In conversation with Martien Vlemmix, importer Mascotte

Recently I attended a meeting of SME Thailand twice, not because I am an SME myself, but because of two special events. The first time it was because the SME had organized a nice excursion to Thai Airways Technical and the second time because of our ambassador, who had interrupted his sick leave in the Netherlands for a working visit to Thailand.

You can read a story about both events on this blog.

Martin Vlemmix

During these two "drinks evenings" I met many Dutch business people in a friendly atmosphere and I also got to know the chairman, the flamboyant Brabander Martien Vlemmix. In addition to his activity as chairman of SME Thailand, Martien Vlemmix is ​​also an importer of Mascotte cigarette tubes, which he imports and sells in Thailand in large numbers. He now earns a lot of money with mascot articles. You could call him a man in bonus now, but that hasn't always been the case. Anyway, I thought he was a very interesting man and I decided to visit him in his office in Thonburi.

Visit to Mascot office

I used to have trouble finding the address of a potential customer in the big city of Bangkok, the Mascotte building cannot be missed. Just before arriving at the Wongwian Yai BTS station, across the Chao Phraya River, the name Mascotte on the right side of the train immediately catches your eye.

Shortly after I arrived at the office, a large passenger car stopped in front of the door, Martien got out and let an employee park his car somewhere behind the building. Martien led me inside, on the ground floor a number of employees who were often talking on the phone and then via the stairs to the third floor, his office.

It is, I think, a typical Thai office. Colleagues crowded together, cluttered desks, boxes of Mascotte stacked everywhere. Martien's office is also not a paragon of an office befitting a director of a multi-million dollar company. Simply functional, as a visitor you immediately feel at home with a cup of coffee manufactured by Martien himself. If I wanted to light up a cigar, because Martien is a heavy smoker, so he likes it when his guests also smoke. “Smoking in my office is almost mandatory,” he had told me once before.

The market for Mascotte in Thailand

Of course you know Mascotte from the rolling papers to roll a homemade cigarette, “Rolls better, sticks better and smokes better”, remember? But in Thailand those rolling papers are not sold. These are cigarette tubes with filter. You put some tobacco in a filling device - which Mascotte also sells - and with a handy movement you fill that empty cigarette tube. You thus have a perfectly tight cigarette, which makes it look like you are smoking an expensive ready-made cigarette and not a cigarette.

Martien has found the market for this in the poorer regions of Thailand, especially where tobacco is grown. With that cheap tobacco in a Mascotte casing and then put in an empty pack of Marlboro, the poor Thai makes the show: he smokes expensive cigarettes!

The market is large, it really involves millions of cigarette tubes, which Martien also sells in a special way. Not through the normal route of supermarkets or regular shops, but directly through an army of up to 1000 resellers, whom Martien calls franchisees. The reseller buys from Mascotte against cash payment and sells it to the numerous customers in and around the village where he lives.

That sale is going like a train, Martien hardly has to interfere with it. He maintains contact with Mascotte in the Netherlands and mainly manages the business through his wife Suwanee because of the language. Occasionally he goes inland with his wife to pay tribute to a successful salesman, a turnover of 700.000 Baht on an annual basis is no small matter of course. On the other hand, he also has to act occasionally if a reseller thinks he is smart and tries to cheat Mascotte. “That happens more often than I would like, but yes, this is Thailand, isn't it?” says Martien.

Background

To tell you how Martien came up with the “Mascot Idea”, I need to tell you a little bit about his background. He comes from a once wealthy family and as the son of the boss of the second largest shop window decoration company in the Netherlands, he travels to many countries. Initially, Thailand is one of the many countries he visits. Do you remember the beautiful Zwarte Piet dolls from the beautiful windows of V&D and De Bijenkorf? Well, they were made in Thailand for his father's company. There he also meets a Thai lady, Suwanee Tangpitak Paisal, whom Martien marries in the year 2000 in the Netherlands.

The marriage is fine, but the business is not. The trend in shops and department stores is changing, no more shop windows, but open windows, through which people can look into the shop. The company goes bankrupt and Martien becomes unemployed.

The idea

Martien has plenty of ideas, but the many companies you approach are not interested. Until he comes into contact with Mascotte, also a family business originally from Brabant, who sees something in his plans to sell cigarette tubes in Thailand. He is given the opportunity to set up a business plan, which will take him a year. In that period Vlemmix finds an investor to start the adventure: office rental, car, personnel, first stock. In 2008 he terminates the rent of his home in Oosterhout and leaves for Thailand with his wife. The start of an adventure born out of necessity.

Working in Thailand

The beginning is not easy, long working days, a lot of domestic travel to find resellers, but at a certain point when there is more awareness of this phenomenon in the villages, the train starts running. Harder and harder, because at the moment he can't attract enough people to look for resellers. Martien doesn't think Thais are pleasant people to work with. He often finds them lazy and disloyal to the company and only willing to work if they can earn (a lot of) money themselves. Some try to cheat him, but when he finds out there is only one solution, dismissal! “You have to learn to deal with it and accept some things,” says Martien, “many a manager from the Netherlands would go crazy here, but I am lucky to have a Thai wife who takes care of many problems for me”

Franchise Entrepreneurs

Working with franchisees has a great advantage according to Vlemmix. Thais only work hard when they work for themselves. Everything they earn is for themselves and their families. That's why the resellers keep their stock up - they never want to run out, because then they don't make any money. Moreover, Martien Vlemmix says: “They have to pay cash when they take the order. They do, because otherwise they have no stock. That's nice, because sending an invoice doesn't work here. We did that twice in the beginning. We never heard from those people again. We had lost the stuff and we could whistle about the money.'

SME Thailand

Trade in Mascotte is going smoothly and Martien says he has to be careful not to get bored. One of his other ideas was to create a platform for smaller Dutch companies, ie small and medium-sized enterprises, that are already active in Thailand or want to establish themselves there. Martien Vlemmix is ​​the founder of MKB Thailand, intended for smaller Dutch entrepreneurs, for whom the Netherlands-Thai Chamber of Commerce (NTCC) does not pay enough attention, according to him.

For SMEs, it is about two things: Providing practical information to newcomers and organizing drinks evenings, where guests are regularly invited to introduce themselves and their company. Martien Vlemmix has many ideas about new entrepreneurs to work out, because he clearly states that it is not for everyone to be successful in Thailand. Learning from the experiences of others, supporting each other where possible, advising how to act.. According to him, that sometimes includes the advice of stay beautiful in the Netherlands, Thailand is not for you!

Finally,

If you live somewhere outside the big cities in Thailand and see some sales of the Mascot cigarette tubes, for example by your Thai partner or another person known in the village, please contact Martien Vlemmix. The contact details can be found on the Facebook page of Mascotte Thailand and the website: www.mascotte.nl/th/

If you are interested in SME Thailand, check out the SME Thailand Facebook page or the website mkbthailand.com.

Even better is to visit The Green Parrot in Hotel Mermaid, Soi 29 Sukhumvit, Bangkok on the next drink night

The next evening is already approaching Thursday 20 July 2017