Challenging Western giants Colgate and Unilever: Saha Group chairman’s story (10)

Boonsithi Chokwatana is the Chairman of Saha Group, Thailand’s leading consumer products conglomerate. This is part 10 of a 30-part series.

Business at our powdered shampoo container factory was going well, and we branched out into soap as well. Since both used products from Lion Fat and Oil, not Lion Toothpaste, from where Kobayashi-san hailed, we decided to fill toothpaste containers as well.

However, we were unable to find any tubes. Container manufacturers, afraid of Colgate, the market leader, would not sell to us. We had no choice but to import machines from Japan and start making our own. As a result, we gradually grew the scope of our business.

My father next turned his attention to powdered detergents.

In 1956, Lion Fat and Oil had launched Top in Japan. Since the company had excess capacity, it asked us if we would like to sell Top detergent in Thailand.

We imported and sold the…