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| GreenFeed’s Livestock Farm. Photo: DN |
Speaking at the recent KPMG Next 2022 program, Nguyen Chanh Phuong, Vice President and General Director of AKA Furniture Joint Stock Company, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts and Woodworking Association (Hawa), said that the construction of a brand cannot be overnight, it takes a long process and every step in brand development must always be placed at times of market changes.
Specifically, AKA is a member of AA Group, which is a fairly large corporation in the field of furniture. AA was born in 1993, at that time there were many FDI projects in Vietnam and AA constructed FDI projects.
In 1998, when the investment wave slowed down, enterprises began to construct projects abroad and grew stronger. Until recently, the company started to invest in export-oriented processing in the high-end, flexible segment. In 1999, aiming at the domestic market, AKA launched the Nha Xinh brand, with European interior style.
Thus, AA currently has three market groups, which are construction projects, export projects, and distribution and retail projects for the domestic market.
“When incidents like the Covid-19 pandemic happen, these three market groups support each other very well. When the domestic construction segment had problems, exports were very good thanks to the high demand for home furniture in the world when everyone had to stay at home. Up to now, when people go back to work, export orders have plummeted, and the project team has returned,” said Chanh Phuong.
Pham Tuan Anh, Director of GreenFeed Vietnam Joint Stock Company, also shared, GreenFeed has had 19 years of establishment and development with the first starting point in the animal feed segment. However, after a period of operation, enterprises realized that it would be difficult to develop only one industry, so they began to invest in farms, followed by food processing.
During its development, GreenFeed has also experienced many ups and downs such as African swine fever, Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war. At times when pork prices fell deeply, farmers were not profitable and many small farmers went bankrupt.
“Fortunately, GreenFeed has invested in a closed chain of “Feed – Farm – Food”, so it can take advantage of opportunities in times of broken supply chains. Specifically, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Ho Chi Minh City, GreenFeed put processed products for sale online in this market and developed very well,” said Tuan Anh.
In the field of textiles, Pham Van Viet, Chairman and General Director of Viet Thang Jean Co., Ltd (VitaJean) said that in 1993, VitaJean had more than 400 agents nationwide. However, under the pressure of imported and smuggled goods, in 1994 the company switched to exporting, then in 2018 VitaJean started to return to the domestic market with the brand V-Sixtyfour created by the same source of selected raw materials. According to Viet, the advantage of V-Sixtyfour is the understanding of Vietnamese culture, customs and physique. Therefore, Viet is confident to compete directly with imported brands.
“Currently, jeans brands like Lee and Guess have withdrawn from the Vietnamese market. These foreign brands have good characteristics, but it is not easy to understand the culture, customs and habits of the Vietnamese people,” emphasized Viet.
Convert numbers to breakout
Recently, Thanh Thanh Cong – Bien Hoa Joint Stock Company (SBT) held an event to mark one year of putting into operation the core number system Oracle Cloud ERP, and at the same time put into operation two more systems including the Smart Reporting and Budgeting System. With the strategy of turning SBT into a high-tech agricultural company, providing solutions for locally sourced and sustainable agricultural products, Dang Huynh Uc My, Vice Chairman of SBT’s Board of Directors emphasized that digital transformation is the key to helping SBT quickly grasp the opportunities of the new technology era and the constantly changing modern economic cycle.
SBT has inherited and crystallized natural values combined with modernizing agricultural activities to product value chains, optimizing internal resources and upgrading hi-tech agricultural human resources, have industry-leading knowledge to meet market demand.
“SBT is currently completing four technology-based projects related to eRetails, eFactory, and Digital Farmer applications in the raw material areas of Australia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Towards 2030, SBT aims to become a modern global agricultural enterprise, preserving sustainable growth and sharing the benefits of stakeholders, in which farmers are the beneficiaries. The success of the project is an important stepping stone to help SBT realize its goal of becoming a pioneer in providing sustainable agricultural solutions not only in Vietnam but also in the international market,” said Dang Huynh Uc My.
Pham Van Viet also said that VitaJean started applying technology in 2012 with an investment of up to US$25 million for each factory. Accordingly, instead of having to offer to foreign partners a year in advance as before, thanks to the application of 3D technology, the offering and design is much faster.
Along with that, nanotechnology also helps to reduce chemicals for dyeing by up to 95% compared to before; Ozone and laser technologies also help reduce most chemicals in the production process. With the synchronous investment of these technologies, VitaJean’s factory is always clean, with high productivity, and of stable quality.
Meanwhile, Chanh Phuong said that the important thing in digital transformation is not the best technology but the most suitable technology. The problem is that enterprises do not know what technology to buy, and technology suppliers do not know the operating process of enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to have an intermediary and consultant to choose the right technology.
At GreenFeed, farms have also been digitized in many stages such as feeding, drinking water, temperature control and are aiming to become an automated farm.
However, according to Tuan Anh, to achieve this goal, a small investment is required. In the food industry, GreenFeed has also invested in e-commerce to better reach customers. As for animal feed, because the customers are livestock farms, the development of e-commerce will be difficult. Accordingly, GreenFeed currently maintains a team of marketing staff to sell and approach customers.