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Any
middle-aged Thais will be familiar with the ‘Rhythm’ brand of Japanese-made
clocks that were once popular in Thailand until mysteriously disappearing from
the market five years ago.
 Ingon
Diloktharadol, managing director of Innovation Time, believes the brand is of
outstanding quality, so the local entrepreneur decided that reviving its place
in the Thai market could offer a good business opportunity.
Years
of experience
Ingon
has been close to timepieces since she was a little girl, as her family ran
‘Neramit’ - a shop selling clocks and eyeglasses in Phatthalung, a
sparsely-populated province located in southern Thailand.
Ingon
says that while she wasn’t actually particularly interested in working with
clocks again, in many ways it’s “in her blood” having grown with the family
business.
 During
the early 1990s, Ingon was a computer studies’ professor at a university during
a time when this area of study was very much in its infancy. After spending
several years enjoying life on a steady salary, she thought about starting her
own business almost 10 years ago, and having grown up around clocks, chose to
launch a store called ‘About Time’. The store sold several different brands of
clocks and watches and Ingon now operates two branches within outlets of Big C
department stores. One branch is located at Chang Wattana, and the other at Hua
Mark.
“Since
the store was going well and represented several foreign brands, I began
thinking of launching my own brand or becoming a sole distributor for a foreign
brand,” Ingon said. “After doing some research, I discovered that the Rhythm
brand had disappeared from the Thai market, despite the fact that it had become
well-established and was of outstanding quality.”
Ingon
said that while distribution of the Rhythm brand had come to a halt in
Thailand, clocks made by the company could still be found in numerous other
countries. She decided to find out more by contacting the company’s head office
in Japan in a bid to secure a contract to become sole distributor in Thailand.
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“Once
approved, we spent a year studying the market so we could distribute the clocks
to our associates nationwide. During the second year, we had begun selling the
clocks in leading department stores, including Central Chidlom and Siam
Paragon,” she said.
‘Swiss-style’
features
While
the outstanding quality of Japanese clocks has international recognition,
Rhythm clocks offer some “added value” in the form of the music or sounds that
emanate from each one. Clocks can be set to play a tune on the hour, while
others can play more complicated pieces. One even features a set of
figurines.
“The
parent company is aiming to become the world’s leading producer of musical
clocks – they want them to be seen as a form of ‘decorative furniture’ rather
than just a timepiece,” Ingon said.
Ingon
describes the clocks she distributes in Thailand as being a “beautiful,
elegant, and perfect decorative timepiece for any home”.
Clocks
in the Rhythm range are priced from 350 baht (US$11) to 700,000 baht ($21,000).
To
learn more about Rhythm timepieces, contact Tel: +66 (0)2 541 5112, or visit http://www.rhythm-thailandagent.com. - Translated into English and republished with the kind permission
of Manager Online. |
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