1974-1980
1974-1980
Increasing importance of motorcycle in Thai daily life, together with a rebound of Thai economy were essential factors to the business during this period. The motorcycle industry became a sun-rise.
In 1971,Thailand issued its first formal policy document covering the motorcycle sector, the most important specification of which was the setting of local content requirements (LCRs) and henceforth, at least 50% of the value of all the component parts of Thai-assembled motorcycles had to be sourced within the country. A strong domestic demand of motorcycles and these protection measures helped to intensively expand the company’s business.
Jan 1974 –With limited working space, Mr. Somchai decided to move the factory to Sukhumvit area, which was ten times the size of old factory. He also registered the firm as a limited company under the name of “NEW SOMTHAI MOTOR WORK CO.,LTD.”
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Towards a more active growth, more engineers and technicians were hired to work on research and development. A number of own technical knowhow projects were developed; namely: how to expand a pipe frame head without cracking, how to machine high precision collars, or how to weld fuel tanks seamlessly. New production lines were also added to cover a wide range of all metal motorcycle parts to serve customers’ needs. The company’s reputation was spread out to all Japanese motorcycle assemblies. The company thus became one of top five motorcycle part manufacturers in Thailand.
Late 1978, Mr. Somchai foresaw the increasing importance of automobile industry, together with the nearly fully utilization of existing production spaces and capacities. He decided to buy a 13-rai of land in Samutprakarn province, a suburban of Bangkok. With two years of construction, a new factory was ready to move in …
