Thai Union Group will no longer have a direct presence in China after its decision to liquidate its Thai Union China Company Limited (TUC) subsidiary.
The decision was made in its full-year 2023 earnings release on 20 February and publicized via a 30 May announcement posted with the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
“Thai Union Group previously announced the termination of Thai Union China's operations in its fourth-quarter earnings release last year. This decision was driven by the unit's sustained low profitability. Moving forward, we are redirecting our investments towards other growth opportunities," a Thai Union spokesperson told SeafoodSource. "Despite this change, we remain committed to serving our high-quality ambient and frozen products to customers in China directly through our Thailand-based operations and manufacturing network."
TUC’s physical presence in China consisted of a commercial office with around 30 employees, who have either been reassigned to positions within Thai Union in Thailand or gotten other jobs with Chinese companies, according to the spokesperson.
The company has not provided further details regarding TUC’s profitability. Thai Union President and CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said in the company’s public announcement the dissolution of TUC was being made “in order to scale down our low-profitability businesses to reinvest in other growth opportunities.”
TUC has a capital value of CNY 166.7 million (USD 23 million, EUR 21.2 million) and posted THB 400 million (USD 10.9 million, EUR 10 million) in sales in 2023, up from THB 300 million (USD 8.2 million, EUR 7.5 million) in 2022 but down from THB 800 million (USD 21.7 million, EUR 20 million) in 2021, according to Thai Union’s annual report.
Thai Union will still be involved in China via its i-Tail Corporation (ITC) subsidiary, which established a presence there in 2022 to oversee sales of the company’s pet food and pet-related products. ITC is traded separately from Thai Union following its IPO in October 2022. i-Tail began operating in China in 2023.
"The dissolution of Thai Union China has no impact on the Petcare’s operation managed by pet food manufacturer i-Tail's subsidiary, i-Tail Pet Food (Shanghai) or ITS. ITS will continue to expand its business in the Chinese pet food market moving forward," the Thai Union spokesperson said.
