SPORT NEWS 40 : VISITING BILLIONMORE

On his first visit to Bangkok RON SIMPSON finds that his favourite website is the same in reality as it is via the internet: totally unique, based on superb quality and the best of personal service. I began as a customer of Billionmore.com four or five years ago and, like many others, found that the level of service was on a different level from other firms. This is why so many customers have a loyalty to Billionmore and its Hero Sporto’ Muay Thai products that no other brand can claim. In my case it went further than most, with a friendship inspired by the generosity and kindness of Jini and Kim at Billionmore.

The Billionmore website and Bangkok office cover a wide field of products, including souvenirs, authentic Buddhist amulets and CDs and books that teach Buddhism or aid relaxation – my introduction to Buddhism, still very basic, has come via Billionmore. Of course, the other main product area is Muay Thai kit. Hero Sporto’ itself manufactures Muay Thai/boxing/kickboxing clothing, but the website also markets equipment such as gloves by other manufacturers. I have followed ordinary Western/international-style boxing all my life (back to Randolph Turpin and Sugar Ray Robinson 60 years ago). A few years ago I was beginning to take a fan’s interest in Muay Thai (not an expert’s!), so it seemed very natural to work with Billionmore on columns that would appeal to the UK Muay Thai public. The website already had a small Hall of Fame of Hero Sporto’ customers, but we extended that and included some top UK fighters and champions.

I also started a Muay Thai in UK column which has not always been exactly that, I’m glad to say: for instance, I featured the outstanding Greek fighter Maria Pantazi when she defended her WKA title in Spain (sadly, as the overwhelming favourite, she was herself overwhelmed by a young American)

Recently readers have had a break from my writing with the talented young Scots kickboxer, Dean Ford, writing about that branch of the sport. As a writer I must say it’s always a pleasure to find my words presented in such well-designed pages as on the Billionmore website.

So it was about time I found out if the world of Billionmore is as ideal as it seemed to me from thousands of miles away – and it is! Bangkok is a great city, but dreadfully crowded, not the sort of city where you find a quiet secluded spot, except that Billionmore has found one.

Modern View where the offices are situated, is a gated residential enclave apparently a million miles (actually a hundred yards or so) from the narrow crowded streets of Bangbon.

Water plays in the small garden, welcome mats guard every entrance and the seven staff fill the place with hard work and laughter.

Not that the whole place is devoted to Hero Sporto. Buddhism is important to the founders of Billionmore – probably that’s why their business practices are so refreshingly ethical and lacking in greed – and in a small office behind the largely open-plan main room one of the founders, Aim, works at learning about, and marketing, the authentic amulets which she obtains from temples.

The success of the company in building up sales both of amulets and Muay Thai kit, and the astonishing range of its products, mean that the billionmore.com website is becoming almost as crowded as the streets of Bangkok – hence the planned new herosporto.com website.

Much of the Hero Sporto’ product is made by various factories under the watchful eye of the main office staff. Orders coming in by hundreds from places as various as Estonia and Australia (following Reece McAllister’s successful fight there) could not be handled in the little Bangbon compound. However, this is the heart of Billionmore’s amazing customization service. Rung, Ning and Nuch work at their design boards and sewing machines, producing an astonishing range of stylishly personalized kit – anyone facing a member of the Scots kickboxing team needs to be warned about the dazzle effect! Supporting all branches of the company are photographer Pui and translator Bank because Billionmore does not use the website just to advertise product, but also to inform, educate and entertain.

The members of the Billionmore company went to great lengths to make my stay in Thailand enjoyable and rewarding. As I also write for the Jazz Rag magazine, I thought a feature on jazz in Bangkok would be a good idea. The result: Kim arranges visits to jazz clubs, her sister Aim takes me to the Saxophone Club to make sure I don’t get lost! The kindness and friendliness of all at Modern View and the anticipation of my every wish (from a foot massage to a day out in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital) are not what you would expect from the average business.