Bangkok Mould Consultant (BMC) held its soft opening ceremony at their new facility in Bangbon Wednesday, 11 July 2012. Officially opening the new facility together with the company’s Managing Director Alex Petersen was Danish Ambassador Mikael Hemniti Winther.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Ambassador gave a short speech about BMC’s new premises and expressed that he hoped it will be safe from the floods as they wish it to be.
“I wish you success with the business and that everyone here, you and the workers, will enjoy it in your new place,” he said in his speech.
Celebrating the opening together with Alex and his wife Sukanya, were some of their Thai customers, friends and family.
After all the formalities were over, everybody was invited to join in as Alex took them on a tour around the new premises. On the tour, he showed samples of moulds BMC produces and explained in detail how it is used by different equipment in everyday life.
Alex spoke to ScandAsia prior to the opening ceremony about the previous facility in Samut Sakhon and the idea to shift. He said it struck as soon as the floods hit Bangkok late last year.
“It was 1.5m of water for one and a half months, and it was then when I decided we should move. I started looking for a suitable and safe place as soon as was possible at the time,” Alex said.
He added saying that since moulds are very expensive and usually cost between 500, 000 and 1m Thai Baht, his early prediction of the flood, which proved right, saved them from a disaster which would have cost them a lot.
“Everybody laughed at me saying ‘You are crazy’ when I predicted there was a flood coming our way and started moving our stuff to the upper floor, but I was right,” he said.
He said that although BMC did not lose anything then, other factories which had not foreseen the flooding suffered much loss.
New premises
The new facility in Bangbon was previously a metal factory so when it was passed on to Alex and his team three weeks before the opening, he said it was a “real mess.”
“I had to go to Denmark to handle some things and my wife was left to oversee everything over here. It was not easy but with help of the staff and other relevant aid, it has come along quite well now,” Alex said.
Alex’s wife, Sukanya, who handles all things accounts and manages the contacts with the suppliers was there every step of the way with the moving in and settling down in their new premises.
“It was a lot of work but the staff were here working together to make this place ready for production as soon as possible,” Sukanya said.
She explained that it did not only take a lot of energy but everyone had worked long hours, sometimes even reaching up to half a day.
Speaking about the BMC staff, Alex mentioned that most of them prefer to stay in the premises of the factory. They are provided rooms and two meals a day. Since this facility is four times bigger than the previous, it is able to accommodate more staff.
“We had two rooms for eight staff before, now we have 15 rooms, so we will be hiring,” Alex said.
Being part of the opening ceremony, the Danish Ambassador commended Alex’s efforts in seeing an opportunity to invest and use his skills here in Thailand.
“My first impression, more than the economic aspect of the company, is the personal story about a skillful guy,” the ambassador said.
“With all the closing industries in Denmark, Alex had seen an opportunity to use his skills and create a business in Thailand, and with that, he has come far,” he continued.
Ambassador Mikael added that Danish people prioritise punctuality and ensure producing quality products.
“Based on what I’ve seen in various Danish businesses here, I am convinced Alex will incorporate Danish values into his business,” he said.
“As for his staff, I believe it will be a positively different environment for the Thai employees under Alex as they will be treated with respect rather than being exploited,” he said.
Alex and his staff have approximately 30 clients. Although, it began with only Danish customers, BMC has expanded to servicing customers in other countries such as Germany, USA, Thailand, Hong Kong and even China.
