Annual Report 2006 - Thai Beverage Public Company Limited

64its launch in April 2006, Hong Thong sales volume has already reached 1.6 million cases. A unique combination of strongbrand, superior product quality, improved packaging, and affordable pricing strategically positions Hong Thong well tomeet domestic demand.In addition, we launched a new brand of brown spirits, “Blend 285”, in October 2006. Blend 285 offers consumer superiorquality products at affordable price. The product features premium clues such as individual gift box, non-refillable cap(“NRF”), and westernized packaging design. The product is rapidly gaining popularity and sold 184 thousand cases injust two months after initial launch, a success which clearly demonstrates the strength of our distribution platform whichenables new products to gain deep market penetration over a short period.We continue to invest in our distilleries to ensure that our production facilities are at their best. In October 2006, we,through our wholly-owned subsidiary Sura Piset Thiparat, further expanded our production platform and acquired newdistillery assets from Sin Surang Karn Sura Co., Ltd., a Thai distillery company engaged in the production of white spiritsunder the “White Tiger” brand. The distillery, which uses Swedish equipment, is of high-quality and capable of producingboth white and brown spirits. The distillery’s strategic location in Kanchanaburi Province, will enable ThaiBev to expandour current brown spirits’ production base in Bangkok to a new geographic region in which our products are gainingpopularity. The distillery uses coal for energy, which enables ThaiBev to diversify our production energy sources awayfrom fuel oil, which is becoming increasingly more expensive.The relentless pursuit of perfection in the quality of our products is well reflected in the industry-wide recognition wehave received. In addition to winning Gold Medals at the Spain International Quality to Alcohol Beverage in 1982 and1983, Sangsom, our flagship brown spirit, recently won the Golden Award at the 25th International Golden Award Food& Beverage 2006 event held in Barcelona, Spain on 6 March 2006Industrial Alcohol BusinessWe acquired our industrial alcohol plant in 2002 to create further integration in our alcohol business. We plan to increaseour exports of industrial alcohol products to key markets such as Japan, India and the Philippines. Since September 2004,we have produced ethanol to make gasohol fuel as a substitute for 95 octane gasoline. We have increased our capacityof ethanol production to meet the expected demand for gasohol and capitalize on the Government’s policy on clean energy.In 2006, our sales volume of ethanol was 46.6 million liters compared to 20.8 million liters in 2005. However, our overallsales volume of industrial alcohol in 2006 is slightly less than that of 2005 due to a temporary production halt as a resultof unfavorable product margins in the first quarter of 2006.