"We have an expansion plan for the next five to 10 years," said Pattida Julasaksrisakul, assistant managing director at the family-owned company.

KPI plans to increase capacity to 476 million pounds of polyethylene bags per year 18,000 metric tons of polyethylene plastics bags per month, up from the current level of 211 million pounds per year 8,000 metric tonnes per month. The company expects to invest 3 billion Baht (602.37 million yuan) in the project.

KPI also is currently carrying out due diligence for a listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand by end of 2011, Pattida told Plastics News. "But this would widely depend on the stock market sentiment," she added, pointing out that the public offering would provide a good source of investment funds.

KPI invested 1.5 billion Baht (301.19 million yuan) last year on doubling capacity. The project included an extrusion line and a cutting line, and now the firm is in the midst of installing a transparent food wrapper line.

Pattida said the long-term investment could include manufacturing polyethylene for in-house use, but this would also depend on the capacity expansion progress.

KPI, capitalized at 200 million Baht (40.16 million yuan) by the Julasaksrisakul family, plans to build a 316-acre industrial park for plastics companies in Chonburi province. It aims to lease about 60 percent of the space to other plastic product manufacturers.

A quick change in marketing strategy due to the global economic crisis has helped the company achieve sales of 4.5 billion Baht (903.58 million yuan) last year. The company shifted resources to the domestic market - now about 35 percent of its sales are to customers in Thailand.

Pattida has set a goal of 10-15 percent sales growth this year. He added that the company sets aside 1 percent of its sales revenue for research and development.