Bangkok Glass, the country's largest glass packaging manufacturer, is moving towards more non-glass packaging and hopes to be a top five packaging company in Asia within five years. By that time, it forecasts an annual revenue that would exceed 20BN baht, up 40% from last year's 13-14BN baht. To support its ambitious goal, the company is now building a fourth glass-melting furnace at its plant in Ayutthaya Province, a project due for completion by the end of 2014, said executive vice president Pavin Bhirom Bhakdi. The company plans to develop a production facility in Ratchaburi Province in 2014 with an investment between 1.5-2.2 BN baht. Bangkok Glass aims to float 241.1 million shares to the public to raise its registered capital to 4.82 billion baht (from 3.62BN now). By the year end, the company's production capacity is set to reach 4,085/tpd, up from 3,635 now. When its sixth plant in Ratchaburi is completed by 2015, total capacity will reach 4,405/tpd, or 5BN glass bottles per year. Bangkok Glass now has five production facilities in Pathum Thani, Rayong, Khon Kaen, Prachin Buri and Ayutthaya. 85% of last year's revenue came from glass packaging. Plans call for making more non-glass packaging, with new production lines likely to be installed at the Ratchaburi plant. New packaging will include PET bottles, paper boxes, aluminium lids and plastic containers.
