Bangkok--13 Feb--Asia Forestry Management
Asia Forestry Management, part of the Treedom Group, a leading plantation management company focused on growing Aquilaria Crassna, aims to be the largest Oud oil producer in Thailand by 2013 and plans to further expand to become the largest producers in Southeast Asia with the capacity to serve the growing international market.
Andrew Steel, CEO of the Treedom Group said that, “Our focus is on a niche market to serve Middle East clientele, which currently is a billion dollar market and the world’s most popular region using Oud oil as an extension of their personality, lifestyle and social status.”
“The Middle East market is very active and we only see it continuing to grow. We aim to become the number one supplier in the market and are very close to achieving that at the moment. We are also working with major perfume houses in Europe and the USA whom are procuring from us because due to our ability to supply sustainable quantity and quality products” said Mr. Steel.
“At the moment, we are able to supply 25% of the market demand for a small country such as Oman with a million people whilst Saudi Arabia which has 66 million people has a much higher demand and we start to put it in a context that we currently only supply a small percentage of the global market,” he said.
“Currently, the company has 7% market share in the Oud oil export market from Thailand and is targeting to achieve 12-15% share in the coming year through its aggressive expansion plan.” He said that the group has competitive edge over other Oud oil suppliers as it controls the whole value chain from the nursery all the way to the end product.
“We do everything, from germinating the seed and growing the tree to producing the oil, packaging and selling the products, not many companies are able to achieve this, which gives us a huge competitive advantage. There is no middle man so we are price competitive producing high quality products that are loved by our Middle East customers,” he said.
Besides, the Middle East, the group now exclusively supplies products used in fragrances for the exclusive high end retail store, Harrods in London. We are looking to diversify our product range by investing in research and development to offer new items such as Oud tea, body butter, body lotion, anti-bacterial shower gel, incense fragrance stick this year as well as a non-alcoholic Oud oil spray for the Muslim communities.
This year, we plan to double our production capacity with a total investment of around 25 million baht and continue to increase our capacity in 2014 inline with increases in demand.
Last year, we launched our own Dar al Oud product line, a premium brand of 100% pure Oud oil and associated products and we will open our the first signature outlet in Q1 2013. We are planning to open more retail shops in Asia as well as partnering with a number of retail distributors throughout the GCC giving us significant coverage for our products across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain with over 50 outlets.
The group is also looking to expand its operations overseas.
“We have been contacted by Malaysian entities to establish forestry and production facilities and we have just returned from Myanmar where we are looking at new opportunities also,” said Andrew Steel.
Besides the commercial aspect, the group puts a large emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility planting trees for reforestation and supporting local communities. It also contributed to the Mahaesak Project dedicated to His Majesty King Bhumipol Adulyadej by planting 1,100 trees with 18 schools and has plans to continue this project in 2013 and beyond.
The company also runs the Plant A Tree Today (PATT) Foundation, a UK registered charity and Thai Foundation with operational offices in Thailand and planting trees throughout Southeast Asia. PATT works to raise awareness of global environmental issues, campaign for better environmental practices and take action against deforestation and climate change by planting trees. In 2009 PATT was awarded with the United Nations SEED Award for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Environment and Social Development.
“We set a high standard in terms of CSR. We take significant steps to do a lot more than plant trees for our commercial business. We established a UK charity in 2006 and a Thai Foundation in 2008 to support our CSR aims and allow others to support our work too. We can safely say that we plant 10 times more trees for the environment through our charity than the trees we work with commercially in our essential oil industry. We also strictly followed the principles and guidelines for sustainable forestry and aim to achieve accreditation for our commercial plantations in 2014,” he said.