brand worldwide,” Thanombooncharoen continued to say, “It’s a key stepping stone for us.”
Carabao reportedly plans to invest $39 million on the three- year Chelsea F.C. sponsorship deal, which the company as is designed to grow Carabao’s U.K. market share and provide a springboard for U.S. and European expansion. Carabao is betting on the Premier League known for its branding and corporate sponsorship to grow awareness to the company’s buffalo-head logo, famous only in Thailand, on jerseys and team wear to build the brand abroad. Carabao is the top performer globally this year among soft- drink makers with amarket value of at least $1 billion, posting a total return of about 100 percent and outpacing the likes of Monster Beverage Corp. and PepsiCo Inc. The Bangkok-based company, whose name stems from the Filipino word for buffalo, is starting from a low base in the U.K. with sales in the first six months of the year a modest $1 million, according to Nutchamai. The company has set the target on a 10 percent market share, which it hopes to power by distributing 2 million free cans of the drink over the next 12 months in an attempt to challenge the market leader Red Bull. Inves- tors are concerned about the higher marketing expense on the company’s earnings but as Itsara Lertsudkanung, an analyst at AEC Securities Co. in Bangkok said, “This expenditure will be very high in the initial stage because it has to build a brand in the U.K. and other countries. We expect this will be compensated by higher sales from domestic and other Asian markets.” Carabao’s net income more than doubled in the two years through to 37.5 million, since the business listed on the stock market in 2014 it is up about 131 percent as compared with a 6 percent drop in the benchmark SET Index. Thailand arguably sparked the modern day energy-drink industry, as the creators of the Red Bull brand are the late Thai tycoon Chaleo Yoovidhy and Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz. The sponsorship deal with four-time English Premier League champions Chelsea began this summer with Carabao’s buffalo-head logo on the club’s training wear and at press conferences, “Going to the U.K. is like fighting with other giants,” Nutchamai said. “But it doesn’t intimidate us because Carabao overcame Red Bull in Thailand, which was in the market much longer.” There is nothing like a little sponsorship to bring out the competitive drive of a true champion, whether it is on the field or in the marketplace.
By Katie Davis T hai energy-drink maker Carabao Group Pcl, noted as the world’s best-performing major soft-drink company is running with the bulls and investing in the love of the Premier League of England and the Chelsea Football Club to score big as it drives to its goal for global expansion. This move by Carabao shows the company’s focus to increase the share of revenues from abroad and it hopes that its sponsorship of Chelsea will be a driving factor in its goal to increase its revenues from aboard from 30 percent to 50 percent. The company’s Managing Director, Nutchamai Thanom- booncharoen said, “We chose to spend a huge amount of money in the Chelsea partnership as a platform to build our
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • OCTOBER 2016
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