Interview with the president of Ueno (Thailand, Mr. Matsumoto (First half) For over 20 years in Thailand, Ueno has earnestly worked by according to their motto, feeling that
Interview with the president of Ueno (Thailand, Mr. Matsumoto (First half) For over 20 years in Thailand, Ueno has earnestly worked by according to their motto, feeling that
12/12/2018
Samurai Editorial Department
A general trading company for manufacturing, "Ueno Thailand", is handling all production and related goods, from various machine tools, such as cutting tools and electric tools, to FA equipment, such as industrial robots. Its expansion into Thailand began in 1997, and they will soon reach the milestone of a quarter century in Thailand. Speaking of "Ueno", it has a strong foundation that enables it to last through troubling times. It is the industry's evaluation that Ueno Thailand will respond to any trouble. Although Ueno Thailand has such a reputation now, it seemed that Ueno Thailand was likely to be destroyed by different hurdles shortly after the establishment of the Thai corporation, and even after recovery severe trials continued. What kind of steps have they taken to date? We interviewed Mr. Yasunori Matsumoto, who arrived in Thailand as the Chief of the Representative Office in March 1997, and again afterwards from 2001 to the present, has been working as the President of the local subsidiary. (First term and second term, so twice)
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Lost by a business practice in Thailand at the time of expansion into Thailand
Mr. Matsumoto: Our company established a base in Thailand just after the beginning of 1997. At that time, we had a branch in Singapore, and we handled business in Thailand on a business trip basis, but we decided to set up a local subsidiary based on our judgment that it was better to have a business location near the customers. Already, some Japanese manufacturing companies' expansion into Thailand had begun, but no general trading company was able to respond quickly to any problems, even if there were some specialized trading companies. I remember we judged that there was a business opportunity for Ueno in Thailand.
However, it was not easy to succeed in the business. First of all, we did not even know anything about business practices in Thai society. How does one prepare an invoice? What should we do about accounting? We started from absolutely zero. Now we have a shape somehow, but the painful days continued for a while.
Even though we went out looking for business, it was a situation where there were no sales for the first six months. No matter how often we visited potential customers, they did not even listen to our story. At such a disheartening time, the first tentative order for tools came in from a customer, "Bring them to us " (and we will see if we keep them). I was so very glad and I pumped my fists unexpectedly. In this way we got customers little by little.
We stood firm during the Baht crisis, saying that "Since we have nothing, we shall spread our business from now on".
Mr. Matsumoto: Shortly after our expansion into Thailand, the Asian currency crisis occurred. The baht's value went down immediately, and even if we raised sales, we did not even get a small profit. The market was in great turmoil, and many companies continued to fall into deficit due to the foreign exchange loss. Our company was also in a major deficit from the first year. There is a memory of trembling at the fact that "Foreign exchange is such a dramatic thing".
Among them, I was glad that there were some business partners who responded to the review of our estimates. They said that "We help each other when we can". I could learn, but at the same time, I could not thank them enough for the helping hand that helped us out. I understood the difficulty of doing business overseas.
The economic downturn eventually ended at the beginning of the following year. In the meantime, a number of Japanese companies decided to withdraw, and our company was naturally driven to desperate straits in such a situation. However, the air inside the company turned around, "What is withdrawal? Since we do not have anything, we can spread it from now on, because we have a company," high spirits mood. So, we clenched our teeth and continued walking forward, and one by one the number of customers increased, and we managed to get over the economic hurdle somehow.
