ScandAsia Thailand - July 2016

JUL 2016
15 years of innovation:
Diakrit International enters a new era
ScandAsia.dk ScandAsia.fi ScandAsia.no ScandAsia.se

JUL 2016
Coming Events
Enjoy Scandinavian Cinema at Film Festival
15 years of innovation:
Diakrit International enters a new era
ScandAsia.dk ScandAsia.fi ScandAsia.no ScandAsia.se
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The annual European Union Film Festival kicked
off in Bangkok on 22 June. During July, the festival
moves to Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen. Four
Scandinavian movies have found their way to the
program.
Bikes vs Cars (2015, Documentary)
Bikes vs Cars is a Swedish documentary directed
by Fredrik Gertten about the bike and what an
amazing tool for change it can be. It highlights a
conflict in city planning between bikes, cars and a
growing reliance on fossil fuels.
Bikes vs Cars can be watched in Chiang Mai,
Sunday July 17 at SFX Cinema in MAYA Lifestyle
Shopping Centre and in Khon Kaen, Sunday July 24
at SF Cinema in Central Plaza.
The Fencer (2015, Drama)
Finnish drama directed by Klaus Härö. Fleeing
from the Russian secret police, a young Estonian
fencer is forced to return to his homeland, where
he becomes a physical education teacher at a local
school. The past however catches up and puts him
in front of a difficult choice.
You can watch the Fencer in Chiang Mai,
Monday July 11 at SFX Cinema in MAYA Lifestyle
Shopping Centre and in Khon Kaen, Thursday July
21 at SF Cinema in Central Plaza.
Silent Heart (2014, Drama)
Danish drama directed by Oscar-awarded director
Bille August. Three generations of a family coming
together over a weekend. A sick mother’s wish
to die before her disease worsens gets harder to
handle as old conflicts come to the surface.
Silent Heart is on the programme in in Chiang
Mai, Sunday July 17 at SFX Cinema in MAYA
Lifestyle Shopping Centre - and not in Khon Kaen.
The Sunfish (2014, Romantic-Drama)
Danish drama directed by Søren Balle. Kesse is
a third generation fisherman living in the small
and windblown town of Hirtshals, in Northern
Jutland. Kesse is struggling to survive, desperately
holding on to the only way of life he knows. Due to
increasing financial pressure, Kesse is forced to find
more notorious and alternative ways of making
ends meet. This in turn, leads him to meet his polar
opposite, the female marine biologist Gerd.
The Sunfish is shown in Chiang Mai, Sunday
July 10 at SFX Cinema in MAYA Lifestyle Shopping
Centre - and not in Khon Kaen.

News Brief
Ambassador met with Danes in Udon Thani
For the very first time in his soon six years’
ambassador period, Mikael Hemniti Winther,
officially met the Danish expat community in
Udon Thani and the nearby regions of Northeast
Thailand. The ‘meet and greet’-arrangement took
place at the Good Corner, a Danish-owned
restaurant owned by 4-years Udon-resident, Jytte
Rasmussen.
The ambassador was flanked by Michael
Madsen, consular staff at the Embassy, when they
casually took up the space at the bar, while the
around 30 local Danes, that had turned up, was
seated at tables around the restaurant.
Mikael and Michael began with a loop of
handshakes around the tables, before Mikael
took the word and announced that the Embassy,
to great excitement for the attendance, paid for
free drinks and food for the next 2 hours. That’s
an effective way to please a crowd.
The casual atmosphere continued throughout
the meeting. Mikael ran through the timetable and
invited people to ask “any questions they like”.
Even though Mikael’s wife is from Udon Thani
and he regularly visits the region, this is his first
official visit, he said.
“There are only eight people registered from
the area on Danskerlisten, so if we have to look
completely strict on this, only eight Danes a
living in Udon, as far as we are informed”, the
Ambassador told as one reason why he hadn’t
visited before.
“But I can tell, that there are many more
and of course we knew that”, Mikael said in his
attempt for people to show more interest in the
Embassy. As Mikael said, when the guests inquired
about a Consulate, it goes both ways. People
also have to do an effort, to show interest in the
Embassy if they want to get as much as possible
out of its service.
The questions from the crowd where round
and about and ranged from complaints about the
lack of rights as an expat and what the use of taxpaying
is, as they “don’t get anything from that”.
It escalated when Jens Andersen, expat since
2009, took the floor and said “we pay our taxes,
but what rights do we have? We have no health
care and we have no right to vote”.
Mikael were willing to discuss the issues raised
by Jens Andersen, but also made it clear that it was
out of his scope as the ambassador. Tax-issues and
right-issues are strictly political questions and goes
back to the central government in Copenhagen.
The Embassy is a subject to the rules decided by
the government.
Mikael explained: “It’s a very common mistake
that many people think, that we as an Embassy has
a say on the political agenda back in Denmark. We
have a political engagement in Thailand, to tell the
Thai government what we think of the situation
in Thailand, but we don’t have a mandate back in
Denmark.”
More questions concerned practical or more
personal issues. When all shots were fired, Mikael
and Michael sat to have a chat and a beer with
the guests.
Afterwards he evaluated the meeting with
ScandAsia.
“I have been planning to go to Udon Thani
for some time now. I’m always happy to be out
of the office and meet with the Danes. There are
many frustrations and my experiences tells me
that most of them are solved by meeting people -
that also goes for today in my view. So I’m satisfied
with today”.
What is the purpose behind these “Meet the
Ambassador” events?
“The purpose is to show people that the
Embassy is not some kind of ivory tower. We
are always at service, available and happy to chat.
People often have a lot of stories they want to
share, especially when you sit down and have a
beer with them and sometimes they also find
interest in what you actually do as an ambassador.”
Mikeal Hemniti Winther is ending his period
as Danish ambassador to Thailand this summer,
when he is moving to Bangladesh.
4 ScandAsia.Thailand • July 2016

News Brief
PR consultant and Thailand blogger Jan Källman passes away
The Swedish journalist Jan Källman has
passed away during a trip to Hanoi, where
he suffered a stroke that eventually took
his life after almost a fortnight in hospital in the
Vietnamese capital.
He was based in Bangkok since 2008 as
Asia correspondent for Cafe a Swedish lifestyle
magazine. Jan contributed to a range of other
Swedish media from Bangkok as well but he
probably became most known among Swedish
readers in and outside Thailand through his blog
“Bara i Bankan”. In this blog he reflected in his
own style over life, people, politics and small
and big events in Bangkok and Thailand, rarely
politically correct. Sometimes he brought up what
he felt was his own shortcomings and doubts.
Jan had a long career in media and public
relations in and from Sweden before the move
to Bangkok, a city he came to love long before
making it his new home. Football was a special
interest. For a period in his life he worked as
a sports writer for Sweden’s largest morning
paper DN. From Bangkok he wrote among
else a long feature about Sven-Goran Eriksson’s
struggle as Manchester City coach during Thaksin
Shinawatra’s ownership of the club.
Jan’s photographer of choice was Dennis
Thern. They worked together during many
assignments over the years. Here follows a short
piece by Dennis about Jan:
“I met Jan back in 2002 when we did a job
together for a travel magazine. Already then
I felt his strong detailed descriptions of the
surroundings and his meticulous research, which
I really enjoyed through out the years when we
worked together.
He really cared for the people we met and
interviewed, which was a really nice touch.
On weekends we were hanging out from
time to time. Mostly for dinner at a few selected
restaurants that always delivered but also to
watch English Premier League football which
we both considered to be the most fun league
to follow.
We talked on the phone for almost 30
minutes the day before he ended up in the
hospital. He sounded fine and we talked about
possible assignments, documentary films and
other ideas we discussed from time to time. It
was a huge chock to hear about this less than 48
hours later.
Me and other friends have fond memories of
Jan. He will for sure be missed for many reasons!”
Jan Källman became 61 years old. He is
survived by his mother and two daughters.
He will be put to rest in Sweden in a private
ceremony later this summer.
Christer Nilsson/Dennis Thern
As a final tribute we provide a link to Café’s
long obituary over Jan, http://www.cafe.se/jan.
kallman/
Swedish singer in first Thai opera
Jonas Andersson, the Swedish Thai Luk thung
singer, performed on Sunday 26 June 2016 for
the first time in an opera when he sang on
stage in the Thai composer Somtow Sucharitkul’s
latest opera in his series of “Das-Jati – Scenes
from Ten Lives of the Buddha”.
Jonas Andersson was one of a handful of
Thai music celebrities: The singer Khun Ploypailin
Jensen, H.M. King Bhumibol’s granddaughter, the
rock icon Pod Moderndog, “Thailand’s Got Talent”
winner Myra Molloy and jazz singer Athalie De
Koning. Trisdee na Patalungconducted the Siam
Orpheus Choir and Siam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jonas Andersson has on his Instagram account
uploaded photos from the rehearsal extensively
and has clearly been fascinated by the great
experience to participate in the opera.
Somtow’s “Das Jati” has been taking shape
for more than a decade. By the end of the year
Opera Siam will have produced five of the 10.
And Somtow will be halfway through the task of
composing what will be, if completed, the “biggest
opera of all time”, eclipsing the previous record
holder, the four-opera Ring Cycle by Richard
Wagner, in breadth and number of characters.
June 2016 • ScandAsia.Thailand 5

News Brief
First Danish Ball in Thailand rocked!
Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce
shook off ten years of dusty image when
Asbjørn Overgaard Christiansen – mostly
known as the Commercial Counselor at the Royal
Danish Embassy – on Saturday night took the
stage as the MC of the first ever Danish Ball in
Thailand. This was his night and he was amazing,
fresh, energetic. He wore his smart tuxedo as
casual as if he was always dressed like this and
he filled out the stage as if he was born to be up
there, addressing a ballroom full of discerning gala
dinner guest. Good choice, Dancham!
The entertainer of the evening, Michael
Carøe was also a good choice. Looking back
at his performance, he had clearly planned
something else. But that changed, when he asked
the audience for Frank Sinatra suggestions and
6 ScandAsia.Thailand • July 2016
then took up a suggestion from Eivind Mellerby,
probably the only Norwegian that night. Starting
crooning the song “Fly me to the moon”, Michael
Carøe jokingly added “Oh, I forgot to mention
that the person suggesting the song must come
up here and dance as well”. Next thing, you had
Eivind Mellerby dancing there all alone on the
dance floor in grand style – except he was not
there alone for long. Within seconds, the floor
was filled with other guests, Asbjoern and his wife
Gitte of course the very first, who were itching to
also get out there and move their feet before the
“real” band would come on the stage later.
Michael Carøe went with the flow, took even
a detour into some disco tunes to the delight of
his uncontrollable audience, until he eventually
ended up with “My Way”. Nice!
And that’s pretty much the way this great
night went on and on – surviving even a lucky
draw for shower of lottery gifts – and carried
on until midnight to the tunes of Rhythm Nation
band. And after a break for a midnight hotdog
snack, the most hard core party-goers went on
till 2 am.
What a night!
The photos here are from Dancham’s official
photographer. On ScandAsia.com you will find
two small VDO clips.

Danes in Bangkok launch Kids Playgroups
News Brief
As part of the Danes Worldwide
establishment of a Danish mother tongue
school for kids in Thailand, 32 energetic
kids gathered in five playgroups to have fun while
improving their Danish.
NiST had made their indoor playground
available for the kids and their parents on 14th
May. While the parents had a space to chat and
have a coffee in, the children were in good hands
of four volunteer teachers that orchestrated the
structural playgroups from 8:30 am to 1 pm. The
playgroups were arranged for small kids ranging
from 2 to 5 years.
The children’s got the chance to speak Danish
and learn new words while playing with peers.
Some of them got to speak Danish for almost
the very first time and some of them enjoyed
the rare occasion to speak Danish with other
kids. The playgroups was divided into different
difficulty levels.
Mai Ellegaard, parent and initiator behind a
Danish school in Thailand, reports of very positive
reactions: “People were very excited both parents
and kids, and the volunteers did an amazing job.
Most of us were sticking around for a little while
after it ended. At one point the older kids wanted
to join to play as well. So overall I think it went
very well”.
Photos by Steen Trolle.
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June 2016 • ScandAsia.Thailand 7

15 years of innovation:
Diakrit International
enters a new era
By Joakim Persson
Bangkok-based, Swedish growth company
Diakrit International Ltd. is taking their slogan
‘Seeing is believing’ to the next level with Virtual
Reality (VR) , and the media giant News Corp
on board as their new majority shareholder. As a
start-up they have not only managed to survive
the first tough years, but also that invisible
seven-year barrier, much thanks to constant
development and improvement of their solutions
that have been game-changing for a traditional
sector: real estate.
Celebrating 15 years in business in
2016, the year started with a major
step forward for Diakrit as the up
to then owners Pegroco Invest
and SEB Venture Capital sold their
holdings to the international media mogul Rupert
Murdoch’s News Corp Australia.
ScandAsia meets Diakrit to learn more about
the company that is in for an exciting time ahead.
“This is an incredible milestone for our
business and a stepping stone towards our
vision,” commented a thrilled Co-Founder,
President & Chief Executive Officer Mr Fredrik
Bergman, as he announced the deal earlier
this year. This is an acknowledgment of the
excellent business model we have created, the
outstanding team we have assembled and the
innovative visualization solutions we continue to
develop. We are proud,” he said.
8 ScandAsia.Thailand • July 2016

“Joining News Corp will give Diakrit the ability
to leverage News Corp’s global presence and
resources, and accelerate worldwide adoption
of our industry-leading solutions. We see News
Corp as the right strategic partner as we continue
to expand and grow our business to become
the world’s #1 provider of digital visualization
solutions for the real estate industry,” he says to
ScandAsia.
“The real estate market in Australia [News
Corp’s home turf that Diakrit is currently
entering], the U.S, and around the world have only
just begun leveraging our type of digital content,
so the potential is enormous.”
Likewise, News Corp intends to utilise the
Swedish company’s solutions and expertise, to
further drive Diakrit’s growth in new markets,
and in turn, their own property businesses and
real estate agent partners will benefit enormously.
“News Corp is the world’s largest owner
worldwide of property portals, including the
largest property portal website in Australia, via
REA Group. They recently acquired one of our
current client partners, iProperty, which is a
Malaysia-based property site operating in Thailand.
We look forward to a closer collaboration directly
with them now that we are part of the same
family. We are also looking forward to grow our
presence in Europe and in the U.S market, and
we are establishing ourselves even stronger into
Europe.”
“The main reason behind News Corp’s
investment in Diakrit is that they saw us as the
perfect spider in their global web of property
portals, but also to their newspapers/magazines.
In Australia alone they own 126 newspapers
with weekly real estate supplements,” says the
CEO. “Real estate in general is a very big topic
in Australia.”
And with this media giant within real estate,
Diakrit sees News Corp as the perfect match to
their business.
“They believe in us, our values and our longterm
vision, and they want to help us get there
faster. We trust that our knowledge of real estate
marketing and digital content, together with
News Corp’s resources and global reach, will be a
winning combination,” Fredrik welcomed the new
majority shareholder.
The real estate market in
Australia [News Corp’s home
turf that Diakrit is currently
entering], the U.S, and
around the world have only
just begun leveraging our
type of digital content, so the
potential is enormous.
they will be able to continue their leadership in
the industry as an independent, disruptive force
that, as Fredrik puts it: “must not just keep up with
what is happening, but continue to set the pace
going forward”.
“We have to be there in the forefront of
development and are constantly working on
launching new technology. There are some
smaller, emerging competitors with potential in
this market, but we still have a pretty long lead
after 15 years at the forefront of our industry.”
The VR experience
What is also really exciting for Diakrit these days
is Virtual Reality (VR). In late 2015 they launched
their VR app, allowing customers to inspect and
virtually experience properties that are not yet
built.
“The digital experience will only continue to
grow and the person looking for a new home
online will continue to get better and better online
tools to make qualified decisions when they buy
real estate online. The VR experience is going to
really take off in the next couple of years, and
Diakrit is really pushing the boundary within this
area. We have already released VR applications for
new development, residential resale and rentals,
and we are releasing VR solutions for commercial
real estate in the next couple of months.”
Northern Europe’s largest developer,
Swedish-founded NCC, was first out to offer
their prospects this new virtual experience.
“You can do it on the go. By looking at the
planned development in your mobile phone, you
can just click on the VR app icon and then turn to
using the Gear VR,” Fredrik explains.
“NCC featured the VR experience in their
sales office display, using Samsung’s Gear VR
equipment, which is the first market standard.
There is, however, another western standard
expected within shortly that makes it very easy
to bring VR with you to where the customer is.”
Diakrit’s VR app connects to their flagship
online software, the D-NavigatorTM, which is a
customized product for new developments. One
can experience the development project from
a facade or aerial view, to see its surroundings,
its interiors and to get a wide range of detailed
information about each unit within that
development. Users can then visualize their new
home down to the finest of details including door
panel materials and selection of appliances.
The next step for the VR app is to experience
existing homes with it: “We know it can be difficult
to imagine any future living space by just looking
at a couple of photos and a floor plan. But even
after visiting an open house in an existing home, it
can sometimes be difficult to remember the look
and feel of that particular space. With the VR app
you can give a 24-7 virtual tour of any apartment
online, by allowing visitors to use the VR glasses
to enter an empty place and stand in the middle
of the room to get a feel for the true dimensions
and space.”
And then there is the Augmented Reality
technology (AR), which is a technology that will
enable the creation of images within applications
that blend in with contents in the real world. With
AR, users are able to interact with virtual contents
in the real world, and are able to distinguish
between the two.
“You’ll have interactive worlds within X
New strategic partner
Recently, both Diakrit and their previous owners
had agreed that in order for the company to
continue its international growth, a more strategic
partner would be needed. SEB and Pegroco were
ready to hand over the ship to a more strategic
and globally experienced captain.
“SEB and Pegroco are two great Swedish
Venture capitals that joined us back in 2008 and
who have been with us ever since, helping us
build this company through both opportunity
and challenge.”
“Pegroco has actively supported Diakrit from
when the company was a small start-up with
ambitious goals in Laholm, Sweden, with a strong
vision, to today’s situation where they have a vast
portfolio of leading digital marketing solutions and
services provided to over 2,000 real estate agents,
property portals and developers worldwide,”
says Fredrik.
He believes that with News Corp’s backing,
Diakrit International’s founding team: Dick Karlsson, Exec VP & CSMO; Fredrik Bergman, President & CEO;
Martin Fritze, VP & CTO
June 2016 • ScandAsia.Thailand 9

years from now. And what that X represents I
cannot say but it is very exciting. The technology
is advancing very fast,” Fredrik predicts.
“We are very impressed by Augmented
Reality, which might become even larger than VR
as you combine virtual with reality,” he adds.
The smart phone as their best friend
The company has come a long way since 2001,
especially when considering their recent quick
development and their strongest growth up to
now started to happen with the introduction of
smart phones.
Already in 2003, Diakrit, today known for
their state-of-the-art technology and innovative
software, started focusing on architectural
drawings and taking the steps into 3D floor plans,
in their strive to revolutionize the presentation
and marketing of homes and office spaces (which
back then consisted in poor photos and blurry
floor plan sketches as the norm).
“We have a powerful real estate engine
that affects how we develop and produce our
solutions, but it is our continued focus on clients’
and end users’ needs that have made us successful.
Combined with technology advancements, our
platform has evolved to reach a higher level.
The smart phone is our best friend since it has
developed a completely different platform for
displaying our solutions in today.”
Place that in comparison with the years
2005 – 2009 where they had “fantastic products”
but were ahead of their time, due to too slow
band with.
“The visualization tools we develop are at
the absolute cutting edge. To us, innovation is
only valuable if it’s user friendly and makes a real
difference.”
“With technology development and
digitization as wind in our sails, I see us now
continuing our journey into new markets with
new innovations,” says the CEO and predicts: “In
three years, I see our business as fully mature in
10 ScandAsia.Thailand • July 2016
the Australian market and ourselves undoubtedly
as the #1 provider of digital visualization solutions
for real estate agents in Australia. We will, of
course, also have an even stronger foothold in our
home turf, Scandinavia, and on top of that, having
established in several more markets.“
“Since our objective is to continue a high rate
of growth and maintain profitability by entering
and expanding into markets where the real estate
sector is still in an early phase when it comes to
using premium rich media content, we will also
focus on developing our businesses in Asia, the
US and Europe, seeing the same potential for
our products as we do in the Scandinavian and
Australian market.“
Based on previous outcomes Fredrik is
confident: “We bring with us a proven track record
of business development, a scalable business
model and an offer that provides significant
financial value for our customers and partners.”
The world’s #1 provider
Their long-term goal to become the number one
provider for digital visualization solutions on all
markets, will evidently keep the schedule very
busy and filled with continuing development of
leading solutions for the global real estate market.
Here the founding team plays a crucial role:
“What especially Dick Karlsson and I are creating,
is the vision forward, with short lead-time onwards
to launch new services and products and are very
much focusing on the market. Meanwhile, Martin
Fritze, is the brainchild behind our products.”
At their Bangkok head office today, there
are many Swedish employees, in addition to
Danes, Norwegians and Germans, who work
within IT/R&D, New Construction/3D Team, HR,
Marketing, in addition to customer support. And
programmers come from all over the world.
There are also around 300 in-house photo
editors and draftsmen. In the next coming 18
months their number of employees will need to
double in order to manage the expected growth
on next markets.
“As co-founder I have always thrived on
the customer and consumer experience, and
as CEO, I get the pleasure to work with major
real estate clients worldwide. I personally find it
encouraging when I see that Diakrit is completely
self-going, as is the case in the Nordic countries
today. It’s amazing to see that the company that
we, as founders, started in a basement back
in 2001 and put our hearts and minds into,
is now up and running as an organization by
itself. Our entrepreneurial drive probably still
means a lot for the company. We want to stay
in the entrepreneurial world since that’s what
differentiates Diakrit from its competitors. Our
clients don’t just see us as a supplier who works
on an operational level to provide them with
what they need - they see us as a strategic
partner that will go beyond operational levels
to help them become successful,” concludes the
CEO who also advocates a flat organisation.
“I don’t like building up hierarchies, so we
have an open door policy.”
‘Seeing is believing’ – Fredrik’s clarity of vision
and entrepreneurial instincts help pave the way
for continued growth and success.

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Lucky 13 Sandwich founders Mark Perthu-Hansen and Daniel Baven
From adventure-seeking
to franchise entrepreneurs
Wo young Danes arrived to
Phuket in 2012 with plans for
some months of party and
fun. Against all odds they’re
now serving almost 13.000
customers in their three Sandwich-franchises.
Meet young Danish Sandwich-entrepreneurs
Daniel Baven, 28, and Mark Perthu-Hansen, 25.
Daniel Baven, educated chef, arrived in
Phuket February 2012. He found a job as chef
in Phuket but too much partying made him
unemployed and flat broke a few months later.
In the meantime he met Mark Perthu-Hansen, a
Danish electrician.
In the autumn of 2012 they signed a 3-year
contract on a 4-room townhouse at 12/34 Viset
Road in Rawai with shared ambitions to make
a living in Thailand. This is when their adventure
began.
Opening a Sandwich Shop
Daniel found a new job as chef and Mark tried
to find something to get his hands on. “Many
times we talked about the possibility of opening
a simple pasta-shop in the ground floor of the
house”, Daniel remembers.
12 ScandAsia.Thailand • July 2016
But after having screened the surrounding
areas and concluding that there was at least ten
Italian restaurants they scrapped the idea.
”Then, one evening while chilling at our
balcony we came up with the idea to do a
sandwich-shop. There was only one in the area
and they used really crappy hot dog bread for
their sandwiches. We wanted to do something
proper”, they decided and Lucky 13 Sandwich
took form: “I was wearing an ugly belt that I had
bought for my first apprentice salary when I was
15, but it was the only belt that fitted me at the
moment. It said Lucky 7 Bastard on the buckle that
was formed as a horseshoe and then we ended
up deciding on Lucky 7 Sandwich”, Daniel explains.
They later modified it to Lucky 13 Sandwich
because of the irony between Lucky and 13.
The day after they each took a loan of
150.000 baht from their parents and began the
work straight away.
“I’m very positive that they did not expect
us to actually do this”, Daniel says and Mark
interrupts: “They were probably just looking
forward to see us again in some months, when
the money was spent.”
But things accelerated. Daniel was still
working full-time as a chef, while Mark was
scouting around the nearby streets in Rawai to
get some cheap deals on chairs, tables, kitchen
equipment, carpenters and plumbers and so on.
“This is always how it works, even from day
one, Daniel is never there until the store is set up
and ready to operate,” Mark laughs.
Lucky 13 Sandwich in Rawai had its grand
opening the 18th of December 2012. Daniel and
Mark had spent a total of 450.000 baht.
“The room was totally sterile, we had used
cheap outdoor furniture for both inside and
outside; we had made everything ridiculously
cheap. In addition to this, Daniels ex-girlfriend was
working there for free as our only staff member.
The only decoration we had was a broken toyhelicopter
that we bought in a drunken moment,”
Mark recalls.
At the opening day Daniel was in Malaysia to
renew his Visa for the new work permit. Full of
expectations he called Mark to ask for a report
on their first day. They sold one coffee, Mark
reported.
“I was crestfallen”, Daniel says.
By the end of January 2013 they had sold 280
sandwiches since opening their doors.

“I was wearing an ugly
belt that I had bought for
my first apprentice salary
when I was 15, but it was
the only belt that fitted
me at the moment. It said
Lucky 7 Bastard on the
buckle that was formed as
a horseshoe and then we
ended up deciding on Lucky
7 Sandwich
backpackers
“We didn’t have a goal and had no idea about
revenues and stuff like that. We just wanted a
place that had potential to finance our rent and
then eat some good food,” Mark says, admitting
that this was not sustainable in the long run.
Saving a struggling business
In February 2013 they made their first step
into more serious business. A common friend
introduced them to Facebook advertisements.
“This was a huge turning point for us. It cost
a bit of money, but we were getting 10 visitors
more a day”, Daniel Explains. The Facebook
advertisements they used, and still use, is one
of the things that has taken Lucky 13 Sandwich
to where it is today by “getting out there”, for a
minimal cost compared to traditional advertising
options.
Some weeks after this revelation Daniel, full of
confidence that this could actually work, hired a
deputy head. Aim is her name. This was a big step
in the enterprise, as Aim was their first paid staff
and hired with a monthly salary that was high for
such a poorly performing sandwich place selling
only 280 sandwiches per month. But “Aim is still
today the biggest key to our success”, Daniel says.
The success, though, was far from predictable
at that time. By April 2013 Mark was forced to
return to Denmark to make some money on
the side that could fund the project. Daniel still
worked as a chef and tried to support the poorly
performing business from his paycheck. They
were struggling.
In June they were forced to introduce a new
angle to the project. Daniel moved out of the
house, which meant they had four rooms free to
make money on. They got listed on Booking.com
and this saved the Lucky 13 Sandwich enterprise
in the end.
“We had ugly losses in 2013, but we made
money on our guest house, so that was how the
company kept afloat”, Daniel tells, as he admits
that he didn’t believe they would make serious
money on selling sandwiches ever back then.
The transformation of Lucky
The shop had sold 1200 sandwiches by January
2014 - a significant improvement compared to
the year before, when the number was less than
300.
Sensing a progress Daniel and Mark made
their biggest investment; one Kawasaki Ninja
motorcycle each bought from the profits of
Lucky 13 Sandwiches. Almost. The Kawasaki’s
eroded the economy forcing Mark, once again,
to return to Denmark in April 2014 to work. “It
was a terrible move, but totally worth it,” Mark
firmly adds.
While the company was going nowhere,
Daniel got a perfect chance to make a proper
living in Thailand. He was promoted to Food and
Beverage Manager in June 2014 with a paycheck
that would grant him a wealthy living.
Then he met a girl and as illogical as it sounds
she encouraged him to put all his efforts on the
Lucky-business. So in August 2014, two months
after the promotion, he quit the job, recreated all
the menus, developed a diet plan and got in touch
with two experienced franchisers mentoring him
in the business field.
At the same time Aim, the store manager,
made the critical move and decided to keep the
shop open for 24 hours with free delivery around
the clock.
“From that point on we started to have
regulars that ate our sandwiches every day and
some even several times a day. It rapidly grew
our brand into something people were taking
June 2016 • ScandAsia.Thailand 13

serious”, Daniels explains. In other words sales
were increasing.
When Mark returned in October 2014 the
business was transformed. The brand of Lucky 13
was suddenly in high demand and they benefited
from that rapidly.
In November 2014, Daniel and Mark sold
their first Franchise store. Two Austrian guys,
Michel and Matthias, who had followed the
concept closely and showed repeated interest
in opening a shop in Patong, were now ready to
talk business.
By 10am the 4th of December 2014 the
hotel “Aim Patong” served its last breakfast buffet.
The morning after, on the 5th December at 6am,
Lucky 13 Sandwich opened their first franchised
store in Patong.
It was their first serious business move, but
there was more to come. A few days later they
received an interesting inquiry. An Italian guy was
interested in the Rawai shop.
“Deal” they said and by January 1st 2015 they
had opened Lucky 13 Sandwich Patong and Lucky
13 Sandwich Rawai had changed ownership from
Daniel and Mark, to Daniele, the Italian guy.
The year of mistakes
By January 2015 they had more than 7000
customers through the doors, once again a
massive improvement from the year before. But
surprisingly enough Daniel and Mark refer to
2015 as the year of mistakes.
They invested all their funds won by the sale
of Rawai into a 3-storage building in Patong as
their new head office and central kitchen. It had
it all, reception, conference rooms even a lounge
area upstairs and down. To fill the space they
hired 12 new staff members including a Business
Development Manager, Marketing Executive, their
own Accountant, as well as Mark’s mother as
General Manager of the Patong store.
Lucky 13 was traveling on rails, except it was
not. The new team consisted in good people, they
state, but they didn’t know how to use them, and
they didn’t have a fully developed business model.
Daniel and Mark lost track of things.
14 ScandAsia.Thailand • July 2016
The room was totally sterile,
we had used cheap outdoor
furniture for both inside
and outside; we had made
everything ridiculously
cheap. In addition to this,
Daniels ex-girlfriend was
working there for free as
our only staff member. The
only decoration we had was
a broken toy-helicopter that
we bought in a drunken
moment.
“Fuck, I thought”, Daniel recalls. They were
losing money. “In April we just knew it was game
over. We had to fire everyone. Even my mom”,
Mark explains. “It was really, really hard.”
Overnight Lucky 13 was transformed from
a promising young franchise to the threat of
bankruptcy.
“We were about to close it all. This was a
tough blow for us”, Mark admits.
“We were down in the dumps for months,”
Daniel adds.
They moved the central kitchen to the garden
in Rawai where the project was born. Mark built a
shelter-like room for a sparse budget, wherein the
central kitchen operated. Daniel began to renew
the menu again and they were both trying to
rethink the company from bottom to top.
“We needed to get our head out of our asses,
end the stupidity and rebuild the franchise from
our hard-earned learnings,” Mark says.
After two months of a brutal low season,
they were slowly getting better, still selling a lot of
sandwiches. And then they got momentum just
at the right time. In September 2015 Bernie, an
Englishman owning a guest house in Kamala with
a beachside shack to spare approached Daniel
and Mark. It was a no-brainer for the guys and
by mid-October the third Lucky 13 shop opened
in Kamala.
Paradise, palm trees and tasty Sandwiches
Since then business has only improved. In the
month of January 2016 Daniel and Mark sold
sandwiches to almost 13.000 visiting customers.
They were finally building on a more sustainable
plan for the company, avoiding new crisis and
threatening bankruptcies, after learning the hard
way about general business and the importance
of strategy and sustainability.
In 2016 they are fully focused on constructing
a new business model. Instead of depending on
suppliers to provide their products, they want to
produce things within their own supply chain and
develop new branches to the business, such as
bakery, coffee and catering.
“In this way, we can lower costs for ourselves,
we can provide the products cheaper for all
franchises and thus encourage more interest from
investors as the privileges that follow are significant
bonuses to everyone within the chain. This means
that business is pretty much in our hands and we
rely on fewer and fewer collaborators taking a cut.
This way, we’re taking control and rapidly gaining
influence in the Phuket market,” Daniel says.
As days are looking bright for Lucky 13, the
ambitions are growing.
“I think all opportunities are open right now”,
Mark says, stating that they are still holding back
with opening new franchises right now, even
though investors show interest.
“But we imagine to open one or two
new shops around Phuket this year”, he says,
mentioning Chalong and Phuket Town currently
being enquired about from interested investors.
If this goes well, Bangkok or even international
expansion could be next up. Daniel and Mark just
have one dogma: “We want to keep the business
in the Asian region. And we want paradise within
reach. Paradise, palm trees and tasty sandwiches
- those are the things we will never want to miss
out on”, Daniel concludes.
Latest news: On 1 May a new “Wine & Dine”
concept was successfully launched in Rawai -
Lucky 13 Bar & Grill, located in the top of the BTR
Suites, owned by the Dane Torben Busk Jensen,
whom they paired up with in launching the new
restaurant.
“We opened with a full house and despite a
quite chaotic first day, it has been running on rails
ever since. The customer base is growing rapidly.
We have come across guests, who has been her
8 to 10 times already in the first 24 days, which
is spectacular for this category of restaurants,”
says Daniel.

มุมภาษาไทย l mum pha:să: thai l Thai Language Corner
Thai (almost) for Free
By Klavs Johansen (thai@snakthai.dk)
Good news! As speakers of English,
we have automatic (อัตโนมัติ /
àttàno:mát /) access to a large
and ever growing vocabulary of
English loanwords in Thai, almost
without any effort.
The past century is said to have been the
American one with most landmark technical
developments originating in the USA. Just
think aviation, computers and Internet. These
technical developments have enforced the global
penetration of the English language, which was
already strong as lingua franca and language of
commerce since colonial times. This, together
with the resulting prestige of the language, have
given English a tremendous influence on the
vocabulary pool of other languages. Thai is no
exception.
Indeed, most Thai trendsetters, academics,
politicians and media personalities seem to
intersperse their Thai with a considerable amount
of loanwords from English. Whether this is out of
necessity, i.e. no Thai equivalent exists for what
they want to say, or to emphasize their knowledge
of English depends, I guess. But for sure, their use
of English transmits to the population in general
and has caused an explosion of English loanwords
in Thai during the last two or three decades.
For our purpose, we shall not discuss
the desirability of this development, but just
acknowledge the fact and note that we, as
speakers of English, will know a growing number
of Thai words exactly because they are borrowed
from English. We shall in the following look at
a small fraction of them, however first a note
of caution on the spelling and pronunciation of
the loanwords: Readers of Thai should note that
the spelling of the loanwords may vary quite
a lot and the various rules, which will normally
take you quite consistently from spelling to
pronunciation, are not necessarily enforced. This
in particular applies to the tone rules. When it
comes to pronunciation of the loanword, we may
hear anything from the strict Thai pronunciation
to perfect English, depending on the speaker’s
knowledge of the latter language and how
common the word has become in daily Thai.
Now, let’s look at some examples. We start
with a few everyday words which you are likely
to hear more often, or at least as often, as any
‘genuine’ Thai equivalent, if such exists:
วิว / wio / ~ a view,
เบียร์ / bia / ~ beer,
เช็คบิล / chék bin / ~ bill (please!), or in ‹genuine›
Thai เก็บตังค์ด้วย / kèp tang dûai /,
อพาร์ทเม้นท์ / àphà:tmén / ~ apartment,
มอเตอร์ไซค์ / mor: toe: sai / ~ motorcycle,
เบเกอรี่ / be: koe: rî: / ~
เค้ก / khék / ~ cake,
แครอท / khae: rórt / ~ carrot.
เบรก / brè:k / ~ break,
แอร์ / ae: / ~ air-conditioning, and finally
ก๊อป / kór:p / ~ to copy, which probably is much
more common in spoken language than the Thai
equivalent ถ่ายสำาเนา / thà:i sămnao /.
The last two, แอร์ / ae: / and ก๊อป / kór:p /, are
good examples of the Thai tendency to shorten
words, including those entering their language
from English. Instead of copy we get ก๊อป / kór:p
/ just as instead of 7-eleven the Thais tend to say
เซเว่น / se:wên /. Another example of this is เม้น
ท์ / mén / ~ comment, as used on social media
and to some extend by the press.
Some more words of English origin:
ซีเรียส / si: rîat / ~ serious, very common in อย่า
ซีเรียส / yà: si: rîat / ~ don’t be serious,
แฟร์ / fae: / ~ fair, as in ไม่แฟร์ / mâi fae: / ~ unfair,
ดับเบิ้ล / dàpbôen / ~ double,
เว่อร์ / wôe: / ~ (o)ver, too much, another
shortened word,
คอนเฟิร์ม / khor:n foe:m / ~ to confirm,
แคร์ / khae: / ~ care, often as ฉันไม่แคร์ / chăn mâi
khae: / ~ I don’t care, and
เวิ้ก / wóe:k / ~ work, as in มันไม่เวิ้ก / man mâi
wóe:k / ~ it doesn’t work.
Finally, some loanwords, often slang, may distort the
original meaning of the English word, sometimes
beyond recognition, due, one presumes, to the
lack of knowledge of English in the segment
where the loanword is first introduced. A couple
of examples of this are:
ฟิน / fin / ~ to be delighted, delightful, which
some say stems from the first syllable of the
English word ‘finale’, and
วิน / win / ~ motorcycle taxi stand, which
is said to take its origin from the English word
‘win’, supposedly since the motorcycle taxis in
the queue are receiving customers based on
which driver came in first, that is who won. If this
explanation is correct, it does take quite some
imagination to follow!
As we may find these examples amusing, it
is quite common with some misunderstandings
whenever words are borrowed from another
language. We only have to go to certain words of
Latin origin in the Scandinavian languages to find
some good laughs, but that is another story and,
for now, I shall just say บาย ๆ / ba:i ba:i / and see
you same place next time or, in between, at the
Thai Language Corner on Facebook.
June 2016 • ScandAsia.Thailand 15

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