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BCA reigns as Southeast Asia’s most valuable brand

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Indonesia’s IM3 and BNI enter 2024 Kantar BrandZ Southeast Asia Top 30 for the first timeFastest growth achieved by BRI and AIS, both worth 30% more than in 2023 High performing banks and telcos strengthen consumer connections with digital capabilities

SINGAPORE, July 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Indonesian banking giant Bank Central Asia (BCA) has cemented its leadership at the top of the second annual Kantar BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands ranking. The brand is now worth US$28.3 billion – a 21% value increase in just one year. BCA owes its success to effectively activating its strong consumer connections and reinforcing its difference. It continually grows its customer base by expanding its digital banking and ecommerce services, and developing new features and benefits. Another Indonesian bank, BRI, has overtaken Singapore’s DBS to claim the silver-medal position, and Thai telecom provider AIS climbs one place to fourth.

Kantar BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands 2024

Rank 2024

Brand

Category

Brand value 2024
(US$M)

YoY change (%)

1

BCA

Financial Services

28,267

21 %

2

BRI

Financial Services

11,258

30 %

3

DBS

Financial Services

11,086

-6 %

4

AIS

Telecom Providers

8,843

30 %

5

Mandiri

Financial Services

8,344

26 %

6

UOB

Financial Services

6,597

-8 %

7

Shopee

Retail

4,832

5 %

8

Telkomsel

Telecom Providers

4,597

-1 %

9

Marina Bay Sands

Travel Services

4,412

0 %

10

True

Telecom Providers

3,706

18 %

The total brand value of the Top 30 – which covers Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore – is US$131.3 billion, an increase of 10% year-on-year. Nineteen of the brands are worth more than they were in 2023. The fastest growth comes from emerging markets, with Thai brands increasing their value the most, followed by Vietnam and Indonesia. Meanwhile the largest share of brand value is contributed by Indonesia (46%), followed by Singapore (32%) and Thailand (11%).

IM3 and BNI make their debuts

There are two new entrants in the Top 30 this year, both from Indonesia. Telecom provider IM3 joins the ranking at No.28, while BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia) enters at No.30. IM3 ($1.4bn) provides convenience by delivering consistency of 4G coverage across the country’s 17,500 islands and offers flexible packages to meet varied needs. BNI ($1.4bn) has strongly supported the nation’s economic development and delivers convenience through friction-free digital services and open banking.

Services and infrastructure brands dominate

The Top 30 come from a wide range of categories, spanning food, banking and beer, but Financial Services (+15%) and Telecom Providers (+14%) captured the most growth over the past year. These sectors lead the region’s digital transformation with the pursuit of new technologies to provide better and broader next-generation services. Financial Services brands account for 12 of the Top 30, and for 60% of its total brand value. Nine telecom providers account for 22% of the total value, while three retail brands contribute 7%.

BRI and AIS are the fastest risers

Financial Services brands BRI and AIS have both gained the most value during the last year, up 30%, followed by Maybank (No.22; $1.9bn; +27%); Mandiri (No.5; $8.3bn; +26%) and Digi (No.25; $1.6bn; +25%). For a long time, BRI has demonstrated its commitment to improving the lives of Indonesians by providing widespread, easy access to financial services, particularly in remote areas. Its BRImo mobile banking super-app drives financial inclusivity, digital literacy and an outstanding customer experience nationwide.

Katie McClintock, Executive Managing Director, Southeast Asia at Kantar, says: “Southeast Asia is becoming the world’s fastest growing economy, underpinned by a developing digital infrastructure and increasing household incomes. These twin trends give consumers more flexibility in the goods and services they choose, and they’re reprioritising what were once ‘wants’ as ‘needs’. Great brands focus on what sets them apart. They focus on how they make consumers’ lives better – meaningfully – and then communicate that with clarity, consistency, and creativity. The brands that achieve this have a powerful opportunity to grow in their home markets and across the globe.”

Other trends from the 2024 Kantar BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands analysis include:

Most brands in Southeast Asia’s Top 30 are seen by consumers to be worth the price they pay, compared to 66% for all brands in the regionIndomie (No.15; $2.4bn) has remained the most Meaningful brand by remaining relevant, and innovating to keep up with consumer preferences, while staying true to its roots. It launched a premium collection of Japanese Ramen flavours in 2023, supported by pop-up tasting stallsOverseas markets present a huge untapped opportunity for Southeast Asian brands to find new space and continue growth. Overseas trade activity of the Top 30 currently sits as 16%, versus 49% for Japan’s Top 3093% of the Southeast Asia’s Top 30 brands have potent levels of Meaningful Difference – and those which strengthened it grew in value at more than double the rate of their peers. This demonstrates how value derives from the ability to meet people’s needs and stand out from the crowdGrowth is 10% higher when brands invest in all three key value accelerators, than if they only invest in two. There are three key catalysts for developing brand value, defined by Kantar’s Blueprint for Brand Growth: predisposing more people to choose the brand, being more present where consumers make purchase decisions, and finding new space into which they can grow. Southeast Asia’s top brands are strong in all three areas.

The Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands ranking, report and extensive analysis are now available here.

For a quick read on a brand’s performance compared to competitors in a specific category, Kantar’s free interactive tool, BrandSnapshot powered by BrandZ, provides intelligence on 14,000 brands. Find out more here.

About Kantar BrandZ: Kantar BrandZ is the global currency when assessing brand value, quantifying the contribution of brands to business’ financial performance. Kantar’s annual global and local brand valuation rankings combine rigorously analysed financial data, with extensive brand equity research. Since 1998, BrandZ has shared brand-building insights with business leaders based on interviews with 4.3 million consumers, for 21,000 brands in 54 markets. Discover more about Kantar BrandZ here.

The Kantar BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands Report 2024 includes the most definitive and robust ranking of the region’s brands available. The ranking draws on opinions of more than 98,000 respondents on 1800 brands across 70 categories and the brands ranked must meet these eligibility criteria:

The brand must have originated in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or VietnamThe brand must be owned by a listed companyThe scope of the ranking is limited to consumer-facing brands.

About Kantar: Kantar is the world’s leading marketing data and analytics business and an indispensable brand partner to the world’s top companies. We combine the most meaningful attitudinal and behavioural data with deep expertise and advanced analytics to uncover how people think and act. We help clients understand what has happened and why and how to shape the marketing strategies that shape their future.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/bca-reigns-as-southeast-asias-most-valuable-brand-302197930.html

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

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New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

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