OR invests in 25% shares of Dusit Foods, a subsidiary of Dusit Thani Public Company Limited (DUSIT), with a view to combine DUSIT’s strengths in upstream, midstream, and downstream food business with OR’s leading retail distribution channels to reach multiple lifestyle segments and shape an opportunity for inclusive growth, both inside and outside of Thailand.
Jiraphon Kawswat, President & Chief Executive Officer, PTT Oil and Retail Business Public Company Limited (OR), together with Somyot Kongprawet, Senior Executive Vice President, Lifestyle Business, OR, Suphajee Suthumpun, Group Chief Executive Officer, DUSIT, and La-ead Kovavisaruch, Chief Investment Officer, DUSIT, attended the signing ceremony of the joint investment agreement in Dusit Foods Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of DUSIT, where Modulus Ventures Company Limited, or Modulus, a subsidiary of OR, invested in 25% shares.
Kawswat reveals that OR has always worked towards its new vision “Empowering All Toward Inclusive Growth” that aims at identifying opportunities for inclusive growth with partners, focusing on collaboration to strengthen the business and fulfill its potential. Its optimum goal is to reach inclusive growth and success in all dimensions amidst the uncertain global economic trends. This co-investment with DUSIT in Dusit Foods, which operates a diversified food business and projects potential for growth, will fortify the potential of OR’s lifestyle business, especially the food segment, to benefit both the outlets owned by OR and those that it has co-invested in.
This determination reflects one of OR’s missions to create an alternative that complements convenience needs and comprehensively meets all lifestyle preferences of consumers. Moreover, an opportunity to flourish together with Thai brands, locally and internationally, is shaped, in line with OR’s business practices that focus on Outside-In growth, where it seeks investment opportunities in new markets with partners.
Additionally, DUSIT adheres to business approaches that align with OR’s goal of economic prosperity that aims at driving growth, offering career opportunities, and distributing wealth to partners and MSMEs by working with them. In expanding its business internationally, Dusit Foods aims to introduce ‘Thainess’ to the global arena, bringing benefits to both upstream and downstream food supply chains, as well as local communities. And now, OR is ready for businesses of all types and sizes to enter the OR ecosystem and primed to transform itself into an Inclusive Growth Platform to promote growth with potential partners and create positive impacts on society and the environment, accomplishing inclusive growth that combines business models and innovations to address problems faced by people, society and the environment. Jiraphon adds.
Suphajee Suthumpun, Group Chief Executive Officer, DUSIT, reveals that this recent cooperation provides an opportunity for inclusive growth that leverages the strengths and expertise of both parties. OR is specialized in the retail business and owns a strong retail network that resonates with people’s lifestyles, which also spreads across communities all over Thailand through nearly 2,500 PTT Stations and almost 4,000 outlets of Café Amazon. At the same time, DUSIT is one of Thailand’s leading hotel and property development companies, and its food business is just going from strength to strength.
Dusit Foods’ investment portfolio currently includes Epicure Catering Co., Ltd., a leading provider of food and beverage services to the international school industry with a market share of over 70% in Thailand; The Caterers Joint Stock Company Limited, or ‘The Caterers,’ a leader in school catering and off-site receptions in Vietnam; and KAUAI, a popular healthy fast-casual restaurant chain from South Africa, which Dusit Foods brought to the Thai market and plans to expand across Asia.
Most recently, Dusit Foods concluded an agreement to acquire a 55% stake in Bonjour Bakery Asia Co., Ltd., which operates a state-of-the-art baking factory producing French-style pastry products in the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate, Rayong Province, and its associated bakery franchise business, comprising more than 50 branches across Thailand and one in China.
Suthumpun explained that, as part of its vision ‘to bring Asia to the world,’ Dusit Foods itself prioritises investing in food businesses that place importance on natural, organic, and good-for-health processes while also supporting local communities. This includes investing in food businesses that are not only related to its core hotel business, but which also have high growth potential and cover the total supply chain.
Suthumpun said she expects all food businesses under Dusit Foods to flourish under the alliance with OR, plus further opportunities for Dusit Foods to expand domestically and internationally.
“We are delighted and honoured to join hands with OR for this exciting, synergistic alliance that will leverage OR’s robust retail platform and retail expertise and our own extensive knowledge in upstream, midstream, and downstream food businesses to meet the needs of multiple lifestyle segments in Thailand and abroad,” said Suthumpun.
“At the same time, our companies both share the same clear vision to deliver a new growth engine that fosters growth of the food industry in Thailand and ultimately contributes to the country’s economic development. This includes working together with OR to create a new food platform that gives local businesses opportunities for domestic and international expansion, including extending their growth and revenue-generating prospects by working with OR as well as other thriving non-oil retail entities that OR has invested in previously, namely Café Amazon and the Ohkajhu health food brand. This shared vision makes our alliance even more powerful.”
