We met Vorathep from Apollo Asset and he told us about his fascinating beginnings and how the
journey however bleak it may be at times teaches us about what we love and how to ride the
mysterious rollercoaster of life:
Who was Vorathep before Apollo Asset?
I am 3rd generation Indian. My Indian grandfather came to Thailand back in 1947 and started a textile
business that grew to 40 branches in Samut Prakan and was involved in the ATM department store cards
business.
So, running a business is in my bones you could say.
My family involved me in business as a teen working with the old cantankerous printing machines,
where I cut my teeth and started thinking of better ways to run businesses and make my fortune, then I
remember the 1997 crises and how it adversely affected so many people in business. This was life
learning for me to prepare for eventualities in business, all failures are meant to be to make you
stronger.
During these days my father used to buy me the Wattarjak magazine which was the pre internet way to
buy and sell cars and real estate, I was more interested in the cars back then, but the real estate caught
my eye. I found that I had a knack with remembering the statistics of all the cars and later I was also able
to remember the real estate listings prices and areas, I became a walking knowledge base, not great for
attracting girls. but later, good for business.
Around 2001 my family then involved me in their Textile business, and I remember having to contact
Chinese businesses for the first time, this was quite daunting, but fear is not real, and I was that good at
it and I found myself as a young man in Shanghai for 4 months the first time which was most exciting.
Then I took a more leading role to set up Sone Exports, which became one of the main suppliers of
printed headwear for Asian and Middle Eastern markets.
Yet I always was more interested in Property development, and an industry not that familiar with my
family or culture at the time, but that did not stop me. I met some mentors who I followed and learned
by myself, and at that time I became involved in the construction of the first ever steel construction
project in Thailand, up to that point no one had ever done this, and it was a massive learning process.
In 2006 at 26 years young, I was fortunate to meet and marry a beautiful lady who has been my rock for
all this time, and as a good husband I wanted to start my own business as a property developer, as this
was the ‘future industry’ for me.
My father-in-law obviously had a vested interest in my fortunes, so he
asked me what my long-term plans were.
Not long after that I found myself at the bank pitching for a startup loan and was devastated at that time
to be refused with their general attitude being that its not real the industry for me, as my culture was so
ingrained in textiles.
I said to myself what do they know, I’ll show them!
Not long after due to my deep passions in land acquisition and knowledge of what land was worth and
the scope of availability, I found one plot of 650 Square Wah land on Soi 16 Sukhumvit and after what
seemed an eternity an many years talking to owners in the area who owned what and how can we get
this land we eventually acquired the land , yeah me, with some help from joint ventures and family
which I dogmatic pursued to the end that we end up with two projects built there and we sold 450
million baht’s worth in that one year. Then we developed projects like Voque Hotels and Ibis styles and
now have 10 plots on Sukhumvit road we are involved with.
What are you working on right now?
It has been a challenge to find plots since covid, but as I mentioned not the first rough time, we have
seen here in Thailand, and I was prepared. The one thing I am proud of is my customer centric approach
to making sure the client gets what they need on both ends the seller and buyer, and it’s as much about
matching personalities as it is the actual land, it’s important to me that I am with the client through the
whole process from ‘hmm I wonder of we can build something here?’ to “Here are the keys,
congratulations” and the first tenants/guests take up residence.
Its about the small details that will bring
you success in the real estate industry.
A piece of good business advice that has stood you well.
My advice is simple ‘Don’t Quit’ if everything was easy then everybody would be successful. Trust the
process however long it takes and if you truly believe it can happen it will!” and also I believe that you
have profit from the day you acquire your first land project, not at the end where most think it does ,
but day one, its as exciting to me as it the end day when the clients take ownership of their Hotel,
factory or housing project because of what you have done for them and they shake your hand and say
thanks!
Vorathep is an end-to-end tailored solution for land purchase and commercial property projects in
Thailand.
