulas and arranged training to provide full support for customers.

Create your own opportunity

The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on business widely. As the chemicals products of Chemico Group are ‘specialty’ products, they are in high demand. Even though the number of Beauty products is decreased because the partners can’t export them to European markets. The Beauty instrument used in the beauty clinic business has also experienced that effect due to the lockdown policy while food and dietary supplements are growing, and that has made total sales slightly decrease. While most businesses get stuck during the lockdown, Chemico Group doesn’t waste its time but finds an opportunity to put hard effort into the R&D function. “We have created over 3,000 formulas for new beauty and cosmetic products as preparation for supporting customers. We will be ready to enter the markets after the COVID disappears”, said Khun Prasop. For future plans, Chemico Group will develop more e-Commerce platforms to add communication channels for customers through Social Media including Facebook, YouTube, and Line@.

Financial support from business partners

As Chemico Group has a certain amount of budget, the company needs support from financial institution to be able to expand its business overseas. Chemico Vietnam Co., Ltd. (CMV) at Ho Chi Minh branch is the SCB customer in both revolving limit and currency buying to protect against the risk of currency fluctuation. The company needs more support from the bank not only in Vietnam but also Chemico Group business in countries where SCB has its branch.

Customers who are interested in operating a business in CLMV or Great Mekong Subregion: GMS, comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, SCB has overseas affiliates to support and service you. Please contact here