Boonsithi Chokwatana is the Chairman of Saha Group, Thailand’s leading consumer products conglomerate. This is part 24 of a 30-part series.
By the time the 2000s rolled around, the Thai economy had recovered from the Asian financial crisis and regained growth potential. We started venturing into the retail industry, which we had previously avoided, and the restaurant industry, from which we had withdrawn once.
As for the retail industry, we invested in supermarket operator Yaohan in the second half of the 1980s and in convenience store operator FamilyMart in the first half of the 1990s. But we only paid in small amounts, as requested. Since we were originally a wholesaler, we thought that if we broke into the retail industry, we would end up competing against our customers.
But the environment began to change. More retailers started purchasing goods directly from manufacturers, instead…
