“Nippon Paint” sale in 2022 breaks a new high in the THB30 billion Thai painting industry

Nippon Paint Decorative Coatings Thailand Co., Ltd makes a historical step as its sales reach an all-time high, reinforcing the company as Asia’s No. 1 paint brand and the leader in the Thai painting industry. To ensure its leading status, the firm announces to move toward an "Inspired by you" strategy with the "3C" concept, covering Customer Centric, Customized Solution, and Concrete Innovations, highlighting a comprehensive marketing strategy to promote consumer confidence in the brand as well as providing solutions in response to all problems and needs of both B2B and B2C customers. Moreover, the company is expected that the painting industry will strongly recover and grow by 10 percent in 2023, following a fully reopening policy to stimulate the growth of the real estate market.

The Year 2022 is considered the golden year of “Nippon Paint” as the company has been ranking No. 1 in the Top 25 2022 Manufacturers in Asia Pacific Coatings by APCJ for the fourth consecutive year. The APCJ’s ranking has been considered based on the sales of the company in the Asia-Pacific region, in which “Nippon Paint” sales were worth over US$ 8.46 billion (Source: Top 25 2022 Manufacturers in Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific Coatings Journal, pp.50) Meanwhile, the sale of Nippon Paint Decorative Coatings Thailand Co., Ltd in 2022 grew significantly by over 30 percent, breaking an all-time high since operating in the Thai market. A robust growth attributed mainly to the government’s post-Covid-19 fully reopening policy, recovering tourism growth which encourages vigorous growth of the tourism, the industry, the manufacturing as well as property sectors. Since Nippon Paint Decorative Coatings Thailand Co., Ltd always prepares and can adapt to any challenges, the company has continued to grow strongly during the past year.

Moreover, to ensure its leading status, the firm announces to move toward an "Inspired by you" strategy that states that all paint products, color systems, services, and solutions have been started from the needs of customers and with our intention to create a sustainable society along with delivering an impressive experience of using products and services. The “Inspired by you” strategy is also strong-willed by Nippon Paints across the Asia region.

Mr Watchara Siriritthichai, general manager of Nippon Paint Decorative Coatings Thailand, a manufacturer and distributor of "Nippon Paint" in Thailand as Japan-based Asia’s number one paint brand and the fourth leading brand in the world market, revealed that Nippon Paint Thailand achieved an all-time high sale in 2022, a historical record since the company’s establishing and operating in Thai market. Last year, sales of the company grew significantly more than 30 percent, which had been expanded in all trading channels, including B2B, modern trade, traditional and online.

“In 2022, Nippon Paint achieved the highest sales in history, considered a new high for us because it was the first and highest growth. Consequently, Nippon Paint is confident that we will be able to meet all the needs of customer groups and prompt to become a leader in the Thai painting market,” Mr Watchara reiterated.

However, the company described that during the past few years amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s plans had been delayed. Yet, during that time, the company chose to re-skill and up-skill its employees so that it could be able to move toward growth after easing the situation. Therefore, the second half of 2022 was the time when the company moved toward plans and achieved strong growth. As a result, the company accomplished a new high selling record. It has also continuously received good feedback from business partners since then until this year.

“We are so proud that customers in all sectors, whether they are project entrepreneurs (B2B) or dealers, they have accepted and recognized the potential of Nippon Paint, while also foreseeing the development of our team with skills, knowledge, and capabilities to help solve problems, give advice, and pay attention to every detail. So that they always support us to move toward the growth,” Mr Watchara added.

Mr Narongrit Malainual, Marketing Director of Nippon Paint Decorative Coatings Thailand, said that under Nippon Paint's marketing strategy in 2023, the company will continue to reinforce our expertise in home and building paints or being ‘The Coatings Expert’ through ‘Inspired by you’ strategy with the "3C" concept, which includes:

Customer Centric – as allies with the corporate aspirations, upholding the needs of customers to understand, solve and prevent color problems as a priority. Nippon Paint wishes to create a difference to impress, create memorization, and create a word of mouth about our understanding.

Customized Solutions - "Because we care, we are a specialist", we will focus on learning so that we can understand the needs of each customer and each organization. So that we can offer the perfect solution and prevention related to color problems for our customers through our expertise.

Concrete Innovations – continuously moving toward Research and Development to create innovation in all paint products for something new and useful, while being able to solve and prevent problems following any changing circumstances.

The company determines to continue to create awareness and understand the differentiation of products and services of Nippon Paint so that we can reach all target groups of customers and create trust in our brand so that they decide to use Nippon Paint products. Nippon Paint has a wide variety of products that can respond to all needs. Those products are included water-based paints, oil-based paints, primers, anti-corrosion paints, and healthcare paints. To achieve the goal, we will continue to convey our messages through integrated marketing campaigns as all communication channels are linked, while we also select media that are in line with the daily lives of the target group of consumers, covering all dimensions and platforms both online and offline by focusing on both B2C and B2B customers.

“Nippon Paint focuses on building engagement and serving the demands of customers in all groups whether they are real estate entrepreneurs, contractors, painters, modern trades, or dealers. This year you will see the introduction of innovative products to the market, highlighting the floor paint category, which currently has a total market value of over 500 million baht. The category has grown continuously while there are a few large operators. Thus, this category is considered a potential market and has greater room for growth. We also plan to introduce more flagship products to the market in the future,” Mr Narongrit said.

Mr Watchara added that this year is a very challenging year for Nippon Paint, although the overall economy is starting to show signs of improvement from many positive factors. Those positive factors are such as increasing domestic consumption and recovering growth of the tourism sector, especially after the reopening of China encouraging hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, buildings, and shops to renovate to accommodate the incoming tourists and rising demand for real estate from large companies relocating to Thailand to create more jobs and more spending in the future. This will particularly enhance more demand for the condominium market which is likely to be robust this year. Yet, still, some negative factors to be aware of, those are the national election as the business sector has to wait & see for the new government’s policies.

“This year, the company is still confident that the overall economy will recover mainly from the manufacturing and tourism sectors. Many provinces which are tourist destinations in the country are likely to have more long-stay tourists. This will encourage the growth of the condominium sector, especially high-rise condominiums in Thailand, and this will attribute to the growth of the house and building paint market to grow further. As a result, Nippon Paint will also grow in accordance with the market’s trend. This year, the company is set to achieve growth between 10-15 percent, while also gaining more market share and eventually becoming the market leader,” he said.

The Thai painting industry has a total value of over 27 billion baht in 2022 with an average expansion of 6 percent. From the total market value, it could be divided into 30 percent selling through Modern Trade with the segment expanded about 12 -15 percent last year, while 50 percent went to Traditional Trade with stable growth, and the remaining of about 20 percent went to Direct Sale, which was expanded by 8-10 percent last year. In 2023, the Thai painting market is expected to grow by 10 percent, resulting in a total market value of around 30 billion baht and Nippon Paint itself aims at 25% growth.