Bangchak & KSL Seek Partner for High Value Bio Based Product Factory Investment
Bangchak and Khon Kaen Sugar Industry (KSL) Group are at present seeking partners from overseas for a joint-investment worth 1-2 million Baht to found a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) in Thailand for production of high value bio-based products, namely enzyme, collagen and alternative protein. The companies have shown SynBio as a green innovation, targeting to increase revenue proportion within 5 years and achieve 50% of High Value Bio Based Products.
On 8 February 2022, Chief Executive Officer and President, BBGI Public Company Limited, Mr. Kittiphong Limsuwannarot addressed that BBGI aimed to start a project for the CDMO to develop, produce and sell high value bio-based products. It can produce a range of high-value bio-based products such as enzymes, collagen, milk whey proteins, egg proteins, as well as alternative protein products. All of them help improve efficiency, reduce the encroachment of natural resources and cut costs more effectively than traditional production.
Recently, BBGI is seeking joint ventures with 2-3 partners who have expertise in CDMO as well as production base lines in Europe and the US. Those partners should be interested in investing in Thailand. The company’s present issue is to consider choosing someone able to extend the factory to the development of high-value bio-products as mentioned above.
Initially, it is expected that the company will invest approximately 1,000-2,000 million Baht, while the factory location may belong to the company’s existing areas in many provinces, such as Chachoengsao, or new areas with suitable potential.
“This factory will develop, manufacture, market and distribute high-value bio-based products, such as enzymes, collagen, milk whey proteins, egg proteins, and alternative protein products. Since we are planning to market in 5 countries, during this time, we should begin to see a clear operational blueprint with partners,” said Mr. Kittiphong.
In addition, BBGI is also looking for partners to invest in Thailand to create an upstream business. However, in the past there was cooperation with a world-class partner, “Manas Bio”, in the preparation of the SynBio platform, and, at present, BBGI has cooperation with Chulalongkorn University to produce detergents to rid fruits and vegetables of chemical substances, enabling the university to become a joint venture. Lately, the process of designing products for sale has been launched through supermarkets and directly to buyers via B2C.
Mr. Kittiphong added that the company had set its target, with an expectation that, within 5 years, there would be a proportion of revenue from the High Value Bio-Based Products business of approximately 50%. In the past 3 years, BBGI had revenues of almost 10 billion Baht already.
Despite the spread of Covid-19, good management of the company resulted in continuous growth of the net profit. From 2018 to 2020, the net profit amounted to 152 million Baht, 387 million Baht and 845 million Baht, respectively, indicating the company’s strong growth of more than 100% per year.
Mr, Chalat Chinthammit, Managing Director of Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Public Company Limited or Khon Kaen Sugar Group, explained that his company implemented a business policy that is socially and environmentally responsible by developing sugar production technology for maximum efficiency which is ready to promote innovation through research and development to support new business expansion related to the integrated sugar business. By using the by-products from the production process to create added value for maximum benefits, the company therefore cooperated with the Bangchak Group. to run biofuel products business. This will help ensure energy security and build on high-value bio-based products by taking the strengths of Khon Kaen Sugar Group, the 4th largest sugar manufacturer in the country, to enable stability of raw materials for BBGI. From the production bases of 5 sugar mills where a total sugar cane crushing rate is of 131,500 tons per day, it is estimated that the amount of sugar cane to be crushed in 2022 will be 6.14 million tons.
BBGI operates in the form of a holding company to invest in various others which run business of manufacturing and distributing biofuel products, such as ethanol and biodiesel, enabling BBGI to become a major producer and distributor of biofuels in Thailand while extending knowledge to other creators of high-value bio- based products. By applying Synthetic Biology (SynBio) technology, BBGI is a leader in high-value bio-based products in line with the model Bio-Circular-Green Economy or BCG pioneered by the government. The company has contributed to driving Thailand to become a country of high revenue.
