You just met Steve

Three things I noticed

What stands out about Example Trading Co

A fictional Bangkok distributor of commercial kitchen equipment for hotels and restaurants, with a showroom, a service team and long-standing supplier relationships in Europe and Japan.

1. 01

   Deep supplier relationships

   Exclusive distribution for several European brands is a moat that newer online sellers cannot easily copy.

   "Exclusive Thailand distributor" listed against four European brands on the brands page

2. 02

   Service is the hidden product

   An in-house service team means every installed unit is a recurring relationship, not a one-off sale.

   Service centre page: "24-hour callout for installed equipment", 12 technicians named

3. 03

   Hotels are spending again

   Tourism has recovered and hotel refurbishments are back on the calendar, which is the core buying moment.

   Illustrative: hotel refurbishment tenders up year on year in the 2025 industry outlook

Where I would look first

Three numbers I would want to understand in my first week. None of them is about demand.

Swipe

• The trend

  A steady business in a market that has changed around it

  Revenue has eased for a few years while buyers moved online and price-compared more. That is a process and channel problem, and both are fixable.

  Where I think I could help ↓

  Source: DBD DataWarehouse

  Show the numbers

  Year	Revenue	Net profit
  2021	48,200,000	2,100,000
  2022	45,100,000	1,300,000
  2023	41,800,000	400,000
  2024	39,500,000	-600,000
  2025	37,900,000	-1,100,000

• 1

  Margin compression

  Revenue eased 21% over four years while net margin moved from 4.4% to -2.9%. Costs have not followed sales down.

  vs industry median net margin 5.1%

  Source: DBD DataWarehouse

• 2

  Admin costs rising

  Selling and admin expenses grew from 18% to 26% of revenue between 2021 and 2025.

  vs peer range 15-20% of revenue

  Source: DBD DataWarehouse

• 3

  Interest expense growing

  Finance costs roughly doubled since 2022, likely stock held on credit for longer.

  Source: DBD DataWarehouse

• Performance

  Upside

  SEO

  Fair

  Accessibility

  Good

  Best practices

  Fair

  Website check, on a phone

  Hotel buyers shortlist on their phones; the catalogue is the first thing to make faster.

  Source: Google Lighthouse, mobile profile

Who else is in the room

The peer landscape

Each player has picked a lane. The opportunity is to make Example Trading's lane (exclusive brands plus service) obvious to buyers.

• NK

  Northgate Kitchen Supply

  Broad catalogue with strong online ordering for restaurant chains.

• SH

  Siam Hospitality Partners

  Design-and-build focus for new hotel projects.

• CP

  Chao Phraya Steelworks

  Local fabrication with fast lead times on custom units.

If I joined

My first 90 days

1. 1

   Days 1-30

   Listen and learn

   Based on: Showroom, service centre and import desk named on the site

   • Walk a hotel order from enquiry to installation
   • Ride along with the service team for a week
   • Rebuild the margin picture by product line
2. 2

   Days 31-60

   Quick wins

   Based on: Admin costs at 26% of revenue; finance costs doubled since 2022

   • Cut slow-moving stock held on credit
   • Put service and sales on one CRM
   • Price quotes from live margin, not list price
3. 3

   Days 61-90

   Foundations

   Based on: Four years of easing revenue in a recovering hotel market

   • A buyer journey that shows up in online shortlists
   • Service contracts as recurring revenue
   • Monthly numbers the whole team can read

How I would help

From what I saw to what I would do

1. Idea 1

   1. 1

      I noticed

      Revenue has eased for four years while the market recovered.

   2. 2

      Which means

      The gap is likely in how buyers find and choose suppliers, not in demand.

   3. 3

      What I'd do

      I would map the buyer journey and fix the first two steps where deals leak.

   Proof: BTIS turnaround →

2. Idea 2

   1. 1

      I noticed

      The service team is a recurring relationship with every installed unit.

   2. 2

      Which means

      Service visits are the cheapest moment to sell the next upgrade.

   3. 3

      What I'd do

      I would put service and sales on one CRM so every visit can open a conversation.

   Proof: Zoho operating system →

Proof

Things I have built

• BTIS turnaround

  +76% revenue

  Joined as COO in 2025. Revenue up 76% and the company's first profitable year after four years of losses.

  operationsgrowth

  Show the numbers

  Year	Revenue	Net profit
  2021	407,192	-799,735
  2022	5,640,756	-5,856,129
  2023	6,489,139	-5,650,599
  2024	12,875,944	-1,815,444
  2025	22,614,435	674,599

  Source: DBD DataWarehouse, Income Statement 2021-2025, data as of 12 Oct 2026

• Zoho operating system

  1 pipeline, 17 people

  CRM, Bookings, Forms, Flow and Sign wired into one pipeline from inquiry to signed engagement, run by a team of 17.

  automationcrm

• This page

  Built live

  Built from a photo of a business card by an AI pipeline I designed. Scraped, audited, written and published in minutes.

  aibuild