Toyo-Thai Corp. President and CEO Hironobu Iriya

For Toyo-Thai Corp. President and CEO Hironobu Iriya, the ability to change or be flexible is what guarantees his company’s success.

Over the past 20 years, Toyo-Thai has provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) turn-key solutions inside and outside Thailand. With annual sales ranging between $80 million and $90 million, and a staff of almost 700, Toyo-Thai caters to medium-scale petrochemical, chemical, oil and gas, fertilizer and power plant projects.

‘‘We are very flexible to our clients’ needs. We do not employ subcontractors for engineering. So if the client wants to make a design change, we can do it easily with little time lost to negotiation. Engineering, after all, is ’changineering.’ It is our clients who evaluate our performance. If it is negative, we cannot get the next job. If it is positive, we can get a repeat order,’’ he claims.

Iriya strongly believes that the ability to change is a major reason Toyo-Thai has received repeat orders over the years from several clients.

Its longstanding ties with oil and gas giant PTT and a joint venture with the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) have given Toyo-Thai an edge among contenders for petrochemical and oil and gas projects. Currently, 70 percent of its business is domestic while the remaining 30 percent is international.

‘‘As for the international market, we have an existing project with Shin-Etsu Engineering in the United States and a polyurethane project with Bayer in China. We have a fertilizer project in Bangladesh and a joint calcium carbonate project in Vietnam with our subsidiary Toyo-Vietnam, and are putting together a proposal for a latex project in Cambodia as well. The Middle East, specifically Qatar, holds lots of potential,’’ Iriya says.

Toyo-Thai’s management board: (seated from left) Tiwa Jaruke (VP — Proposal, Engineering), Piriya Wongphayabal (VP — Project Procurement and Sales), Hironobu Iriya (President & CEO), Bundith Chiraphandhu (Senior VP), Suvit Manomaiyanon (Director & General Manager — Sales & Contract Division); (standing from left) Suratana Trinratana (General Manager Project Division), Yukio Kobe (Deputy General Manager — Administration Division), Saneh Poorisat (General Manager — Engineering Division), Chatree Pooyongyooth (Director & General Manager — Procurement Division and Director — Engineering Division), Pornchan Katejulasriroj (Deputy General Manager — Engineering Division)

‘‘Our mission is to be a high-efficiency international engineering company. This means we want to compete with global companies for international projects. That is why we want 50 percent or more of our future projects to be global,’’ he adds.

In Thailand, Iriya is focused on expanding Toyo-Thai’s workforce to 1,000 personnel or an equivalent of 250,000 man-hours per month. With this objective, Toyo-Thai will be better prepared for more and bigger projects.

Iriya recognizes that the company relies heavily on its engineers — the reason behind 36 percent of Toyo-Thai’s ownership being distributed among its employees.

‘‘We are an engineering firm. So our engineers are our most valuable asset. If we lose engineers, we lose our competency. The most important thing is to keep our people happy. What I always preach is the joy of engineering and achievement. Money is not the final target for Toyo-Thai; engineering and achievement are. If you like what you do and you do that well, money will follow,’’ he says.

www.toyo-thai.com