By Susan Cunningham
FORBES ASIA
September 2023
In the rear of a nondescript, chalk-white office building on a traffic-choked road on the outskirts of Bangkok, a scrappy beverage company is hatching big plans to build itself into a globally recognized lifestyle label. Sappe makes a range of products that tap ingredients aimed in particular at the health- and beauty-conscious Generation Z. But while the company already has a toehold on five continents, its expansion efforts thus far have been low-key. Now it’s accelerating its bid to build a worldwide brand as part of a five-year plan to more than double its annual revenue to 10 billion baht ($287 million) by 2026.
Overseeing this vision is CEO and founding family member Piyajit Ruckariyapong. Over the past decade the former banker, 48, has grown Sappe’s brand portfolio, moved aggressively into new markets, and pushed up profit and revenue, sending shares soaring 115% in the past year. “In Thailand, we have so many natural resources and [our] products are good quality,” she says in an exclusive interview at Sappe’s head office in Bangkok in July. There’s “no reason Thai people can’t build a brand that competes in the international arena.”
Sappe already exports to almost 100 countries: in Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Its net profit climbed 59% to 653 million baht in 2022 from the year before while revenue gained 32% to 4.6 billion baht, more than three-quarters of which came from overseas. The results earned the company a place on our latest Best Under A Billion list and catapulted the family into the ranks of Thailand’s 50 Richest list for the first time … MORE
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