From laundry to beauty: Thai firm Giffarine to launch derma beauty brand in China

The company was established in 1996 and has primarily been supplying a range of spa products under the brand Pattrena to hotel chains in Thailand such as Marriot Group, Four Seasons, Banyan Tree.

In the last two to three years, the brand has gained huge traction in the market – but not with its beauty products.

“Our laundry liquid is very popular in China. [In 2019], we sold two million bottles through Tmall, JD, Taobao and other online channels. We have over 1000 online shops distributing this product,”​ said George Ng, international marketing manager of Giffarine.

Ng attributed this success partly to the boom of Chinese tourists in Thailand, the company is now eyeing potential for HYA in the Chinese market.

“Thai products have a lot of value in China because they love country, food, spas and shopping. Thailand is now the number one South East Asian destination for Chinese travellers. Some make return trips every year,”​

Coupled with the popularity of Thai beauty brands like Mistine and Annabella in China, Ng said the company has observed 180-degree change in its China business.

“Eight years ago, we were doing almost zero business in China. Then some Thai brands started to find success in the online channel, and suddenly we had so many Chinese distributors contacting us,” ​said Ng.

Paving the way from HYA

While unrelated to beauty, Ng said the success of the laundry detergent has created more opportunities for the company.

“Right now, because of our laundry liquid, we have so many people searching online for our brand, trying to learn more information and see what other products we have.”​

Moving forward, the company will be focusing on building up its brand awareness and pushing out its beauty products, especially Giffarine’s HYA range, which it plans to launch in 2020.

“We are now known for one product, but we want to grow that into brand recognition. We will be focusing a lot more on skin care now, especially our HYA serum, which is our bestseller in Thailand.”​

The company believes HYA is an attractive brand for consumers also because of its high price to quality ratio.

“Chinese consumers see Thai products as having a high quality to price ratio. Not as expensive as Japanese or Korean products, but the quality is there. Usually, derma products are 20USD and above. Ours start from 10USD. Nevertheless, the major ingredients are imported from Germany,” ​said Ng.

The company is aiming to target third- and fourth-tier cities in China.

“Hyaluronic acid is not a new thing, but China is a big country and many third- and fourth-tier cities are looking for such products at a lower price.”​

Additionally, the company also hopes to build up its B2B spa brand, Pattrena, in the country.

“We’ve had to go through the registration process, now we have around 20 to 30 products ready to go so our sales team is now trying to make it happen.”​