Unilever Thailand expects to expand its product portfolios despite market challenges and changing consumer behaviors influenced by digital disruptions. It will continue to enhance livelihoods for Thais and reduceplastic wastesfor long-term sustainable growth.
Mr. Robert Candelino, CEO of Unilever Thai Group of Companies and Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, said the Thai operations have been successfully integrated the principle of sustainable living, into business practices since last year.
With 87 years in Thailand, Unilever has been serving a wide range of products to Thai consumers. It has beenranked no.1 employer of choice for three consecutive years and younger generation is inspired to work here, making the company more purposeful.
Unilever is ranked the market leader in seven major product segments including laundry detergents, haircare, skin cleansing, body care, rice porridge, ice cream and dish washing.
The company is proud to showthat 99%of 24.7 millionhouseholds in Thailand make a purchase from Unilever’s product portfoliosmore than 2 times a month, with a repurchase rate of over 99%, and that our consumers use our productsthree times a day.
This year, Unilever Thailand expects to have a very good year, making a bigger footprint and a real impact in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry.
“We have redefined our goal to be a ‘purpose-led, future-fit’ company, standing firm and surviving business challenges in any market circumstance,” Mr. Candelino said.
Moreover, Unilever Thailand has also invested in digital economy by initiating a digital hub for people in Thailand to respond to digital disruptions.
Unilever has a strong belief in three fundamentals that guides it to do business activities. It believes that brands with purpose grow, people with purpose thrive, and companies with purpose last.
When doing business in the face of changing market environment, Unilever istakes into account ourmulti-stakeholders including consumers, customers, employees, society, planet and shareholders.
With this business model, Mr. Candelino is confident that Unilever Thailand will be able to serve various needs of Thai consumers despite growing market challenges. Today, the FMCG market is evolving with technological and lifestyle changes. Consumers are now looking for healthier lifestyle and possessing sustainability awareness. Their accessibility to product choices is changing to make more online purchases via mobile and e-commerce platforms.
In 2018, Unilever Thailand has fully integrated its Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) into business practices, aiming to improve health and well-being of consumers, enhance livelihoods, and reduce environmental impact.
As the company with purpose, Unilever Thailand has worked to enhance the livelihoods for Thais, through Ran Tid Dao and I’m Wall’s Man, which will celebrate 30thanniversary for Wall’s ice-cream mobile vending this year.
- Ran Tid Dao stores help grow and sustain mom-and-pop shops who are the grassroot and the core of Thailand’s economy. Ran-Tid-Dao also revamps from inside-out by bringing Unilever’s know-how and marketing tools to provide store management knowledge and customer loyalty know-how, thus improving lives and income of Shou Huay’s family and children. Currently, there are 10,000s of Ran Tid Dao shops nationwide.
- I’m Wall’s Man aims to boost career development for Thais who want to run their own Wall’s ice-cream business, providing job opportunities with stable incomes. This year marks 30thanniversary of I’m Wall’s mobile vending initiative. Through Wall’s, Unilever has created 10,000 jobs through the I’m Wall’s mobile vending, serving the communities throughout Thailand, and in many successful cases removing them and their families from debts, becoming successful Wall’s ice-cream mobile sellers.
Mr. Candelino, who now oversees six countries in Southeast Asia, said Unilever Thailand will focus onsustainability and health related issues such as environmental and water problems.
The company is committed to reducing plastic waste by promoting awareness of plastic waste reduction and moving toward to use recyclable, reusable and composable plastic packaging for Unilever products.
At Unilever, its employees have future-fit capabilities to help foster the company’s growth, having DNAs to discover new things, diagnose problems, develop ability and enhance themselves to have digital skills.
Unilever has used its brands with purpose to advocate important issues to consumers and enable Thais to eat healthier diets with nutritious products. It offers healthier choices with reduced salt, reduced sugar and reduced calories. Here are the samples of brands with purpose:
- Knorr natural healthier choices offer delicious products that have nutrition diets. Knorr has promoted the importance of breakfast in support of child development. Its Knorr rice porridge fortified with essential vitamins & minerals and high nutritional standards is a healthier breakfast choice as it is less salt by 26-28% but high in Vitamin B1, B3, B6 and Iodine.
- Omo continues to make bigger impact to Thai society for three consecutive years through “Omo Bright Future Academy” campaign in order to enhance people’s personality for a bright future by encouraging Thai students to be more confident in English language. Now, the campaign is viewed by 1 million viewers. It hopes to expand the viewer base to 19 million.
- Breeze launched its Outdoor Classroom Campaign in 2018 to promote less time on screen for kids and play more outdoor. Breeze believes that playing outdoor helps improve the child development in many ways including physically, mentally, and socially. Breeze has collaborated with child experts and mom influencers to promote outdoor activities for kids such as running and zoo visiting. It also joined with local schools and encourage school teachers to have outdoor classroom.
“We made a good progress with brands with purpose to improve health and well-being of consumers and enhance livelihoods for Thais. This year, we will add two new brands with purpose, Love Beauty Planet and Seventh Generation, to serve Thai consumers,” he added.