2006-06-19 Thong Guan targets east Europe (By Jonathan Chen)

Thong Guan Industries Bhd, which makes stretch films and industrial bags, would use Russia as its stepping stone to penetrate the east European market, said group managing director Ang Poon Chuan.

He said on June 15 Thong Guan’s success in exporting to Russia, had given it the confidence to move on to east Europe within the next two years.

“Now, we export 75% of our stretch films. Our two plants in China cater to the Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, North and South American markets, while our plant in Malaysia caters to Indonesia, Indo-China, India, Australia and certain European markets,” he said in Penang.

Other export markets for Thong Guan were Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia after making inroads into the United Arab Emirates and Iran markets.

“Most of our customers are wholesalers in the packaging sector,” Ang said, adding the company was also focusing on exporting plastic freezer bags to Japan.

Thong Guan is one of the top 20 stretch film producers and one of the largest manufactures of cast pallet stretch films in the Asia Pacific region.

The two factories in China have an annual output of 9.2 tonnes of plastic packaging products.

“We invested US$4.20 million (RM15.20 million) in two production lines at our 2.94-ha facility in Jiangsu and further US$2 million for another 6.65-ha facility in the same area,” he said.

Tan projected growth of 15% to 20% in 2006 and its stretch film manufacturing division would be the largest contributor in revenue.