KUALA LUMPUR: Thailand's Oishi Group, the country's leading ready-to-drink green tea producer, has started its drive to become a regional brand by 2017 by forging a distribution alliance with F&N Beverages Marketing Singapore for a Malaysia launch and hopes that this will help spur growth for the company. And Malaysians are excited. "We are looking forward to getting some of this mix," said 37-year-old housewife Manal, who told Bikyanews.com that her family enjoyed the drink on a recent visit to Thailand. "It was tasty and so easy to use that we were able to have it in our hotel room for when we needed a quick drink." F&N Beverages, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fraser and Neave Ltd in Singapore, kicked off its distribution of Oishi green tea in PET bottles to 1,460 7-Eleven convenience stores in Malaysia on Monday. By year-end, Oishi green tea will be available in 3,800 convenience stores and petrol stations throughout Malaysia. In an initial step, Oishi green tea will be shipped from a factory in Chon Buri's Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate to the neighboring country. Early next year, Oishi aims to start production in Malaysia for further expansion to Brunei and Singapore. Under the scheme, F&N will spend 50 million baht to upgrade its facilities to produce Oishi green tea. Oishi and F&N have a close connection, as both are owned by the Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Matthew Kichodhan, Oishi's president, said his company sees a huge opportunity in Malaysia. Per-capita consumption of green tea in Malaysia is 0.94 litres compared with 5.8 litres in Thailand. "The opportunity for Oishi green tea in Malaysia is six times higher than in Thailand," he said. BN
