Bottle plant seeks B700m in first year

Thai Malaya Glass Co expects its new bottle manufacturing plant to generate up to 700 million baht in sales in its first year in business.

The 1.75-billion-baht plant started production last month with a capacity to produce 70,000 tonnes of glass bottles per year, mainly for Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Co (TAPB), the local brewer of Heineken, Tiger and Cheers beer.

TAPB is a joint-venture partner in the company along with Malaya Glass Products Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the diversified trading firm Fraser & Neave Holdings (F&N).

´´Although the operation has just begun, we have received orders for all of our capacity,´´ said Panya Pongtanya, the general manager of TAPB, a subsidiary of the Thai Life Group.

He said production capacity of the factory in the SIL Industrial Estate in Saraburi could be expanded to 77,000 tonnes a year if demand were higher.

The venture, in which Malaya Glass holds a 70% stake, will also expand the scope of F&N´s glass packaging business in the region, giving it total annual capacity of 320,000 tonnes per year from plants in Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Thailand.

As well, it will help to integrate the business of TAPB and support the growth of the beverage market, in which the use of glass bottles is increasing.

The beer business of TAPB is expected to consume 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of glass bottles a year