1st March, 2004 The President The Stock Exchange of Thailand Dear Sir, Clarification on Operating Result for the Fiscal Year 2003 The Company's operating result for the fiscal year 2003 which has been audited by the external auditor has shown a net profit of THB54.4 m, a decrease of THB17.3 m or 24.1% from that of 2002. This smaller net profit could be attributed to the following: 1. Net Sales Revenue increased by only 1.1% as a result of lower demand from tourism sector. The war in the Middle East and various terrorism activities in the region, and the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), also in the region, have deterred people from traveling and caused a significant drop in number of tourists visiting Thailand, and the South, in 2003. These negative incidents have reduced purchasing power of people working in the tourism industry and related communities. Hence the demand for the company's products was smaller than expected at the beginning of the year. 2. Furthermore, the Company experienced some short deliveries of certain products, in particular PET packages, to our customers as a result of supply shortages from another Coca-Cola Bottler in Bangkok, coupled with the delay in commissioning our new PET production line. The two aforementioned reasons resulted in lower sales volume in Quarter 2 and 3 of 2003 coupled with a slow-down in consumption trend mentioned in explanation 1. 3. On another hand, because the Company just started producing products in PET packages in late Quarter 3 of 2003, the volume was still small. This resulted in a higher unit production cost. With all the above-mentioned reasons, the gross profit in 2003 was smaller than that of 2002 by THB19.3 m or 3.9%. 4. As for sales and administrative expenses, it was higher than 2002 by THB5.4 m or 1.1%. While the Company has been trying to control it, and cut the expenses wherever possible, there were certain expenses that cannot be cut such as depreciation, contribution to the Social Security Fund, and discount to major dealers. 5. The interest expense in 2003 was higher than that of 2002 by THB2.6 m or 223.1%, because the Company started expensing the interest related to the new PET blowing and filling machine in 2003. Yours sincerely, Sec.Lt. (Phairoch Rattakul) Managing Director Office of the Managing Director Tel. (02) 391-0108 ext. 108