September 23, 2013
 

Thailand's S Khonkaen lowers revenue-growth outlook to 10-12%

Due to rising costs of raw materials, especially pork and chicken, Thailand's S Khonkaen Foods has lowered this year's revenue-growth forecast from 15% to 10-12%, said chief executive officer Charoen Rujirasopon.

The company last month increased the prices of its processed food by 3% to reflect higher costs and to maintain gross profit margin of 28%.

Charoen said the company would invest about THB300 million (US$9.7 million) to build new plants to expand production capacity to 14,000-15,000 tonnes/year from 7,000 tonnes at present. The output from the new plants will help expand its export markets in Europe and Middle East.

The construction is expected to be completed by the first quarter next year.

Charoen said the company planned to appoint agents and build distribution centres in countries in the region to cash in on the comingAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community, starting in Laos. The company will negotiate with partners in that country in the next three to five weeks.