The game changers
The year 2012 was a busy and challenging year for Somchai Bulsook, chief executive of Sermsuk Plc, who did not want to retire from his beverage empire.
Mr Somchai (left) has turned 'est' into the talk of the town and everybody wanted to try a sip of it.
His drinks company went through both joyful and rough times throughout the year. But the veteran executive, who made Pepsi legendary in Thailand for more than half a century, did not give up and vowed to start a new chapter with his own creation for Sermsuk.
It began when Sermsuk, then the local bottler of Pepsi, decided to end its relationship with US giant PepsiCo. The partnership collapsed over differences on concentrate prices and a strict clause by Pepsi not to allow the Thai partner to expand its soft-drinks business.
The contract was officially terminated on Nov 1.
Mr Somchai prepared his 58-year-old group to face the future without Pepsi. He enlisted a long-time friend, whisky tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, as a new major shareholder in Sermsuk.
Mr Somchai announced a new direction for Sermsuk amid global uncertainty and the challenges of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2016. The company would not limit itself to Thailand but instead go regional.
The relationship between Sermsuk and Pepsi turned soar when the latter attemped to take over the Thai bottler but failed in 2010.
Right after the divorce with PepsiCo, Sermsuk made history again by introducing "est", a locally invented cola brand, to replace Pepsi.
Est became a talk-of-the-town soft drink and everybody wanted to try a sip of it. Many said they could not taste the difference between est and Pepsi. The new brand got a warm welcome from Thai consumers, nearing sales of 1 billion baht within six weeks of its Nov 2 launch.
The product's success owed to its strong distribution network nationwide and sales of est in glass bottles, which account for 60-70% of soft-drink business in Thailand. Pepsi has struggled to find a glass bottle supply.
Pepsi now has DHL as its new distributor. The stage is set for a cola war involving the three major players _ Pepsi, est and Coca-Cola _ in 2013.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/01/01/somchai-brings-new-fizz/
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