Orissa International’s client, a Japanese manufacturer of food & beverage products with a focus on traditional Japanese ingredients and raw materials such as roasted rice tea, barley tea, oolong tea, Japanese confectioneries, grains and functional foods, sought our assistance to expand its market presence in South East Asia, particularly in the Philippines and Thailand, where it is currently partnered with a local company selling Japanese F&B products. The client hopes to emulate its success in these two countries by making its brand available to the mass market there. In the Philippines, our team introduced the client via videoconference to four prospective distribution partners who had expressed an interest in knowing more about the client’s product offerings and objectives in the country. Two were distributors of premium and organic teas which sell to the HORECA industries and supermarkets, while the other two were high-end shopping chains, known for their wide range of imported consumer goods brands. One of the shopping chains was also open to doing contracting to produce its own private label green tea brands with manufacturers such as the client. Also, in Thailand, our team matched the client with two distributors who were keen to explore potential partnerships with our client by marketing the brand to its retail partners, including hypermarket chains where the brand was not yet available.