Seafood/Thai Union

Editorial Staff

SET-listed Thai Union Group Plc sets its ambitious roadmap to boost net sales to US$7.0 billion by 2030 from US$3.9 billion in 2024, and double its EBITDA to US$700-US$800 million within the next six years.

“Economic outlook in 2025 will be better because a trend of interest rate is lowering and inflation trend to decline. The purchasing power will revive. We are in the very good timing because we have already prepared our organization since last year till now , when the business is still healthy. With our Strategy 2030, we are confident that we will capture the future opportunity to be happened and reach next chapter of growth,” Thiraphong Chansiri, president and chief executive officer at Thai Union Group, said.

Thiraphong Chansiri

As a positive outlook for food processing and pet business, Thai Union plans to spend 4.5-5 billion baht annually on such investments and also on resuming its merge & acquisition scheme for the first time after its strategic investment for $575 million in Red Lobster in 2016.

Mr Thiraphong adds that it's a time to bring growth back to Thai Union business.

“The return of Donald Trump to be US president, it has not sent any impact on Thai Union so far. In case if Mr Trump chooses to impose tariff increase on imports from all countries, countries get the same result. But if he chooses tariff increase on imports from China only, this scenario will give Thai Union benefit,” he said.

“Strategy 2030 “ is pivotal to the company’s vision of becoming the world’s leading marine health and nutrition company.

“The world today faces unprecedented shifts, from geopolitical pressures and rising inflation to rapidly evolving consumer demands. In the face of these challenges, Thai Union is seizing the opportunity to turn the tides and achieve greater success. With a bold vision to become the world’s leading marine health and nutrition company grounded by our purpose of Healthy Living, Healthy Oceans, we’re setting our sights on achieving US$7.0 billion revenue and doubling EBITDA by 2030,” said Mr Thiraphong.

Thai Union’s Strategy 2030 is built on three strategic pillars, targeting focused business categories to drive growth in revenue, gross margins, and EBITDA. These pillars – leveraging both organic and non-organic growth to deliver sustained, long-term growth.

Revitalizing the core is the first pillar that will focuses on primary business categories such as branded ambient, chilled and feed, to continue to generate the cash flow needed for Thai Union to expand into new growth areas.

Driving the next wave of growth is another strategic pillar that focuses on faster growing business categories such as pet care, frozen, culinary, and ingredients that Thai Union believes will continue to drive profitable growth through 2030 and beyond.

Exploring new frontiers,its last strategic pillar , focuses on exploring new ideas and technologies such as aquaculture ecosystems and alternative proteins, to fuel Thai Union’s growth in the future.

“Strategy 2030 is more than just a roadmap. It’s our catalyst for sustained, long-term growth. Built on three strategic pillars, Strategy 2030 sets forth ambitious goals for Thai Union to achieve over the next six years, leveraging both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. For our strategy to generate true value, we have identified critical enablers we must execute in order to lay strong foundations for continued success. Equally crucial are the two transformation programs we are announcing today, which outline clear plans to support Strategy 2030 and turn our ambitions into reality,” said Paul Herholz, chief strategy & transformation officer at Thai Union Group.

To achieve strategy 2030, the company has outlined six critical enablers, which include aligning the organization and driving talent initiatives, driving cost focus, optimizing the manufacturing network and driving strategic procurement, stepping up on digital capabilities, leveraging innovation, and commercializing sustainability.

Two key transformation initiatives sit under the Strategy 2030 umbrella include Project Sonar and Project Tailwind, which will work in tandem to support the broader goals of Strategy 2030, ensuring that all efforts contribute to a cohesive and unified plan for the future.

Project Sonar is a Group transformation program which provides a solid foundation for long-term growth by addressing the critical enablers for Strategy 2030, while Project Tailwind focuses on accelerating growth in the pet care category.

With Project Sonar, Thai Union targets to achieve approximately US$75 million in annual savings from 2026 onwards, approximately 40 % of which will be reinvested to further strengthen and grow the business.

Project Sonar will aim to create a robust operating model aligned with Strategy 2030, building new capabilities in procurement and operations for optimum efficiency and scale, as well as stepping up digital capabilities to further support business growth and gear up for a full digital transformation.

A category-specific transformation plan in the fast-growing petcare category, Project Tailwind aims to achieve an uplift of approximately US$50 million in annualized operating profit (OP) for the petcare business from 2027 onwards. This will be achieved by establishing insights-driven commercial practices, while building capabilities and boosting productivity in procurement and manufacturing. While Project Tailwind will focus on driving accelerated organic growth, i-Tail Corporation will aim for further growth through mergers and acquisitions, with a goal of tripling revenue to US$1.5 billion by 2030.

Thai Union already initiated steady progress to deliver on Strategy 2030 and achieve its targets. Both transformation projects are already launched, marked by key initiatives such as a newly established Innovation Hub in the Netherlands, increased marketing investments to boost the continued leadership of the Group’s market-leading ambient brands globally, an optimization of manufacturing operations, and expansion of the Group’s digital team and capabilities globally.

Revenue of Thai Union in the first nine months of this year was 103.34 billion baht. Of the total, 52.45 billion baht was from ambient, frozen food 30.29 billion baht, pet care and valued-added business 12.76 billion baht and 7.83 billion baht respectively.