Thais’ lifestyle of eating sweets has created opportunities for ‘April Bakery’, a bakery brand that grew from an SME to sell over 630 million baht worth of mooncakes, aiming to reach a billion baht by 2070.

It is called mooncakes that the owner ‘Kanokkan Mathuraporn’ decided to quit her job as a flight attendant, turned to her own business, and invested in opening a cafe following the trend that was popular at the time. However, she was only able to open for one year before having to close down because the income did not meet the target. Therefore, she turned to making bakery products and selling them under the April Bakery brand, which was named after her birth month.

Kanokkan Mathuraporn, President and Managing Director of Singha Foods Industries (Thailand) Co., Ltd., owner of the April Bakery brand, said that at that time, the main product was mooncakes, sold through bakeries and general stores, which were very well received.

After doing business for over 10 years, she has added more products and expanded distribution channels to 7-Eleven convenience stores. At first, it was very challenging because selling was not as easy as she thought. Therefore, we have tried to develop together with 7-Eleven until now, 7-Eleven is considered the main channel that generates more than 80% of the income. The rest will be expanded through April Bakery stores, which have 40 branches, and through 100 coffee shops.

Originally, 7-Eleven would sell about 13 products, selling 50,000-70,000 pieces per day. But last year, due to the economy not being very good, people spent less, causing sales to not reach the target that the company had set. Towards the end of the year, we turned to develop new products by releasing the fashion menu 'Dubai Chocolate' for 39 baht. The response was so good that it became viral on social media that consumers talked about a lot.

Kanokkan said that When Dubai Chocolate became popular, the company’s R&D team of 4 immediately developed the Dubai Chocolate formula within 1 month. After it was launched in 7-Eleven stores, in the first 2 months, it sold 70,000 pieces per day. Although 7-Eleven’s order was 100,000 pieces per day, the factory did not have enough production capacity.

This year, they are preparing to invest 100 million baht to buy machinery and land to build a new factory to support future production capacity. They will also invest 10 million baht to buy over 10 rai of land to grow organic cocoa in Mae On District, Chiang Mai Province, to use as ingredients for baking.

Kanokkan continued that another challenge in the bakery market right now is the ingredients. For example, chocolate, whose price has increased by 400%, has increased costs, but the price of the product cannot be increased because it was found that when selling pastries in 7-Eleven, the price must not exceed 39 baht. If it exceeds 40-42 baht, it will affect the feelings of consumers and make it harder to sell than before.

The company can also manage costs by purchasing raw materials in large batches in advance until the end of this year. However, if the costs are borne to the end, the size of the products may have to be reduced. Raising prices will be the last option.

When looking at the top 3 best-selling products, namely Dubai Chocolate, Smashed Cake, and Salted Egg Lava Mooncakes, out of a total of 100 products, the brand will focus on developing 20 new products per year, especially fashionable bakery products that meet consumer trends, along with using online channels to promote products.

In addition to the domestic market, April Bakery has also entered the Cambodian and Vietnamese markets by selling through the master franchisee appointment model, which has been very well received in the past. The company's next plan is to sell its products in Costco stores in the United States, which is currently in talks with partners.

He also emphasized that the company currently does not want to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand because entering the market may cause the company to make decisions slowly and not be very flexible because in the past, we have adjusted very quickly. What trends will cause any bad products to be immediately eliminated?

However, all these strategies will allow April Bakery to generate sales of 1 billion baht by 2027. In 2024, the total revenue from all distribution channels will be 630 million baht, an increase of 20% from the previous year, which is in line with the set target.

Reference website : thestandard.co

April Bakery, a Thai brand that has grown from an SME selling mooncakes worth a hundred million to a billion, embracing the lifestyle of Thai people who love eating sweets.